The Misanthrope Reclaimed - Act I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A B C D E E F C G DCHBCIJ K H J JJJLJEMNAOJJEJEEPLEE EJJQRSEJJTUEEVEWEJNX YZJA2EOEB2JC2JECEOD2 AE2UC QHEHEQQQQKF2F2GGKJJG JOJO HAJJJG2QQQG2QQQQQG2E JJCCUUEE H2H2EH2EEJJE I2 QQEEEE Q K GGC2C2H2H2J2J2 K EEEEK2K2EKEKEECCJJUH EEG2G2 K JJCCEEEECCHH K L2L2M2WJJKKEEF2F2CCE E C QGQGCCEE J ON2QJMHJJJEBEQO2EP2Q 2JJGER2E Q ENCCEEEEEA J K CCCCCECEKK K GEGELS2LS2C2M K JT2JU2JAJI2V2V2 K JKEKZJW2JJJ C E E2JKEEEJQGHKJKJJEWJQ JJCJCJJJCEEMEEJEX2E E KJ C Y2Z2EPJCWJ E JJA3EUEP2ECEJ2EJEB3J JWJEJ C JT2KEEJC3ED3HE3QCMEF 3EJJ EJKE3EWJL2F2L2JEEQEC G3 E G2EKKJEEH3JJEJEI3EHE F2EJ C CF2E E ECJ3KK3LF2S2JCGT2CEE EEE2 C KJGKCEHL3EGEEG3 E EM3QI2I2 C N3 E M C E3EQJ J EY2CY2JEJEE3CEC E

A Dramatic Poem	A
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S L Sawtelle	B
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Dear Sir	C
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To you who have given me friendship in adversity counsel in perplexity and hope in despondency permit me as an expression of my deep and lasting gratitude to inscribe the Misanthrope	D
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With sentiments of the highest respect	E
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Your obt servt	E
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George W Sands	F
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Frederick City September	C
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Dramatis Personae	G
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Werner Misanthrope	D
Manuel a cottager	C
Albert his son	H
Rebecca wife to Manuel	B
Rose his daughter	C
Spirits	I
An aerial chorus	J
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The Misanthrope Reclaimed ACT I	K
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A fountain near the summit of a mountain from which through a deep glen a stream descends to the valley below A city seen in the distance Time midnight Werner standing near the fountain	H
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Werner solus	J
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Eternal rocks and hills	J
Mighty and vast and you ye giant oaks	J
Whose massy branches have for centuries	J
Played with the breeze and battled with the storm	L
He who so oft has trod your rugged paths	J
And laid him down beneath your shades to rest	E
Returns to be your dweller once again	M
I sooner far would make your wilds my home	N
With nought but your rude eaves to shield me from	A
The winter's cold or summer's heat than be	O
One of the hundred thousand human flies	J
That swarm within yon filthy city's walls	J
Here I at least may live in solitude	E
Free from a forced communion with a race	J
Whose presence makes me feel that I am bound	E
By nature to the thing I loathe the most	E
Earth's stateliest proudest meanest reptile man	P
The beauty of a god adorns his form	L
The foulness of a fiend is in his heart	E
The viper's or the scorpion's filthy nest	E
Nurses a far less deadly poisonous brood	E
Than are the hellish lusts the avarice	J
The pride the hate the double faced deceits	J
That make his breast their dwelling	Q
If he be not beneath hell's wish to damn	R
Too lost for even fiends to meddle with	S
How must they laugh to hear him in his pride	E
Baptize his vices virtues making use	J
Of holy names to designate his crimes	J
Giving his lust the sacred name of love	T
Calling his avarice a goodly sin	U
Care for his household naming his deceit	E
Praiseworthy caution boasting of his hate	E
When he no more can cloak it as a proof	V
Of strength of mind and honesty of heart	E
For all of goodness that remains on earth	W
The name of virtue might be banished from it	E
Fathers who waste in shameful riotings	J
The bread for which their children cry at home	N
Mothers who put aside th' unconscious babe	X
That they may wrong its father children who	Y
Grow old in crime ere they have spent their youth	Z
These are its habitants	J
I cannot brook the thought that I belong	A2
To their vile race My sufferings have been great	E
And keen enough to prove my immortality	O
For dust could not have borne what I have suffered	E
My mind has pierced far far beyond the length	B2
Of mortal vision and discovered things	J
Of which men scarcely dream and paid in pain	C2
The price of what it learned and bought with pangs	J
By which a thousand ages were compressed	E
Into one hour of agony a power	C
Which is a terror to possess and yet	E
This one thought only irks me	O
Methinks the peaceful earth will scarcely give	D2
My dust a resting place within its bosom	A
But cast it forth as if too vile to mingle	E2
With clay that ne'er has been the slave of sin	U
What other watchers here at this lone hour	C
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An evil spirit enters singing	Q
The world is half hidden	H
By midnight's dark shadow	E
The filly witch ridden	H
Skims over the meadow	E
The house dog is barking	Q
The night owl is hooting	Q
The glow worm is sparkling	Q
The meteor is shooting	Q
And forms which lie	K
So stiff and still	F2
In their shrouds so chill	F2
Through the live long day	G
Now burst their clay	G
And flit through the sky	K
On their dusky pinions	J
Hell's dominions	J
Keep holiday	G
Sisters sisters wherever your watches	J
Are kept fleet hither to me	O
Fleet hither fleet hither and leave earth's wretches	J
