A Reading Of Life--the Test Of Manhood Poem Rhyme Scheme

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George Meredith

A Reading Of Life--the Test Of Manhood Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Like a flood river whirled at rocky banks	A
An army issues out of wilderness	B
With battle plucking round its ragged flanks	A
Obstruction in the van insane excess	C
Oft at the heart yet hard the onward stress	C
Unto more spacious where move ordered ranks	A
And rise hushed temples built of shapely stone	D
The work of hands not pledged to grind or slay	E
They gave our earth a dress of flesh on bone	D
A tongue to speak with answering heaven gave they	E
Then was the gracious birth of man's new day	E
Divided from the haunted night it shone	D
	-
That quiet dawn was Reverence whereof sprang	F
Ethereal Beauty in full morningtide	E
Another sun had risen to clasp his bride	E
It was another earth unto him sang	F
	-
Came Reverence from the Huntress on her heights	G
From the Persuader came it in those vales	H
Whereunto she melodiously invites	G
Her troops of eager servitors regales	H
Not far those two great Powers of Nature speed	E
Disciple steps on earth when sole they lead	E
Nor either points for us the way of flame	I
From him predestined mightier it came	I
His task to hold them both in breast and yield	E
Their dues to each and of their war be field	E
	-
The foes that in repulsion never ceased	E
Must he who once has been the goodly beast	E
Of one or other at whose beck he ran	J
Constrain to make him serviceable man	J
Offending neither nor the natural claim	I
Each pressed denying for his true man's name	I
	-
Ah what a sweat of anguish in that strife	K
To hold them fast conjoined within him still	L
Submissive to his will	L
Along the road of life	K
And marvel not he wavered if at whiles	M
The forward step met frowns the backward smiles	M
For Pleasure witched him her sweet cup to drain	N
Repentance offered ecstasy in pain	N
Delicious licence called it Nature's cry	O
Ascetic rigours crushed the fleshly sigh	O
A tread on shingle timed his lame advance	P
Flung as the die of Bacchanalian Chance	P
He of the troubled marching army leaned	E
On godhead visible on godhead screened	E
The radiant roseate the curtained white	E
Yet sharp his battle strained through day through night	E
	-
He drank of fictions till celestial aid	E
Might seem accorded when he fawned and prayed	E
Sagely the generous Giver circumspect	E
To choose for grants the egregious his elect	E
And ever that imagined succour slew	Q
The soul of brotherhood whence Reverence drew	Q
	-
In fellowship religion has its founts	P
The solitary his own God reveres	P
Ascend no sacred Mounts	P
Our hungers or our fears	P
As only for the numbers Nature's care	R
Is shown and she the personal nothing heeds	P
So to Divinity the spring of prayer	R
From brotherhood the one way upward leads	P
Like the sustaining air	R
Are both for flowers and weeds	P
But he who claims in spirit to be flower	S
Will find them both an air that doth devour	S
	-
Whereby he smelt his treason who implored	E
External gifts bestowed but on the sword	E
Beheld himself with less and less disguise	P
Through those blood cataracts which dimmed his eyes	P
His army's foe condemned to strive and fail	T
See a black adversary's ghost prevail	T
Never though triumphs hailed him hope to win	U
While still the conflict tore his breast within	U
	-
Out of that agony misread for those	P
Imprisoned Powers warring unappeased	E
The ghost of his black adversary rose	P
To smother light shut heaven show earth diseased	E
And long with him was wrestling ere emerged	E
A mind to read in him the reflex shade	E
Of its fierce torment this way that way urged	E
By craven compromises hourly swayed	E
	-
Crouched as a nestling still its wings untried	E
The man's mind opened under weight of cloud	E
To penetrate the dark was it endowed	E
Stood day before a vision shooting wide	E
Whereat the spectral enemy lost form	V
The traversed wilderness exposed its track	W
He felt the far advance in looking back	W
Thence trust in his foot forward through the storm	V
	-
