Of The Son Of Man Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBAABBABBBBCC DEEDDEEDFGGFGF HIIHHIJHKLKLKL CMMCCMMCNONONO PDDPPDDPQBQBRS TUUVVUUVWKWKXX XYYXXYYXZA2ZA2B2B2 C2D2D2C2C2D2D2C2E2F2 G2F2H2I2 J2C2C2J2J2C2C2J2K2UU K2K2U L2CCIICCL2OM2M2OM2O SWWSSWWSN2BBDSS O2AAO2O2AAO2P2B2B2P2 B2P2 BQ2Q2BBQ2Q2BR2CS2K2C 2C2 KT2T2KKT2T2KSM2M2SM2 S U2DDU2U2DDU2IBBIIB V2I I honour Nature holding it unjust | A |
To look with jealousy on her designs | B |
With every passing year more fast she twines | B |
About my heart with her mysterious dust | A |
Claim I a fellowship not less august | A |
Although she works before me and combines | B |
Her changing forms wherever the sun shines | B |
Spreading a leafy volume on the crust | A |
Of the old world and man himself likewise | B |
Is of her making wherefore then divorce | B |
What God hath joined thus and rend by force | B |
Spirit away from substance bursting ties | B |
By which in one great bond of unity | C |
God hath together bound all things that be | C |
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II And in these lines my purpose is to show | D |
That He who left the Father though he came | E |
Not with art splendour or the earthly flame | E |
Of genius yet in that he did bestow | D |
His own true loving heart did cause to grow | D |
Unseen and buried deep whate'er we name | E |
The best in human art without the shame | E |
Of idle sitting in most real woe | D |
And that whate'er of Beautiful and Grand | F |
The Earth contains by him was not despised | G |
But rather was so deeply realized | G |
In word and deed though not with artist hand | F |
That it was either hid or all disguised | G |
From those who were not wise to understand | F |
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III Art is the bond of weakness and we find | H |
Therein acknowledgment of failing power | I |
A man would worship gazing on a flower | I |
Onward he passeth lo his eyes are blind | H |
The unenlivened form he left behind | H |
Grew up within him only for an hour | I |
And he will grapple with Nature till the dower | J |
Of strength shall be retreasured in his mind | H |
And each form record is a high protest | K |
Of treason done unto the soul of man | L |
Which striving upwards ever is oppress'd | K |
By the old bondage underneath whose ban | L |
He failing in his struggle for the best | K |
Must live in pain upon what food he can | L |
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IV Moreover were there perfect harmony | C |
'Twixt soul and Nature we should never waste | M |
The precious hours in gazing but should haste | M |
To assimilate her offerings and we | C |
From high life elements as doth the tree | C |
Should grow to higher so what we call Taste | M |
Is a slow living as of roots encased | M |
In the grim chinks of some sterility | C |
Both cramping and withholding Art is Truth | N |
But Truth dammed up and frozen gagged and bound | O |
As is a streamlet icy and uncouth | N |
Which pebbles hath and channel but no sound | O |
Give it again its summer heart of youth | N |
And it will be a life upon the ground | O |
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V And Love had not been prisoned in cold stone | P |
Nor Beauty smeared on the dead canvas so | D |
Had not their worshipper been forced to go | D |
Questful and restless through the world alone | P |
Searching but finding not till on him shone | P |
Back from his own deep heart a chilly glow | D |
As of a frost nipped sunbeam or of snow | D |
Under a storm dodged crescent which hath grown | P |
Wasted to mockery and beneath such gleam | Q |
His wan conceits have found an utterance | B |
Which had they found a true and sunny beam | Q |
Had ripened into real touch and glance | B |
Nay more to real deed the Truth of all | R |
To some perfection high and personal | S |
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VI But yet the great of soul have ever been | T |
The first to glory in all works of art | U |
For from the genius form would ever dart | U |
A light of inspiration and a sheen | V |
As of new comings and ourselves have seen | V |
Men of stern purpose to whose eyes would start | U |
Sorrow at sight of sorrow though no heart | U |
Did riot underneath that chilly screen | V |
And hence we judge such utterance native to | W |
The human soul expression highest best | K |
Nay it is by such sign they will pursue | W |
Albeit unknowing Beauty without rest | K |
And failing in the search themselves will fling | X |
Speechless before its shadow worshipping | X |
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VII And how shall he whose mission is to bring | X |
The soul to worship at its rightful shrine | Y |
Seeing in Beauty what is most divine | Y |
Give out the mightiest impulse and thus fling | X |
His soul into the future scattering | X |
The living seed of wisdom Shall there shine | Y |
From underneath his hand a matchless line | Y |
Of high earth beauties till the wide world ring | X |
With the far clang that tells a missioned soul | Z |
Kneeling to homage all about his feet | A2 |
Alas for such a gift were this the whole | Z |
The only bread of life men had to eat | A2 |
Lo I behold them dead about him now | B2 |
And him the heart of death for all that brow | B2 |
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VIII If Thou didst pass by Art thou didst not scorn | C2 |
The souls that by such symbol yearned in vain | D2 |
From Truth and Love true nourishment to gain | D2 |
On thy warm breast so chilly and forlorn | C2 |
Fell these thy nurslings little more than born | C2 |
That thou wast anguished and there fell a rain | D2 |