Alone to their misery	O
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A chorus of evil spirits answer as they enter from different parts of the mountain	H
We come	A
Vice needs no assistance	J
She meets no resistance	J
Virtue's existence	J
Is only in name	G2
Drinking and eating	Q
Intriguing and cheating	Q
Carousing completing	Q
Their ruin and shame	G2
Old age unrepenting	Q
Manhood unrelenting	Q
Youth sighing and winning	Q
Deceiving and sinning	Q
Deserting repining	Q
All men are the same	G2
Ho ho	E
Earth quakes with the weight of the anguish she bears	J
Her plains and her valleys are deluged with tears	J
And her sighs if united were deeper by far	C
Than the thunderbolt's peal when the clouds are at war	C
There is not a bosom that bears not within	U
Its chambers the blot and the burden of sin	U
Not a mind but in many an hour bath felt	E
The curse of its nature the pangs of its guilt	E
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These earth worms whose sire would have had us to bow	H2
To his dust moulded Godship what what are they now	H2
In the scale of true goodness they sink far below	E
The poor patient ox that they yoke to the plough	H2
Let them revel awhile in the false glaring light	E
Of deception that blindness but seems to make bright	E
Let them gather awhile of time's perishing flowers	J
The revenge of eternity This shall be ours	J
Ho ho	E
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They settle near the fountain The first Spirit addresses them	I2
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The night is advancing	Q
Come let us dancing	Q
In dewy circles deftly tread	E
And while we dance round	E
New schemes shall be found	E
To ruin the living and trouble the dead	E
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They form a circle on the margin of the stream and dance round singing	Q
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I	K
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Life is but a fleeting day	G
Half of which man dreams away	G
Night we follow in thy train	C2
Sleep supreme o'er thee we reign	C2
Ours the dreams that come when thou	H2
Sit'st upon the unconscious brow	H2
Reason then deserts her throne	J2
We then reign and we alone	J2
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II	K
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Then seek we for the maiden's pillow	E
Far beyond the Atlantic's billow	E
Love's apple and when we have found it	E
Draw the magic circle round it	E
Fearless pluck it then no charm	K2
That it bears may do us harm	K2
Place it near the sleeper's head	E
It will bring love's visions nigh	K
And when the pleasing dreams are fled	E
The waking pensive maid will sigh	K
Till her bosom has possessed	E
The form that made her dreams so blest	E
And when a maiden finds a lover	C
Her happy days are nearly over	C
Nature hath unchaste desires	J
Love awakes her slumbering fires	J
And the bosom that is true in	U
Love is ever near its ruin	H
Passion's pleading melts the frost	E
Of chilliest hearts and all is lost	E
For once vice blots a maiden's name	G2
She soon forgets her maiden shame	G2
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III	K
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Haunt the debauchee with dreams	J
Of the victim of his schemes	J
Paint her with dishevelled hair	C
Streaming eyes and bosom bare	C
And with aspect pale and sad	E
As a spectre's from the dead	E
Weeping o'er her new born child	E
Her name reproached her fame despoiled	E
Let her groanings reach his ear	C
Pierce his heart and rouse his fear	C
Of the retribution given	H
To such deeds as his by Heaven	H
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IV	K
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Around the drunkard's tattered couch	L2
Let pale faced want and misery crouch	L2
His children shivering o'er the hearth	M2
Cheered by no sound of social mirth	W
Upbraiding with their timid glances	J
The author of their sad mischances	J
And she to whom the holy vow	K
Of the altar bound him now	K
With sunken eye and beauty faded	E
Tresses silvered brow o'ershaded	E
Clinging to him fondly still	F2
With a love that mocks each ill	F2
Which would vainly strive to tear	C
Her soul from one who once was dear	C
Now haste we each our task to do	E
Ere the starry hours wane through	E
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They fly off singing as they disappear	C
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Ere the Morning's rosy wing	Q
Has brushed the damp night shades away	G
Ere the birds their matins sing	Q
Choiring to the new born day	G
Though its bright birth hour be near	C
Many a sigh and many a tear	C
Shall attest the mystic might	E
Of those who walk the world by night	E
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Werner solus	J
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The ruin of the living if that be	O
Your only task you have a poor employ	N2
Give man his three score years and he will make	Q
A wreck the skill of hell might show forth as	J
A sample of its handiwork and then	M
Exult at the completeness of its ruin	H
The troubling of the dead if memory lives	J
In that far world to which the spirit hastens	J
When she casts off the clay that clogs her wings	J
E'en there ye are forestalled for man will need	E
No curse to make his second life a hell	B
