A Prayer For The Past Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEG HIHJ KLKL MNON PQPQ RNRN HSHS TKTK UVUV WXWX YZYZ A2NA2N B2C2B2C2 D2E2D2E2 QF2QF2 PB2PB2 JG2IG2 H2I2H2I2 QB2QB2 J2K2L2K2 B2M2B2N2 ENEN O2P2F2P2 Q2KQ2K R2B2R2B2 S2F2S2F2 T2U2T2U2 V2QW2Q

All sights and sounds of day and yearA
All groups and forms each leaf and gemB
Are thine O God nor will I fearA
To talk to thee of themB
-
Too great thy heart is to despiseC
Whose day girds centuries aboutD
From things which we name small thine eyesC
See great things looking outD
-
Therefore the prayerful song I singE
May come to thee in ordered wordsF
Though lowly born it needs not clingE
In terror to its chordsG
-
I think that nothing made is lostH
That not a moon has ever shoneI
That not a cloud my eyes hath crossedH
But to my soul is goneJ
-
That all the lost years garnered lieK
In this thy casket my dim soulL
And thou wilt once the key applyK
And show the shining wholeL
-
But were they dead in me they liveM
In thee whose Parable is TimeN
And Worlds and Forms all things that giveO
Me thoughts and this my rimeN
-
And after what men call my deathP
When I have crossed the unknown seaQ
Some heavenly morn on hopeful breathP
Shall rise this prayer to theeQ
-
Oh let me be a child once moreR
And dream fine glories in the gloomN
Of sun and moon and stars in storeR
To ceil my humble roomN
-
Oh call again the moons that crossedH
Blue gulfs behind gray vapours creptS
Show me the solemn skies I lostH
Because in thee I sleptS
-
Once more let gathering glory swellT
And lift the world's dim eastern eyeK
Once more let lengthening shadows tellT
Its time is come to dieK
-
But show me first oh blessed sightU
The lowly house where I was youngV
There winter sent wild winds at nightU
And up the snow heaps flungV
-
Or soundless brought a chaos fairW
Full formless of fantastic formsX
White ghostly trees in sparkling airW
Chamber for slumbering stormsX
-
There sudden dawned a dewy mornY
A man was turning up the mouldZ
And in our hearts the spring was bornY
Crept thither through the coldZ
-
And Spring in after years of youthA2
Became the form of every formN
For hearts now bursting into truthA2
Now sighing in the stormN
-
On with the glad year let me goB2
With troops of daisies round my feetC2
Flying my kite or in the glowB2
Of arching summer heatC2
-
Outstretched in fear upon a bankD2
Lest gazing up on awful spaceE2
I should fall down into the blankD2
From off the round world's faceE2
-
And let my brothers come with meQ
To play our old games yet againF2
Children on earth more full of gleeQ
That we in heaven are menF2
-
If then should come the shadowy deathP
Take one of us and goB2
We left would say under our breathP
It is a dream you knowB2
-
And in the dream our brother's goneJ
Upstairs he heard our father callG2
For one by one we go aloneI
Till he has gathered allG2
-
Father in joy our knees we bowH2
This earth is not a place of tombsI2
We are but in the nursery nowH2
They in the upper roomsI2
-
For are we not at home in theeQ
And all this world a visioned showB2
That knowing what Abroad is weQ
What Home is too may knowB2
-
And at thy feet I sit O LordJ2
As once of old in moonlight paleK2
I at my father's sat and heardL2
Him read a lofty taleK2
-
On with my history let me goB2
And reap again the gliding yearsM2
Gather great noontide's joyous glowB2
Eve's love contented tearsN2
-
One afternoon sit ponderingE
In that old chair in that old roomN
Where passing pigeon's sudden wingE
Flashed lightning through the gloomN
-
There try once more with effort vainO2
To mould in one perplexed thingsP2
There find the solace yet againF2
Hope in the Father bringsP2
-
Or mount and ride in sun and windQ2
Through desert moors hills bleak and highK
Where wandering vapours fall and findQ2
In me another skyK
-
For so thy Visible grew mineR2
Though half its power I could not knowB2
And in me wrought a work divineR2
Which thou hadst ordered soB2
-
Giving me cups that would not spillS2
But water carry and yield againF2
New bottles with new wine to fillS2
For comfort of thy menF2
-
But if thou thus restore the pastT2
One hour for me to wander inU2
I now bethink me at the lastT2
O Lord leave out the sinU2
-
And with the thought comes doubt my GodV2
Shall I the whole desire to seeQ
And walk once more of that hill roadW2
By which I went to theeQ

George Macdonald



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