November, 1851 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCDEEFGGH IIDJJ DKKJDDJ LLMNOMPPQRRQ SSTUUTBBFNNNH VVWXXWOOYJJYZA2B2C2C 2B2XXD2D2E2YE2YF2G2H 2H2G2WI2WI2YYYI2 OOOOJ2K2J2J2K2 L2WL2WOOM2M2ON2N2N2O F2F2D2C2C2G2G2O2D2 OWOWM2P2M2P2Q2J2Q2J2 E2D2E2D2R2B2S2S2R2R2 T2OT2OPFPF JO2JI2XXXI2WWWB J2J2B2B2U2U2U2BBOOJ2 J2OOV2V2B2B2B2 W2X2W2X2WU2WU2Y2WY2W OZ2OZ2A3J2A3A3J2U2K2 U2K2J2J2J2J2 OOOOJOJOWB3WB3J2OJ2O J2C3J2C3 J2OJ2OD3OD3OD3UD3U JJ2JJ2OOOOD3OD3OQJ2Q J2 D3JD3JOOWhat dost thou here O soul | A |
Beyond thy own control | A |
Under the strange wild sky | B |
stars reach down your hands | C |
And clasp me in your silver bands | C |
I tremble with this mystery | D |
Flung hither by a chance | E |
Of restless circumstance | E |
Thou art but here and wast not sent | F |
Yet once more mayest thou draw | G |
By thy own mystic law | G |
To the centre of thy wonderment | H |
- | |
Why wilt thou stop and start | I |
Draw nearer oh my heart | I |
And I will question thee most wistfully | D |
Gather thy last clear resolution | J |
To look upon thy dissolution | J |
- | |
The great God's life throbs far and free | D |
And thou art but a spark | K |
Known only in thy dark | K |
Or a foam fleck upon the awful ocean | J |
Thyself thy slender dignity | D |
Thy own thy vexing mystery | D |
In the vast change that is not change but motion | J |
- | |
'Tis not so hard as it would seem | L |
Thy life is but a dream | L |
And yet thou hast some thoughts about the past | M |
Let go let go thy memories | N |
They are not things but wandering cries | O |
Wave them each one a long farewell at last | M |
I hear thee say Take them O tide | P |
And I will turn aside | P |
Gazing with heedlessness nay even with laughter | Q |
Bind me ye winds and storms | R |
Among the things that once had forms | R |
And carry me clean out of sight thereafter | Q |
- | |
Thou hast lived long enough | S |
To know thy own weak stuff | S |
Laughing thy fondest joys to utter scorn | T |
Give up the idle strife | U |
It is but mockery of life | U |
The fates had need of thee and thou wast born | T |
They are in sooth but thou shalt die | B |
O wandering spark O homeless cry | B |
O empty will still lacking self intent | F |
Look up among the autumn trees | N |
The ripened fruits fall through the breeze | N |
And they will shake thee even like these | N |
Into the lap of an Accomplishment | H |
- | |
Thou hadst a faith and voices said | V |
Doubt not that truth but bend thy head | V |
Unto the God who drew thee from the night | W |
Thou liftedst up thy eyes and lo | X |
A host of voices answered No | X |
A thousand things as good have seen the light | W |
Look how the swarms arise | O |
From every clod before thy eyes | O |
Are thine the only hopes that fade and fall | Y |
When to the centre of its action | J |
One purpose draws each separate fraction | J |
And nothing but effects are left at all | Y |
Aha thy faith what is thy faith | Z |
The sleep that waits on coming death | A2 |
A blind delirious swoon that follows pain | B2 |
True to thy nature well right well | C2 |
But what that nature is thou canst not tell | C2 |
It has a thousand voices in thy brain | B2 |
Danced all the leaflets to and fro | X |
Thy feet have trod them long ago | X |
Sprung the glad music up the blue | D2 |
The hawk hath cut the song in two | D2 |
All the mountains crumble | E2 |
All the forests fall | Y |
All thy brethren stumble | E2 |
And rise no more at all | Y |
In the dim woods there is a sound | F2 |
When the winds begin to moan | G2 |
It is not of joy or yet of mirth | H2 |
But the mournful cry of our mother Earth | H2 |
As she calleth back her own | G2 |
Through the rosy air to night | W |
The living creatures play | I2 |
Up and down through the rich faint light | W |
