Tenebrae Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFFFF FGHFFHIFJFJFJF KLMF NFFOPF QRSKTUSTVWXWYW ZFA2ZB2F YC2D2E2FFFF F2G2FF| He was so tired that he was scarcely able to hear a note of the songs he felt imprisoned in a cold region where his brain was numb and his spirit was isolated | A |
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| Requite this angel whose | B |
| flushed and thirsting face | C |
| stoops to the sacrifice | D |
| out of which it arose | E |
| This is the lord Eros | F |
| of grief who pities | F |
| no one it is | F |
| Lazarus with his sores | F |
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| And you who with your soft but searching voice | F |
| drew me out of the sleep where I was lost | G |
| who held me near your heart that I might rest | H |
| confiding in the darkness of your choice | F |
| possessed by you I chose to have no choice | F |
| fulfilled in you I sought no further quest | H |
| You keep me now in dread that quenches trust | I |
| in desolation where my sins rejoice | F |
| As I am passionate so you with pain | J |
| turn my desire as you seem passionless | F |
| so I recoil from all that I would gain | J |
| wounding myself upon forgetfulness | F |
| false ecstasies which you in truth sustain | J |
| as you sustain each item of your cross | F |
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| Veni Redemptor but not in our time | K |
| Christus Resurgens quite out of this world | L |
| Ave we cry the echoes are returned | M |
| Amor Carnalis is our dwelling place | F |
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| O light of light supreme delight | N |
| grace on our lips to our disgrace | F |
| Time roosts on all such golden wrists | F |
| our leanness is our luxury | O |
| Our love is what we love to have | P |
| our faith is in our festivals | F |
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| Stupefying images of grief in dream | Q |
| succubae to my natural grief of heart | R |
| cling to me then you who will not desert | S |
| your love nor lose him in some blank of time | K |
| You come with all the licence of her name | T |
| to tell me you are mine But you are not | U |
| and she is not Can my own breath be hurt | S |
| by breathless shadows groaning in their game | T |
| It can The best societies of hell | V |
| acknowledge this aroused by what they know | W |
| consummate rage recaptured there in full | X |
| as faithfulness demands it blow for blow | W |
| and rectitude that mimics its own fall | Y |
| reeling with sensual abstinence and woe | W |
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| This is the ash pit of the lily fire | Z |
| this is the questioning at the long tables | F |
| this is true marriage of the self in self | A2 |
| this is a raging solitude of desire | Z |
| this is the chorus of obscene consent | B2 |
| this is a single voice of purest praise | F |
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| He wounds with ecstasy All | Y |
| the wounds are his own | C2 |
| He wears the martyr s crown | D2 |
| He is the Lord of Misrule | E2 |
| He is the Master of the Leaping Figures | F |
| the motley factions | F |
| Revelling in auguries | F |
| he is the Weeper of the Valedictions | F |
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| Music survives composing her own sphere | F2 |
| Angel of Tones Medusa Queen of the Air | G2 |
| and when we would accost her with real cries | F |
| silver on silver thrills itself to ice | F |
Geoffrey Hill
(1)
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About Tenebrae
Tenebrae is a poem by Geoffrey Hill. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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