The Diary Of An Old Soul. - September Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDD EEEEFFE GEEEEGG HIIHEEI EJEKEJE LELEEEL MMNNOMO PQQEPEP REREJJE SCIETCE UVWUVWU QXYYXQX JEEEJEE HZHA2A2ZB2 C2D2E2E2F2B2E2 B2G2G2B2VVV A2A2JJH2H2A2 I2J2K2K2DDD EEB2EEB2B EEEEVVE EEEEEVV RL2EM2ERL2 VVN2N2VVN2 ZO2TO2TZZ VEVEP2P2P2 VENVENN EN2EN2EN2E EBEBEEB EEQ2EQ2EE BR2BR2B2BS2A | |
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WE are a shadow and a shining we | B |
One moment nothing seems but what we see | B |
Nor aught to rule but common circumstance | C |
Nought is to seek but praise to shun but chance | C |
A moment more and God is all in all | D |
And not a sparrow from its nest can fall | D |
But from the ground its chirp goes up into his hall | D |
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I know at least which is the better mood | E |
When on a heap of cares I sit and brood | E |
Like Job upon his ashes sorely vext | E |
I feel a lower thing than when I stood | E |
The world's true heir fearless as on its stalk | F |
A lily meeting Jesus in his walk | F |
I am not all mood I can judge betwixt | E |
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Such differing moods can scarce to one belong | G |
Shall the same fountain sweet and bitter yield | E |
Shall what bore late the dust mood think and brood | E |
Till it bring forth the great believing mood | E |
Or that which bore the grand mood bald and peeled | E |
Sit down to croon the shabby sensual song | G |
To hug itself and sink from wrong to meaner wrong | G |
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In the low mood the mere man acts alone | H |
Moved by impulses which if from within | I |
Yet far outside the centre man begin | I |
But in the grand mood every softest tone | H |
Comes from the living God at very heart | E |
From thee who infinite core of being art | E |
Thee who didst call our names ere ever we could sin | I |
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There is a coward sparing in the heart | E |
Offspring of penury and low born fear | J |
Prayer must take heed nor overdo its part | E |
Asking too much of him with open ear | K |
Sinners must wait not seek the very best | E |
Cry out for peace and be of middling cheer | J |
False heart thou cheatest God and dost thy life molest | E |
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Thou hungerest not thou thirstest not enough | L |
Thou art a temporizing thing mean heart | E |
Down drawn thou pick'st up straws and wretched stuff | L |
Stooping as if the world's floor were the chart | E |
Of the long way thy lazy feet must tread | E |
Thou dreamest of the crown hung o'er thy head | E |
But that is safe thou gatherest hairs and fluff | L |
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Man's highest action is to reach up higher | M |
Stir up himself to take hold of his sire | M |
Then best I love you dearest when I go | N |
And cry to love's life I may love you so | N |
As to content the yearning making love | O |
That perfects strength divine in weakness' fire | M |
And from the broken pots calls out the silver dove | O |
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Poor am I God knows poor as withered leaf | P |
Poorer or richer than I dare not ask | Q |
To love aright for me were hopeless task | Q |
Eternities too high to comprehend | E |
But shall I tear my heart in hopeless grief | P |
Or rise and climb and run and kneel and bend | E |
And drink the primal love so love in chief | P |
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Then love shall wake and be its own high life | R |
Then shall I know 'tis I that love indeed | E |
Ready without a moment's questioning strife | R |
To be forgot like bursting water bead | E |
For the high good of the eternal dear | J |
All hope all claim resting with spirit clear | J |
Upon the living love that every love doth breed | E |
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Ever seem to fail in utterance | S |
Sometimes amid the swift melodious dance | C |
Of fluttering words as if it had not been | I |
The thought has melted vanished into night | E |
Sometimes I say a thing I did not mean | T |
And lo 'tis better by thy ordered chance | C |
Than what eluded me floating too feathery light | E |
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If thou wouldst have me speak Lord give me speech | U |
So many cries are uttered now a days | V |
That scarce a song however clear and true | W |
Will thread the jostling tumult safe and reach | U |
The ears of men buz filled with poor denays | V |
Barb thou my words with light make my song new | W |
And men will hear or when I sing or preach | U |
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Can anything go wrong with me I ask | Q |
And the same moment at a sudden pain | X |
Stand trembling Up from the great river's brim | Y |
Comes a cold breath the farther bank is dim | Y |
The heaven is black with clouds and coming rain | X |
High soaring faith is grown a heavy task | Q |
And all is wrong with weary heart and brain | X |
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Things do go wrong I know grief pain and fear | J |
I see them lord it sore and wide around | E |
From her fair twilight answers Truth star crowned | E |
Things wrong are needful where wrong things abound | E |
Things go not wrong but Pain with dog and spear | J |
False faith from human hearts will hunt and hound | E |
The earth shall quake 'neath them that trust the solid ground | E |
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Things go not wrong when sudden I fall prone | H |
But when I snatch my upheld hand from thine | Z |
And proud or careless think to walk alone | H |
Then things go wrong when I poor silly sheep | A2 |
To shelves and pits from the good pasture creep | A2 |
Not when the shepherd leaves the ninety and nine | Z |
And to the mountains goes after the foolish one | B2 |
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Lo now thy swift dogs over stone and bush | C2 |
After me straying sheep loud barking rush | D2 |
There's Fear and Shame and Empty heart and Lack | E2 |
And Lost love and a thousand at their back | E2 |
