The Diary Of An Old Soul. - February Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBDCEE FGFGHGH IJKILJM NOOHHNN KMJMJHH PHBHBPP OQOOQOO RHRRHSS THOTOHT JUJVJPP WJJWJXX OOOOOOO YPPYYLL ZA2A2ZOA2O B2OB2PPOO JOJOOJJ OOOOOEE OHQOHQQ JJOOOOO B2SLEESE QQHIIHH WROWRJJ ZJJZJC2C2 OZOHZZH D2ID2E2OOD2 OJJOJJO F2OF2OOOO OHOOHZZ D2OD2OOOOA | |
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I TO myself have neither power nor worth | B |
Patience nor love nor anything right good | C |
My soul is a poor land plenteous in dearth | B |
Here blades of grass there a small herb for food | D |
A nothing that would be something if it could | C |
But if obedience Lord in me do grow | E |
I shall one day be better than I know | E |
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The worst power of an evil mood is this | F |
It makes the bastard self seem in the right | G |
Self self the end the goal of human bliss | F |
But if the Christ self in us be the might | G |
Of saving God why should I spend my force | H |
With a dark thing to reason of the light | G |
Not push it rough aside and hold obedient course | H |
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Back still it comes to this there was a man | I |
Who said I am the truth the life the way | J |
Shall I pass on or shall I stop and hear | K |
Come to the Father but by me none can | I |
What then is this am I not also one | L |
Of those who live in fatherless dismay | J |
I stand I look I listen I draw near | M |
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My Lord I find that nothing else will do | N |
But follow where thou goest sit at thy feet | O |
And where I have thee not still run to meet | O |
Roses are scentless hopeless are the morns | H |
Rest is but weakness laughter crackling thorns | H |
If thou the Truth do not make them the true | N |
Thou art my life O Christ and nothing else will do | N |
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Thou art here in heaven I know but not from here | K |
Although thy separate self do not appear | M |
If I could part the light from out the day | J |
There I should have thee But thou art too near | M |
How find thee walking when thou art the way | J |
Oh present Christ make my eyes keen as stings | H |
To see thee at their heart the glory even of things | H |
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That thou art nowhere to be found agree | P |
Wise men whose eyes are but for surfaces | H |
Men with eyes opened by the second birth | B |
To whom the seen husk of the unseen is | H |
Descry thee soul of everything on earth | B |
Who know thy ends thy means and motions see | P |
Eyes made for glory soon discover thee | P |
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Thou near then I draw nearer to thy feet | O |
And sitting in thy shadow look out on the shine | Q |
Ready at thy first word to leave my seat | O |
Not thee thou goest too From every clod | O |
Into thy footprint flows the indwelling wine | Q |
And in my daily bread keen eyed I greet | O |
Its being's heart the very body of God | O |
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Thou wilt interpret life to me and men | R |
Art nature yea my own soul's mysteries | H |
Bringing truth out clear joyous to my ken | R |
Fair as the morn trampling the dull night Then | R |
The lone hill side shall hear exultant cries | H |
The joyous see me joy the weeping weep | S |
The watching smile as Death breathes on me his cold sleep | S |
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I search my heart I search and find no faith | T |
Hidden He may be in its many folds | H |
I see him not revealed in all the world | O |
Duty's firm shape thins to a misty wraith | T |
No good seems likely To and fro I am hurled | O |
I have no stay Only obedience holds | H |
I haste I rise I do the thing he saith | T |
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Thou wouldst not have thy man crushed back to clay | J |
It must be God thou hast a strength to give | U |
To him that fain would do what thou dost say | J |
Else how shall any soul repentant live | V |
Old griefs and new fears hurrying on dismay | J |
Let pain be what thou wilt kind and degree | P |
Only in pain calm thou my heart with thee | P |
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I will not shift my ground like Moab's king | W |
But from this spot whereon I stand I pray | J |
From this same barren rock to thee I say | J |
Lord in my commonness in this very thing | W |
That haunts my soul with folly through the clay | J |
Of this my pitcher see the lamp's dim flake | X |
And hear the blow that would the pitcher break | X |
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Be thou the well by which I lie and rest | O |
Be thou my tree of life my garden ground | O |
Be thou my home my fire my chamber blest | O |
My book of wisdom loved of all the best | O |
Oh be my friend each day still newer found | O |
As the eternal days and nights go round | O |
Nay nay thou art my God in whom all loves are bound | O |
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Two things at once thou know'st I cannot think | Y |
When busy with the work thou givest me | P |
I cannot consciously think then of thee | P |
Then why when next thou lookest o'er the brink | Y |
Of my horizon should my spirit shrink | Y |
Reproached and fearful nor to greet thee run | L |
Can I be two when I am only one | L |
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My soul must unawares have sunk awry | Z |
Some care poor eagerness ambition of work | A2 |
Some old offence that unforgiving did lurk | A2 |
Or some self gratulation soft and sly | Z |
Something not thy sweet will not the good part | O |
While the home guard looked out stirred up the old murk | A2 |
And so I gloomed away from thee my Heart | O |