Under the low browed tempest's eye of ire	X
That ere it lightened smote a coward heart	E
Earth nerved her chastened son to hail athwart	E
All ventures perilous his shrouded Sire	S
A stranger still religiously divined	E
Not yet with understanding read aright	E
But when the mind the cherishable mind	E
The multitude's grave shepherd took full flight	E
Himself as mirror raised among his kind	E
He saw and first of brotherhood had sight	E
Knew that his force to fly his will to see	P
His heart enlarged beyond its ribbed domain	N
Had come of many a grip in mastery	P
Which held conjoined the hostile rival twain	N
And of his bosom made him lord to keep	Y
The starry roof of his unruffled frame	I
Awake to earth to heaven and plumb the deep	Y
Below above aye with a wistful aim	I
	-
The mastering mind in him by tempests blown	D
By traitor inmates baited upward burned	E
Perforce of growth the Master mind discerned	E
The Great Unseen nowise the Dark Unknown	D
To whom unwittingly did he aspire	X
In wilderness where bitter was his need	E
To whom in blindness as an earthy seed	E
For light and air he struck through crimson mire	X
But not ere he upheld a forehead lamp	Z
And viewed an army once the seeming doomed	E
All choral in its fruitful garden camp	Z
The spiritual the palpable illumed	E
	-
This gift of penetration and embrace	P
His prize from tidal battles lost or won	A2
Reveals the scheme to animate his race	P
How that it is a warfare but begun	A2
Unending with no Power to interpose	P
No prayer save for strength to keep his ground	E
Heard of the Highest never battle's close	P
The victory complete and victor crowned	E
Nor solace in defeat save from that sense	P
Of strength well spent which is the strength renewed	E
In manhood must he find his competence	P
In his clear mind the spiritual food	E
God being there while he his fight maintains	P
Throughout his mind the Master Mind being there	R
While he rejects the suicide despair	R
Accepts the spur of explicable pains	P
Obedient to Nature not her slave	B2
Her lord if to her rigid laws he bows	P
Her dust if with his conscience he plays knave	B2
And bids the Passions on the Pleasures browse	P
Whence Evil in a world unread before	C2
That mystery to simple springs resolved	E
His God the Known diviner to adore	C2
Shows Nature's savage riddles kindly solved	E
Inconscient insensitive she reigns	P
In iron laws though rapturous fair her face	P
Back to the primal brute shall he retrace	P
His path doth he permit to force her chains	P
A soft Persuader coursing through his veins	P
An icy Huntress stringing to the chase	P
What one the flash disdains	P
What one so gives it grace	P
	-
But is he rightly manful in her eyes	P
A splendid bloodless knight to gain the skies	P
A blood hot son of Earth by all her signs	P
Desireing and desireable he shines	P
As peaches that have caught the sun's uprise	P
And kissed warm gold till noonday even as vines	P
Earth fills him with her juices without fear	D2
That she will cast him drunken down the steeps	P
All woman is she to this man most dear	D2
He sows for bread and she in spirit reaps	P
She conscient she sensitive in him	E2
With him enwound his brave ambition hers	P
By him humaner made by his keen spurs	P
Pricked to race past the pride in giant limb	E2
Her crazy adoration of big thews	P
Proud in her primal sons when crags they hurled	E
Were thunder spitting lightnings on the world	E
In daily deeds and she their evening Muse	P
	-
This man this hero works not to destroy	F2
This godlike as the rock in ocean stands	P
He of the myriad eyes the myriad hands	P
Creative in his edifice has joy	F2
How strength may serve for purity is shown	D
When he himself can scourge to make it clean	G2
Withal his pitch of pride would not disown	D
A sober world that walks the balanced mean	G2
Between its tempters rarely overthrown	D
And such at times his army's march has been	U
	-
Near is he to great Nature in the thought	E
Each changing Season intimately saith	E
That nought save apparition knows the death	E
To the God lighted mind of man 'tis nought	E
She counts not loss a word of any weight	E
It may befa	B2