I see thee not but know thou hound'st them on | F2 |
And I am lost indeed escape is none | B2 |
See there they come down streaming on my track | E2 |
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I rise and run staggering double and run | B2 |
But whither whither whither for escape | G2 |
The sea lies all about this long necked cape | G2 |
There come the dogs straight for me every one | B2 |
Me live despair live centre of alarms | V |
Ah lo 'twixt me and all his barking harms | V |
The shepherd lo I run fall folded in his arms | V |
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There let the dogs yelp let them growl and leap | A2 |
It is no matter I will go to sleep | A2 |
Like a spent cloud pass pain and grief and fear | J |
Out from behind it unchanged love shines clear | J |
Oh save me Christ I know not what I am | H2 |
I was thy stupid self willed greedy lamb | H2 |
Would be thy honest and obedient sheep | A2 |
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Why is it that so often I return | I2 |
From social converse with a spirit worn | J2 |
A lack a disappointment even a sting | K2 |
Of shame as for some low unworthy thing | K2 |
Because I have not careful first of all | D |
Set my door open wide back to the wall | D |
Ere I at others' doors did knock and call | D |
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Yet more and more of me thou dost demand | E |
My faith and hope in God alone shall stand | E |
The life of law not trust the rain and sun | B2 |
To draw the golden harvest o'er the land | E |
I must not say This too will pass and die | E |
The wind will change Round will the seasons run | B2 |
Law is the body of will of conscious harmony | B |
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Who trusts a law might worship a god of wood | E |
Half his soul slumbers if it be not dead | E |
He is a live thing shut in chaos crude | E |
Hemmed in with dragons a remorseless head | E |
Still hanging over its uplifted eyes | V |
No God is all in all and nowhere dies | V |
The present heart and thinking will of good | E |
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Law is our schoolmaster Our master Christ | E |
Lived under all our laws yet always prayed | E |
So walked the water when the storm was highest | E |
Law is Thy father's thou hast it obeyed | E |
And it thereby subject to thee hast made | E |
To rule it master for thy brethren's sakes | V |
Well may he guide the law by whom law's maker makes | V |
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Death haunts our souls with dissolution's strife | R |
Soaks them with unrest makes our every breath | L2 |
A throe not action from God's purest gift | E |
Wipes off the bloom and on the harp of faith | M2 |
Its fretted strings doth slacken still and shift | E |
Life everywhere perfect and always life | R |
Is sole redemption from this haunting death | L2 |
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God thou from death dost lift me As I rise | V |
Its Lethe from my garment drips and flows | V |
Ere long I shall be safe in upper air | N2 |
With thee my life with thee my answered prayer | N2 |
Where thou art God in every wind that blows | V |
And self alone and ever softly dies | V |
There shall my being blossom and I know it fair | N2 |
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I would dig Master in no field but thine | Z |
Would build my house only upon thy rock | O2 |
Yet am but a dull day with a sea sheen | T |
Why should I wonder then that they should mock | O2 |
Who in the limbo of things heard and seen | T |
Hither and thither blowing lose the shine | Z |
Of every light that hangs in the firmament divine | Z |
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Lord loosen in me the hold of visible things | V |
Help me to walk by faith and not by sight | E |
I would through thickest veils and coverings | V |
See into the chambers of the living light | E |
Lord in the land of things that swell and seem | P2 |
Help me to walk by the other light supreme | P2 |
Which shows thy facts behind man's vaguely hinting dream | P2 |
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I see a little child whose eager hands | V |
Search the thick stream that drains the crowded street | E |
For possible things hid in its current slow | N |
Near by behind him a great palace stands | V |
Where kings might welcome nobles to their feet | E |
Soft sounds sweet scents fair sights there only go | N |
There the child's father lives but the child does not know | N |
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On eager hungry busy seeking child | E |
Rise up turn round run in run up the stair | N2 |
Far in a chamber from rude noise exiled | E |
Thy father sits pondering how thou dost fare | N2 |
The mighty man will clasp thee to his breast | E |
Will kiss thee stroke the tangles of thy hair | N2 |
And lap thee warm in fold on fold of lovely rest | E |
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The prince of this world came and nothing found | E |
In thee O master but ah woe is me | B |
He cannot pass me on other business bound | E |
But spying in me things familiar he | B |
Casts over me the shadow of his flight | E |
And straight I moan in darkness and the fight | E |
Begins afresh betwixt the world and thee | B |
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In my own heart O master in my thought | E |
Betwixt the woolly sheep and hairy goat | E |
Not clearly I distinguish but I think | Q2 |
Thou knowest that I fight upon thy side | E |
The how I am ashamed of for I shrink | Q2 |
From many a blow am borne on the battle tide | E |
When I should rush to the front and take thy foe by the throat | E |
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The enemy still hath many things in me | B |
Yea many an evil nest with open hole | R2 |
Gapes out to him at which he enters free | B |
But like the impact of a burning coal | R2 |
His presence mere straight rouses the garrison | B2 |
And all are up in arms and down on knee | B |
Fighting and praying till the foe is gone | S2 |
George Macdonald
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