A Broken Prayer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFG HIJG KELEMILNO PQRSLLLTUL LLVWXLYLZA2LLB2C2KLU D2LE2RF2D2G2LVLH2I2 UJ2K2UVD2L2M2LA2EKVL LLLLN2O2 P2D2G2LN2D2F2Q2QR2S2 T2C2U2O S2V2ZW2X2Y2L Z2LLLA3J2LUB3ROQ2A3L C3R2D3A3LLE3R2 ALUR2F3G3D2LBH3 I3J3K3V2 D2LD2Z2LR2LLVD2LL3M3 F2LL D2N3LL QG3O3D2UP3R2L LHLP2D2FLDULK3LLVLLL K3 G2TFLQ3LT LUD2TLLLBTTT VTLLXLLTTLTFR3S3L

O Lord my God how longA
Shall my poor heart pant for a boundless joyB
How long O mighty Spirit shall I hearC
The murmur of Truth's crystal waters slideD
From the deep caverns of their endless beingE
But my lips taste not and the grosser airF
Choke each pure inspiration of thy willG
-
I am a denseness 'twixt me and the lightH
cannot round myself my purest thoughtI
Ere it is thought hath caught the taint of earthJ
And mocked me with hard thoughts beyond my willG
-
I would be a windK
Whose smallest atom is a viewless wingE
All busy with the pulsing life that throbsL
To do thy bidding yea or the meanest thingE
That has relation to a changeless truthM
Could I but be instinct with thee each thoughtI
The lightning of a pure intelligenceL
And every act as the loud thunder clapN
Of currents warring for a vacuumO
-
Lord clothe me with thy truth as with a robeP
Purge me with sorrow I will bend my headQ
And let the nations of thy waves pass overR
Bathing me in thy consecrated strengthS
And let thy many voiced and silver windsL
Pass through my frame with their clear influenceL
O save me I am blind lo thwarting shapesL
Wall up the void before and thrusting outT
Lean arms of unshaped expectation beckonU
Down to the night of all unholy thoughtsL
-
Oh when at midnight one of thy strong angelsL
Stems back the waves of earthly influenceL
That shape unsteady continents around meV
And they draw off with the devouring gushW
Of exile billows that have found a homeX
Leaving me islanded on unseen pointsL
Hanging 'twixt thee and chaos I have seenY
Unholy shapes lop off my shining thoughtsL
And they have lent me leathern wings of fearZ
Of baffled pride and harrowing distrustA2
And Godhead with its crown of many starsL
Its pinnacles of flaming holinessL
And voice of leaves in the green summer timeB2
Has seemed the shadowed image of a selfC2
Then my soul blackened and I rose to findK
And grasp my doom and cleave the arching deepsL
Of desolationU
-
O Lord my soul is a forgotten wellD2
Clad round with its own rank luxurianceL
A fountain a kind sunbeam searches forE2
Sinking the lustre of its arrowy fingerR
Through the long grass its own strange virtueF2
Hath blinded up its crystal eye withalD2
Make me a broad strong river coming downG2
With shouts from its high hills whose rocky heartsL
Throb forth the joy of their stabilityV
In watery pulses from their inmost deepsL
And I shall be a vein upon thy worldH2
Circling perpetual from the parent deepI2
-
Most mighty OneU
Confirm and multiply my thoughts of goodJ2
Help me to wall each sacred treasure roundK2
With the firm battlements of special actionU
Alas my holy happy thoughts of theeV
Make not perpetual nest within my soulD2
But like strange birds of dazzling colours stoopL2
The trailing glories of their sunward speedM2
For one glad moment filling my blasted boughsL
With the sunshine of their wings Make me a forestA2
Of gladdest life wherein perpetual springE
Lifts up her leafy tresses in the windK
Lo now I seeV
Thy trembling starlight sit among my pinesL
And thy young moon slide down my arching boughsL
With a soft sound of restless eloquenceL
And I can feel a joy as when thy hostsL
Of trampling winds gathering in maddened bandsL
Roar upward through the blue and flashing dayN2
Round my still depths of uncleft solitudeO2
-
Hear me O LordP2
When the black night draws down upon my soulD2
And voices of temptation darken downG2
The misty wind slamming thy starry doorsL
With bitter jests Thou fool they seem to sayN2
Thou hast no seed of goodness in thee allD2
Thy nature hath been stung right through and throughF2
Thy sin hath blasted thee and made thee oldQ2
Thou hadst a will but thou hast killed it deadQ
And with the fulsome garniture of lifeR2
Built out the loathsome corpse thou art a childS2
Of night and death even lower than a wormT2
Gather the skirts up of thy shadowy selfC2
And with what resolution thou hast leftU2
Fall on the damned spikes of doomO
-
Oh take me like a childS2
If thou hast made me for thyself my GodV2
And lead me up thy hills I shall not fearZ
So thou wilt make me pure and beat back sinW2
With the terrors of thine eye it fears me notX2
As once it might have feared thine own good imageY2
But lays bold siege at my heart's doorsL
-
Oh I have seen a thing of beauty standZ2
In the young moonlight of its upward thoughtsL
And the old earth came round it with its giftsL
Of gladness whispering leaves and odorous plantsL
Until its large and spiritual eyeA3