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Therefore I make provision ere I begin | B2 |
To do the thing thou givest me to do | O |
Praying Lord wake me oftener lest I sin | B2 |
Amidst my work open thine eyes on me | P |
That I may wake and laugh and know and see | P |
Then with healed heart afresh catch up the clue | O |
And singing drop into my work anew | O |
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If I should slow diverge and listless stray | J |
Into some thought feeling or dream unright | O |
O Watcher my backsliding soul affray | J |
Let me not perish of the ghastly blight | O |
Be thou O Life eternal in me light | O |
Then merest approach of selfish or impure | J |
Shall start me up alive awake secure | J |
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Lord I have fallen again a human clod | O |
Selfish I was and heedless to offend | O |
Stood on my rights Thy own child would not send | O |
Away his shreds of nothing for the whole God | O |
Wretched to thee who savest low I bend | O |
Give me the power to let my rag rights go | E |
In the great wind that from thy gulf doth blow | E |
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Keep me from wrath let it seem ever so right | O |
My wrath will never work thy righteousness | H |
Up up the hill to the whiter than snow shine | Q |
Help me to climb and dwell in pardon's light | O |
I must be pure as thou or ever less | H |
Than thy design of me therefore incline | Q |
My heart to take men's wrongs as thou tak'st mine | Q |
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Lord in thy spirit's hurricane I pray | J |
Strip my soul naked dress it then thy way | J |
Change for me all my rags to cloth of gold | O |
Who would not poverty for riches yield | O |
A hovel sell to buy a treasure field | O |
Who would a mess of porridge careful hold | O |
Against the universe's birthright old | O |
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Help me to yield my will in labour even | B2 |
Nor toil on toil greedy of doing heap | S |
Fretting I cannot more than me is given | L |
That with the finest clay my wheel runs slow | E |
Nor lets the lovely thing the shapely grow | E |
That memory what thought gives it cannot keep | S |
And nightly rimes ere morn like cistus petals go | E |
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'Tis shall thy will be done for me or mine | Q |
And I be made a thing not after thine | Q |
My own and dear in paltriest details | H |
Shall I be born of God or of mere man | I |
Be made like Christ or on some other plan | I |
I let all run set thou and trim my sails | H |
Home then my course let blow whatever gales | H |
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With thee on board each sailor is a king | W |
Nor I mere captain of my vessel then | R |
But heir of earth and heaven eternal child | O |
Daring all truth nor fearing anything | W |
Mighty in love the servant of all men | R |
Resenting nothing taking rage and blare | J |
Into the Godlike silence of a loving care | J |
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I cannot see my God a reason why | Z |
From morn to night I go not gladsome free | J |
For if thou art what my soul thinketh thee | J |
There is no burden but should lightly lie | Z |
No duty but a joy at heart must be | J |
Love's perfect will can be nor sore nor small | C2 |
For God is light in him no darkness is at all | C2 |
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'Tis something thus to think and half to trust | O |
But ah my very heart God born should lie | Z |
Spread to the light clean clear of mire and rust | O |
And like a sponge drink the divine sunbeams | H |
What resolution then strong swift and high | Z |
What pure devotion or to live or die | Z |
And in my sleep what true what perfect dreams | H |
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There is a misty twilight of the soul | D2 |
A sickly eclipse low brooding o'er a man | I |
When the poor brain is as an empty bowl | D2 |
And the thought spirit weariful and wan | E2 |
Turning from that which yet it loves the best | O |
Sinks moveless with life poverty opprest | O |
Watch then O Lord thy feebly glimmering coal | D2 |
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I cannot think in me is but a void | O |
I have felt much and want to feel no more | J |
My soul is hungry for some poorer fare | J |
Some earthly nectar gold not unalloyed | O |
The little child that's happy to the core | J |
Will leave his mother's lap run down the stair | J |
Play with the servants is his mother annoyed | O |
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I would not have it so Weary and worn | F2 |
Why not to thee run straight and be at rest | O |
Motherward with toy new or garment torn | F2 |
The child that late forsook her changeless breast | O |
Runs to home's heart the heaven that's heavenliest | O |
In joy or sorrow feebleness or might | O |
Peace or commotion be thou Father my delight | O |
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The thing I would say still comes forth with doubt | O |
And difference is it that thou shap'st my ends | H |
Or is it only the necessity | O |
Of stubborn words that shift sluggish about | O |
Warping my thought as it the sentence bends | H |
Have thou a part in it O Lord and I | Z |
Shall say a truth if not the thing I try | Z |
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Gather my broken fragments to a whole | D2 |
As these four quarters make a shining day | O |
Into thy basket for my golden bowl | D2 |
Take up the things that I have cast away | O |
In vice or indolence or unwise play | O |
Let mine be a merry all receiving heart | O |
But make it a whole with light in every part | O |
George Macdonald
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