If be retains the memory of his first	E
Had the clear waters of this gurgling brook	Q
The pow'r to wash time's blots from th' mind's page	O2
And all earth's mountains were compact of gold	E
Her rivers nectar and her oceans wine	P2
Her hills all fruitful and her valleys fresh	Q2
And full of loveliness as Eden was	J
Ere sin's sad blight fell on its living bow'rs	J
And all were mine I'd give them but to lay	G
My weary limbs along this streamlet's bed	E
And sleep in full forgetfulness awhile	R2
But I forget my task now let me to it	E
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He takes a vial from his bosom and flings its contents into the air chanting	Q
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Spirit	E
Wherever be thy home	N
In earth or air	C
My message hear	C
And fear it	E
By the power which I have earned	E
To which thy knee has knelt	E
By the spell which I have learned	E
A spell which thou hast felt	E
I bid thee hither come	A
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A white cloud appears in the distance floating up the glen and a voice is heard singing as it approaches	J
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I	K
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I saw from port a vessel steer	C
The skies were clear the winds were fair	C
More swiftly than the hunted deer	C
Upon her snowy wings of air	C
She flew along the silv'ry water	C
As fearlessly as if some sprite	E
Familiar with the deep had taught her	C
A spell by which to rule the might	E
Of winds and waves when met to try	K
Their strength up midway in the sky	K
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II	K
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Along her trackless watery way	G
With unabated speed she flew	E
Still gay and careless till the day	G
Waned past night came the heavens grew	E
Black dread and threat'ning Then the storm	L
Came forth in its devouring wrath	S2
Before it fled Fear's pallid form	L
Destruction followed in its path	S2
It passed the morning came in vain	C2
I look for that lost bark again	M
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III	K
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Far down beneath the deep blue waves	J
Within some merman's coral hall	T2
Her fated crew have found their graves	J
Above them for their burial pall	U2
The mermaids spread their flowing tresses	J
The waters chant their requiem	A
From many an eyelid Pity presses	J
Her tender dewy tears for them	I2
The natives of the ocean weep	V2
To view them sleeping death's pale sleep	V2
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IV	K
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Thou mortal wast the bark I saw	J
The waters were the sea of life	K
And thou alas too well dost know	E
What storms were imaged in the strife	K
Of winds and waves The hopes of youth	Z
Thou in that bark's lost crew may'st see	J
All buried now within that smooth	W2
Vast boundless deep eternity	J
And I a spirit though I be	J
Can pity still and weep for thee	J
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The cloud settles near the fountain and unclosing discovers a beautiful form looking steadily at Werner	C
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WERNER addressing it	E
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How beautiful	E2
If intercourse between all living worlds	J
Had not been barr'd by Him who gave them life	K
I should believe thou wert the guardian spirit	E
Of that which men have named the Queen of Night	E
Like her thou art majestic pale and sad	E
And of a tender beauty those bright curls	J
That press thy brow and cling about thy neck	Q
Seem made of sunbeams caught upon their way	G
To earth by some creative hand and woven	H
Into a fairy web of light and life	K
Conscious of its high source and proud to be	J
A part of aught so beautiful as thou	K
I have seen many full bright mortal eyes	J
That were a labyrinth of witching charms	J
In which the heart of him who looked was lost	E
But none like thine their light is not of earth	W
Their loveliness not like what man calls lovely	J
Beside the smoothness of thy brow and cheek	Q
The lily's lip were rough each of thy limbs	J
Is in itself a being and a beauty	J
If that the orb thou didst inhabit ere	C
Thou wert a portion of eternity	J
Was worthy of such dwellers oh how fair	C
And glorious must have been its fields and bow'rs	J
How clear its streams how pure and fresh its airs	J
How mellow were its fruits how bright its flow'rs	J
How strong and brave the beings fit to share	C
It with thee 'Tis most strange that He whose hand	E
Fashions such wondrous things should take delight	E
In striking them to nothingness again	M
Perchance the author of all evil had	E
Invaded it and made it quite unfit	E
To be a part of God's great universe	J
And yet thou lookest as if thou wert beyond	E
The power of temptation to assail	X2
Hast thou too sinned	E
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Spirit	E
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I have lived as thou livest died as thou	K
Wilt have to die and am what thou shalt be	J
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Werner	C
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I have not questioned thee of life or death	Y2
Nor of the state which shall succeed them both	Z2
I care not for the first nor fear the second	E
