At Thurgarton Church Poem Rhyme Scheme

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To the memory of my father	A
	-
At Thurgarton Church the sun	B
burns the winter clouds over	A
the gaunt Danish stone	C
and thatched reeds that cover	A
the barest chapel I know	D
	-
I could compare it with	E
the Norse longboats that bore	F
burning the body forth	G
in honour from the shore	F
of great fjords long ago	D
	-
The sky is red and cold	H
overhead and three small	I
sturdy trees keep a hold	H
on the world and the stone wall	I
that encloses the dead below	D
	-
I enter and find I stand	J
in a great barn bleak and bare	K
Like ice the winter ghosts and	L
the white walls gleam and flare	K
and flame as the sun drops low	D
	-
And I see then that slowly	M
the December day has gone	N
I stand in the silence not wholly	M
believing I am alone	C
Somehow I cannot go	D
	-
Then a small wind rose and the trees	O
began to crackle and stir	A
and I watched the moon by degrees	O
ascend in the window till her	A
light cut a wing in the shadow	D
	-
I thought the House of the Dead	P
The dead moon inherits it	Q
And I seem in a sense to have died	R
as I rise from where I sit	Q
and out into darkness go	D
	-
I know as I leave I shall pass	S
where Thurgarton s dead lie	T
at those old stones in the grass	S
under the cold moon s eye	T
I see the old bones glow	D
	-
No they do not sleep here	U
in the long holy night of	V
the serene soul but keep here	U
a dark tenancy and the right of	V
rising up to go	D
	-
Here the owl and soul shriek with	E
the voice of the dead as they turn	W
on the polar spit and burn	W
without hope and seek with	E
out hope the holy home below	D
	-
Yet to them the mole and	L
mouse bring a wreath and a breath	X
of the flowering leaves of the soul and	L
it is from the Tree of Death	X
the leaves of life grow	D
	-
The rain the sometime summer	A
rain on a memory of roses	Y
will fall lightly and come a	Z
mong them as it erases	Y
summers so long ago	D
	-
And the voices of those	A2
once so much loved will flitter	A
over the nettled rows	A2
of graves and the holly tree twitter	A
like friends they used to know	D
	-
And not far away the	Z
icy and paralysed stream	B2
has found it also that day the	Z
flesh became glass and a dream	B2
with no where to go	D
	-
Haunting the December	A
fields their bitter lives	C2
entreat us to remember	A
the lost spirit that grieves	D2
over these fields like a scarecrow	D
	-
That grieves over all it ever	A
did and all all not	E2
done that grieves over	A
its crosspurposed lot	E2
to know and not to know	D
	-
The masterless dog sits	F2
outside the church door	A
with dereliction haunting its	F2
heart that hankers for	A
the hand that loved it so	D
	-
Not in a small grave	G2
outside the stone wall	I
will the love that it gave	G2
ever be returned not for all	I
time or tracks in the snow	D
	-
More mourned the death of the dog	H2
than our bones ever shall	I2
receive from the hand of god	J2
this bone again or all	I
that high hand could bestow	D
	-
As I stand by the porch	K2
I believe that no one has heard	L2
here in Thurgarton Church	M2
a single veritable word	L2
save the unspoken No	D
	-
The godfathered negative	N2
that responds to our mistaken	B
incredulous and heartbroken	B
desire above all to live	O2
as though things were not so	D
	-
Desire to live as though the	Z
two footed clay stood up	P2
proud never to know the	Z
tempests that rage in the cup	P2
under a rainbow	D
	-
Desire above all to live	O2
as though the soul was stone	C
believing we cannot give	N2
or love since we are alone	C
and always will be so	D
	-
That heartbroken desire	A
to live as though no light	Q2
ever set the seas on fire	A
and no sun burned at night	Q2
or Mercy walked to and fro	D
	-
The proud flesh cries I am not	E2
caught up in the great cloud	R2
of my unknowing But that	S2
proud flesh had endowed	R2
us with the cloud we know	D
	-
To this the unspoken No	D
of the dead god responds	T2
and then the whirlwinds blow	D
over all the things and beyond	U2
and the dead mop and mow	D
	-
And there in the livid dust	V2
and bones of death we search	M2
until we find as we must	V2
outside Thurgarton Church	M2
only wild grasses blow	D
	-
I hear the old bone in me cry	A
and the dying spirit call	I
I have forfeited all	I
and once and for all must die	A
and this is all that I know	D
	-
For now in a wild way we	M
know that justice is served	W2
and that we die in the clay we	M
dread desired and deserved	W2
awaiting no Judgement Day	X2

George Barker

At Thurgarton Church Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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