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 V2QW2QAll sights and sounds of day and year | A |
All groups and forms each leaf and gem | B |
Are thine O God nor will I fear | A |
To talk to thee of them | B |
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Too great thy heart is to despise | C |
Whose day girds centuries about | D |
From things which we name small thine eyes | C |
See great things looking out | D |
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Therefore the prayerful song I sing | E |
May come to thee in ordered words | F |
Though lowly born it needs not cling | E |
In terror to its chords | G |
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I think that nothing made is lost | H |
That not a moon has ever shone | I |
That not a cloud my eyes hath crossed | H |
But to my soul is gone | J |
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That all the lost years garnered lie | K |
In this thy casket my dim soul | L |
And thou wilt once the key apply | K |
And show the shining whole | L |
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But were they dead in me they live | M |
In thee whose Parable is Time | N |
And Worlds and Forms all things that give | O |
Me thoughts and this my rime | N |
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And after what men call my death | P |
When I have crossed the unknown sea | Q |
Some heavenly morn on hopeful breath | P |
Shall rise this prayer to thee | Q |
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Oh let me be a child once more | R |
And dream fine glories in the gloom | N |
Of sun and moon and stars in store | R |
To ceil my humble room | N |
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Oh call again the moons that crossed | H |
Blue gulfs behind gray vapours crept | S |
Show me the solemn skies I lost | H |
Because in thee I slept | S |
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Once more let gathering glory swell | T |
And lift the world's dim eastern eye | K |
Once more let lengthening shadows tell | T |
Its time is come to die | K |
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But show me first oh blessed sight | U |
The lowly house where I was young | V |
There winter sent wild winds at night | U |
And up the snow heaps flung | V |
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Or soundless brought a chaos fair | W |
Full formless of fantastic forms | X |
White ghostly trees in sparkling air | W |
Chamber for slumbering storms | X |
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There sudden dawned a dewy morn | Y |
A man was turning up the mould | Z |
And in our hearts the spring was born | Y |
Crept thither through the cold | Z |
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And Spring in after years of youth | A2 |
Became the form of every form | N |
For hearts now bursting into truth | A2 |
Now sighing in the storm | N |
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On with the glad year let me go | B2 |
With troops of daisies round my feet | C2 |
Flying my kite or in the glow | B2 |
Of arching summer heat | C2 |
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Outstretched in fear upon a bank | D2 |
Lest gazing up on awful space | E2 |
I should fall down into the blank | D2 |
From off the round world's face | E2 |
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And let my brothers come with me | Q |
To play our old games yet again | F2 |
Children on earth more full of glee | Q |
That we in heaven are men | F2 |
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If then should come the shadowy death | P |
Take one of us and go | B2 |
We left would say under our breath | P |
It is a dream you know | B2 |
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And in the dream our brother's gone | J |
Upstairs he heard our father call | G2 |
For one by one we go alone | I |
Till he has gathered all | G2 |
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Father in joy our knees we bow | H2 |
This earth is not a place of tombs | I2 |
We are but in the nursery now | H2 |
They in the upper rooms | I2 |
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For are we not at home in thee | Q |
And all this world a visioned show | B2 |
That knowing what Abroad is we | Q |
What Home is too may know | B2 |
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And at thy feet I sit O Lord | J2 |
As once of old in moonlight pale | K2 |
I at my father's sat and heard | L2 |
Him read a lofty tale | K2 |
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On with my history let me go | B2 |
And reap again the gliding years | M2 |
Gather great noontide's joyous glow | B2 |
Eve's love contented tears | N2 |
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One afternoon sit pondering | E |
In that old chair in that old room | N |
Where passing pigeon's sudden wing | E |
Flashed lightning through the gloom | N |
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There try once more with effort vain | O2 |
To mould in one perplexed things | P2 |
There find the solace yet again | F2 |
Hope in the Father brings | P2 |
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Or mount and ride in sun and wind | Q2 |
Through desert moors hills bleak and high | K |
Where wandering vapours fall and find | Q2 |
In me another sky | K |
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For so thy Visible grew mine | R2 |
Though half its power I could not know | B2 |
And in me wrought a work divine | R2 |
Which thou hadst ordered so | B2 |
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Giving me cups that would not spill | S2 |
But water carry and yield again | F2 |
New bottles with new wine to fill | S2 |
For comfort of thy men | F2 |
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But if thou thus restore the past | T2 |
One hour for me to wander in | U2 |
I now bethink me at the last | T2 |
O Lord leave out the sin | U2 |
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And with the thought comes doubt my God | V2 |
Shall I the whole desire to see | Q |
And walk once more of that hill road | W2 |
By which I went to thee | Q |
George Macdonald
(1)
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