None so happy as they | I2 |
But the blast is here and noises fall | Y |
Like the sound of steps in a ruined hall | Y |
An icy touch is upon them all | Y |
And they sicken and fade away | I2 |
- | |
The child awoke with an eye of gladness | O |
With a light on his head and a matchless grace | O |
And laughed at the passing shades of sadness | O |
That chased the smiles on his mother's face | O |
And life with its lightsome load of youth | J2 |
Swam like a boat on a shining lake | K2 |
Freighted with hopes enough in sooth | J2 |
But he lived to trample on joy and truth | J2 |
And change his crown for a murder stake | K2 |
- | |
Oh a ruddy light went through the room | L2 |
Till the dark ran out to his mother Night | W |
And that little chamber showed through the gloom | L2 |
Like a Noah's ark with its nest of light | W |
Right glad was the maiden there I wis | O |
With the youth that held her hand in his | O |
Oh sweet were the words that went and came | M2 |
Through the light and shade of the leaping flame | M2 |
That glowed on the cheerful faces | O |
So human the speech so sunny and kind | N2 |
That the darkness danced on the wall behind | N2 |
And even the wail of the winter wind | N2 |
Sang sweet through the window cases | O |
- | |
But a mournful wail crept round and round | F2 |
And a voice cried Come with a dreary sound | F2 |
And the circle wider grew | D2 |
The light flame sank and sorrow fell | C2 |
On the faces of those that loved so well | C2 |
Darker and wilder grew the tone | G2 |
Fainter and fainter the faces shone | G2 |
The wild night clasped them and they were gone | O2 |
And thou art passing too | D2 |
- | |
Lo the morning slowly springs | O |
Like a meek white babe from the womb of night | W |
One golden planet sits and stings | O |
The shifting gloom with his point of light | W |
Lo the sun on its throne of flame | M2 |
Wouldst thou climb and win a crown | P2 |
Oh many a heart that pants for the same | M2 |
Falls to the earth ere he goes down | P2 |
Thy heart is a flower with an open cup | Q2 |
Sit and watch if it pleaseth thee | J2 |
Till the melting twilight fill it up | Q2 |
With a crystal of tender sympathy | J2 |
So gently will it tremble | E2 |
The silent midnight through | D2 |
And flocks of stars assemble | E2 |
By turns in its depths of dew | D2 |
But look oh look again | R2 |
After the driving wind and rain | B2 |
When the day is up and the sun is strong | S2 |
And the voices of men are loud and long | S2 |
When the flower hath slunk to its rest again | R2 |
And love is lost in the strife of men | R2 |
- | |
Let the morning break with thoughts of love | T2 |
And the evening fall with dreams of bliss | O |
So vainly panteth the prisoned dove | T2 |
For the depths of her sweet wilderness | O |
So stoops the eagle in his pride | P |
From his rocky nest ere the bow is bent | F |
So sleeps the deer on the mountain side | P |
Ere the howling pack hath caught the scent | F |
- | |
The fire climbs high till its work is done | J |
The stalk falls down when the flower is gone | O2 |
And the stars of heaven when their course is run | J |
Melt silently away | I2 |
There was a footfall on the snow | X |
A line of light on the ocean flow | X |
And a billow's dash on the rocks below | X |
That stand by the wintry bay | I2 |
The snow was gone on the coming night | W |
Another wave arose in his might | W |
Uplifted his foaming breast of white | W |
And died like the rest for aye | B |
- | |
Oh the stars were bright and thyself in thee | J2 |
Yearned for an immortality | J2 |
And the thoughts that drew from thy busy brain | B2 |
Clasped the worlds like an endless chain | B2 |
When a moon arose and her moving chime | U2 |
Smote on thy soul like a word in time | U2 |