From thy blest eyelids and in grief and pain | D2 |
Thou partedst from them yet one night and morn | C2 |
To find them wholesome food and nourishment | E2 |
Instead of what their blindness took for such | F2 |
Laying thyself a seed in earthen rent | G2 |
From which outspringing to the willing touch | F2 |
Riseth for all thy children harvest great | H2 |
For which they will all learn to bless thee yet | I2 |
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IV Thou sawest Beauty in the streaking cloud | J2 |
When grief lift up those eyelids nor in scorn | C2 |
Broke ever on thine eyes the purple morn | C2 |
Along the cedar tops to thee aloud | J2 |
Spake the night solitude when hushed and bowed | J2 |
The earth lay at thy feet stony and worn | C2 |
Loving thou markedst when the lamb unshorn | C2 |
Was glad before thee and amongst the crowd | J2 |
Famished and pent in cities did thine eye | K2 |
Read strangest glory though in human art | U |
No record lives to tell us that thy heart | U |
Bowed to its own deep beauty deeper did lie | K2 |
The burden of thy mission even whereby | K2 |
We know that Beauty liveth where Thou art | U |
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X Doubtless thine eyes have watched the sun aspire | L2 |
From that same Olivet when back on thee | C |
Flushed upwards after some night agony | C |
Thy proper Godhead with a purer fire | I |
Purpling thy Infinite and in strong desire | I |
Thou sattest in the dawn that was to be | C |
Uplifted on our dark perplexity | C |
Yea in thee lay thy soul a living lyre | L2 |
And each wild beauty smote it though the sound | O |
Rung to the night winds oft and desert air | M2 |
Beneath thine eyes the lily paled more fair | M2 |
And each still shadow slanting on the ground | O |
Lay sweetly on thee as commissioned there | M2 |
So full wast thou of eyes all round and round | O |
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XI And so thou neededst not our human skill | S |
To fix what thus were transient there it grew | W |
Wedded to thy perfection and anew | W |
With every coming vision rose there still | S |
Some living principle which did fulfil | S |
Thy most legitimate manhood and unto | W |
Thy soul all Nature rendered up its due | W |
With not a contradiction and each hill | S |
And mountain torrent and each wandering light | N2 |
Grew out divinely on thy countenance | B |
Whereon as we are told by word and glance | B |
Thy hearers read an ever strange delight So | D |
strange to them thy Truth they could not tell | S |
What made thy message so unspeakable | S |
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XII And by such living witness didst thou preach | O2 |
Not with blind hands of groping forward thrust | A |
Into the darkness gathering only dust | A |
But by this real sign that thou didst reach | O2 |
In natural order rising each from each | O2 |
Thy own ideals of the True and Just | A |
And that as thou didst live even so he must | A |
Who would aspire his fellow men to teach | O2 |
Looking perpetual from new heights of Thought | P2 |
On his old self Of art no scorner thou | B2 |
Instead of leafy chaplet on thy brow | B2 |
Wearing the light of manhood thou hast brought | P2 |
Death unto Life Above all statues now | B2 |
Immortal Artist hail thy work is wrought | P2 |
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XIII Solemn and icy stand ye in my eyes | B |
Far up into the niches of the Past | Q2 |
Ye marble statues dim and holden fast | Q2 |
Within your stony homes nor human cries | B |
Had shook you from your frozen phantasies | B |
Or sent the life blood through you till there passed | Q2 |
Through all your chilly bulks a new life blast | Q2 |
From the Eternal Living and ye rise | B |
From out your stiffened postures rosy warm | R2 |
Walking abroad a goodly company | C |
Of living virtues at that wondrous charm | S2 |
As he with human heart and hand and eye | K2 |
Walked sorrowing upon our highways then | C2 |
The Eternal Father's living gift to men | C2 |
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XIV As the pent torrent in uneasy rest | K |
Under the griping rocks doth ever keep | T2 |
A monstrous working as it lies asleep | T2 |
In the round hollow of some mountain's breast | K |
Till where it hideth in its sweltering nest | K |
Some earthquake finds it and its waters leap | T2 |
Forth to the sunshine down the mighty steep | T2 |
So in thee once was anguished forth the quest | K |
Whereby man sought for life power as he lay | S |
Under his own proud heart and black despair | M2 |
Wedged fast and stifled up with loads of care | M2 |
Yet at dumb struggle with the tyrant clay | S |
Thou wentest down below the roots of prayer | M2 |
And he hath cried aloud since that same day | S |
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XV As he that parts in hatred from a friend | U2 |
Mixing with other men forgets the woe | D |
Which anguished him when he beheld and lo | D |
Two souls had fled asunder which did bend | U2 |
Under the same blue heaven yet ere the end | U2 |
When the loud world hath tossed him to and fro | D |
Will often strangely reappear that glow | D |
At simplest memory which some chance may send | U2 |
Although much stronger bonds have lost their power | I |
So thou God sent didst come in lowly guise | B |
Striking on simple chords not with surprise | B |
Or mightiest recollectings in that hour | I |
But like remembered fragrance of a flower | I |
A man with human heart and loving eyes | B |
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March | V2 |
George Macdonald
(1)
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