Burned with intensest love my God I couldJ2
Have watched it evermore with Argus eyesL
Lest when the noontide of the summer's sunU
Let down the tented sunlight on the plainB3
His flaming beams should scorch my darling flowerR
And through the fruitless nights of leaden gloomO
Of plashing rains and knotted winds of coldQ2
Yea when thy lightnings ran across the skyA3
And the loud stumbling blasts fell from the hillsL
Upon the mounds of death I could have watchedC3
Guarding such beauty like another lifeR2
But O my God it changedD3
Yet methinks I know not if it was not IA3
Its beauty turned to ghastly loathsomenessL
Then a hand spurned me backwards from the cloudsL
And with the gather of a mighty whirlwindE3
Drew in the glittering gifts of lifeR2
-
How long O Lord how longA
I am a man lost in a rocky placeL
Lo all thy echoes smite me with confusionU
Of varied speech the cry of vanished LifeR2
Rolled upon nations' sighs of hearts upliftedF3
Against despair the stifled sounds of WoeG3
Sitting perpetual by its grey cold wellD2
Or wasted Toil climbing its endless hillsL
With quickening gasps or the thin winds of JoyB
That beat about the voices of the crowdH3
-
Lord hast thou sentI3
Thy moons to mock us with perpetual hopeJ3
Lighted within our breasts the love of loveK3
To make us ripen for despair my GodV2
-
Oh dost thou hold each individual soulD2
Strung clear upon thy flaming rods of purposeL
Or does thine inextinguishable willD2
Stand on the steeps of night with lifted handZ2
Filling the yawning wells of monstrous spaceL
With mixing thought drinking up single lifeR2
As in a cup and from the rending foldsL
Of glimmering purpose do all thy navied starsL
Slide through the gloom with mystic melodyV
Like wishes on a brow Oh is my soulD2
Hung like a dewdrop in thy grassy waysL
Drawn up again into the rack of changeL3
Even through the lustre which created itM3
O mighty one thou wilt not smite me throughF2
With scorching wrath because my spirit standsL
Bewildered in thy circling mysteriesL
-
Oh lift the burdened gloom that chokes my soulD2
With dews of darkness smite the lean winds of deathN3
That run with howls around the ruined templesL
Blowing the souls of men about like leavesL
-
Lo the broad life lands widen overheadQ
Star galaxies arise like drifting snowG3
And happy life goes whitening down the streamO3
Of boundless action whilst my fettered soulD2
Sits as a captive in a noisome dungeonU
Watches the pulses of his withered heartP3
Lave out the sparkling minutes of his lifeR2
On the idle flagsL
-
Come in the glory of thine excellenceL
Rive the dense gloom with wedges of clear lightH
And let the shimmer of thy chariot wheelsL
Burn through the cracks of night So slowly LordP2
To lift myself to thee with hands of toilD2
Climbing the slippery cliffs of unheard prayerF
Lift up a hand among my idle daysL
One beckoning finger I will cast asideD
The clogs of earthly circumstance and runU
Up the broad highways where the countless worldsL
Sit ripening in the summer of thy loveK3
Send a clear meaning sparkling through the yearsL
Burst all the prison doors and make men's heartsL
Gush up like fountains with thy melodyV
Brighten the hollow eyes fill with life's fruitsL
The hands that grope and scramble down the wastesL
And let the ghastly troops of withered onesL
Come shining o'er the mountains of thy loveK3
-
Lord thy strange mysteries come thickening downG2
Upon my head like snowflakes shutting outT
The happy upper fields with chilly vapourF
Shall I content my soul with a weak senseL
Of safety or feed my ravenous hunger withQ3
Sore purged hopes that are not hopes but fearsL
Clad in white raimentT
-
The creeds lie in the hollow of men's heartsL
Like festering pools glassing their own corruptionU
The slimy eyes stare up with dull approvalD2
And answer not when thy bright starry feetT
Move on the watery floors oh shake men's soulsL
Together like the gathering of all oceansL
Rent from their hidden chambers till the wavesL
Lift up their million voices of high joyB
Along the echoing cliffs come thus O LordT
With nightly gifts of stars and lay a handT
Of mighty peace upon the quivering floodT
-
O wilt thou hear me when I cry to theeV
I am a child lost in a mighty forestT
The air is thick with voices and strange handsL
Reach through the dusk and pluck me by the skirtsL
There is a voice which sounds like words from homeX
But as I stumble on to reach it seemsL
To leap from rock to rock oh if it isL
Willing obliquity of sense descendT
Heal all my wanderings take me by the handT
And lead me homeward through the shadowsL
Let me not by my wilful acts of prideT
Block up the windows of thy truth and growF
A wasted withered thing that stumbles onR3
Down to the grave with folded hands of slothS3
And leaden confidenceL

George Macdonald



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