Or a breathless wish or a thought in rime | U2 |
And the truth that looked so gloomy and high | B |
Leapt to thy arms with a joyful cry | B |
But what wert thou when a soulless Cause | O |
Opened the book of its barren laws | O |
And thy spirit that was so glad and free | J2 |
Was caught in the gin of necessity | J2 |
And a howl arose from the strife of things | O |
Vexing each other with scorpion stings | O |
What wert thou but an orphan child | V2 |
Thrust from the door when the night was wild | V2 |
Or a sailor on the toiling main | B2 |
Looking blindly up through the wind and rain | B2 |
As the hull of the vessel fell in twain | B2 |
- | |
Seals are on the book of fate | W2 |
Hands may not unbind it | X2 |
Eyes may search for truth till late | W2 |
But will never find it | X2 |
Rising on the brow of night | W |
Like a portent of dismay | U2 |
As the worlds in wild affright | W |
Track it on its direful way | U2 |
Resting like a rainbow bar | Y2 |
Where the curve and level meet | W |
As the children chase it far | Y2 |
O'er the sands with blistered feet | W |
Sadly through the mist of ages | O |
Gazing on this life of fear | Z2 |
Doubtful shining on its pages | O |
Only seen to disappear | Z2 |
Sit thee by the sounding shore | A3 |
Winds and waves of human breath | J2 |
Learn a lesson from their roar | A3 |
Swelling bursting evermore | A3 |
Live thy life and die thy death | J2 |
Die not like the writhing worm | U2 |
Rise and win thy highest stake | K2 |
Better perish in the storm | U2 |
Than sit rotting on the lake | K2 |
Triumph in thy present youth | J2 |
Pulse of fire and heart of glee | J2 |
Leap at once into the truth | J2 |
If there is a truth for thee | J2 |
- | |
Shapeless thoughts and dull opinions | O |
Slow distinctions and degrees | O |
Vex not thou thy weary pinions | O |
With such leaden weights as these | O |
Through this mystic jurisdiction | J |
Reaching out a hand by chance | O |
Resting on a dull conviction | J |
Whetted but by ignorance | O |
Living ever to behold | W |
Mournful eyes that watch and weep | B3 |
Spirit suns that flashed in gold | W |
Failing from the vasty deep | B3 |
Starry lights that glowed like Truth | J2 |
Gazing with unnumbered eyes | O |
Melting from the skies of youth | J2 |
Swallowed up of mysteries | O |
Cords of love that sweetly bound thee | J2 |
Faded writing on thy brow | C3 |
Presences that came around thee | J2 |
Hands of faith that fail thee now | C3 |
- | |
Groping hands will ever find thee | J2 |
In the night with loads of chains | O |
Lift thy fetters and unbind thee | J2 |
Cast thee on the midnight plains | O |
Shapes of vision all providing | D3 |
Famished cheeks and hungry cries | O |
Sound of crystal waters sliding | D3 |
Thirsty lips and bloodshot eyes | O |
Empty forms that send no gleaming | D3 |
Through the mystery of this strife | U |
Oh in such a life of seeming | D3 |
Death were worth an endless life | U |
- | |
Hark the trumpet of the ocean | J |
Where glad lands were wont to be | J2 |
Many voices of commotion | J |
Break in tumult over thee | J2 |
Lo they climb the frowning ages | O |
Marching o'er their level lands | O |
Far behind the strife that rages | O |
Silence sits with clasped hands | O |
Undivided Purpose freeing | D3 |
His own steps from hindrances | O |
Sending out great floods of being | D3 |
Bathes thy steps in silentness | O |
Sit thee down in mirth and laughter | Q |
One there is that waits for thee | J2 |
If there is a true hereafter | Q |
He will lend thee eyes to see | J2 |
- | |
Like a snowflake gently falling | D3 |
On a quiet fountain | J |
Or a weary echo calling | D3 |
From a distant mountain | J |
Drop thy hands in peace | O |
Fail falter cease | O |
George Macdonald
(1)
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