The last I leave to Him who gave to man	P
Eternity for his inheritance	J
But I would know if the unceasing war	C
Which good and evil wage upon the earth	W
Has reached beyond its confines	J
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Spirit	E
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Have I not answered thee	J
The Begetter of worlds stars suns and systems	J
The Father of Creation the Bridegroom	A3
Of the Spirit hath He not written that	E
Death has dominion only over sin	U
And thou would'st know if other worlds have felt	E
The curse that fell upon and blighted thine	P2
Poor simple child of clay no doubt thou know'st	E
The story of the Eden of thy sire	C
And think'st that there in its fresh stainless breast	E
The baleful seeds of evil first were sown	J2
Which since have spread so fearfully abroad	E
When the sad doom that came on him and his	J
Was but the spray cast from the wave of fate	E
Which just then reached thy newly finished orb	B3
Where it first started whither tends its course	J
Where it shall stop how many wrecks of worlds	J
Once fairer far than thine was at its birth	W
Shall strew its desolate way is not for things	J
Brought forth from dust to know	E
What wouldst thou of me	J
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Werner	C
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The sole remaining good if good it be	J
That yet is mine to share I have tried all	T2
That earthly hope holds out to satisfy	K
The longings of man's nature I have loved	E
And made an idol of the thing I loved	E
And worshipped it with all my soul's intensity	J
And for awhile the frenzy of my dream	C3
Shut out all other thoughts But it was short	E
Death plucked my lovely flower from my grasp	D3
And then the icy chill of desolation	H
Came like a snowy avalanche upon	E3
My heart and froze the fountains of its feeling	Q
I was ambitious I have striven for	C
And worn the gaudiest wreath of fame and when	M
I would have placed it on my brow it grew	E
A mountain in its weight I courted much	F3
The notice of the world and when men praised	E
The very breath that bore their praise to me	J
Seemed clogged with pestilence	J
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Wealth too I coveted	E
And heaped its shining dust in hoards around me	J
And yet it was but dust as barren of	K
Enjoyment as the ground we tread upon	E3
I clad myself in purple heaped my board	E
With all the fairest sweetest fruits of earth	W
And filled my golden goblets with bright juice	J
Pressed from the goodliest grapes and made my couch	L2
Of down and yet I was most wretched still	F2
My garments were but cumbersome my couch	L2
Could give no rest and e'en my generous wines	J
Could not remove the crushing weight that sat	E
Nightmare like on my heart until it grew	E
A palpable and keenly aching pang	Q
There is one path which yet remains untrod	E
To be my guide in it I called thee hither	C
'Tis that of knowledge	G3
	-
Spirit	E
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The same	G2
In which the mother of thy race was lost	E
With e'en a wiser mightier guide than I	K
She thirsted too for knowledge and she gave	K
Her innocence her home in Paradise	J
The happiness of him who shared her lot	E
To know what That her own rebellious hand	E
Had raised the flood gates of a sea of crime	H3
Which would for ever pour its bitter waves	J
Upon the helpless unprotected race	J
Which her rash deed had ruined	E
Think of the sighs the groans the floods of tears	J
The woes too deep for these which have no end	E
Save but in heart breaks Think upon the toil	I3
The sweat the pain the strife the crime the blood	E
The myriads of souls with which this one	H
Sad lesson was obtained whose price is yet	E
Not fully paid nor shall be so until	F2
The last poor son of earth mingles with dust	E
Dost thou not fear to tread a path like this	J
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Werner	C
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I have no fear	C
It is so long since I have felt its thrill	F2
That 'twere a pleasure now to feel it	E
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Spirit	E
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What wouldst thou know	E
Thou art familiar with all earthly lore	C
More Thou hast gained and wield'st a power to which	J3
The rulers of the elements do bow	K
The hurricane at thy command goes forth	K3
Walking where'er thou bid'st it and the storm	L
Ceases to howl when thou hast said Be still	F2
Thine anger stirs the ocean and thy wrath	S2
Finds out the deep foundations of the mountains	J
And shakes them with its strength the subtle fire	C
That lights the tempest on its gloomy way	G
Starts from its cloud rocked slumber at thy call	T2
To be thy messenger	C
Canst thou not be content when thou art feared	E
By those who rule a world What is there yet	E
Which thy insatiate mind desires to know	E
Would'st learn immortal mysteries Reflect	E
Thou art but mortal	E2
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Werner	C
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Spirit why dost thou	K
Taunt me with my mortality Weak things	J
Brought forth from earth Poor simple child of clay	G
These are thy words when well thou knows't that I	K
Though bound to earth by bonds made of its mire	C
Am mightier than thou Were it not so	E
Thou would'st not now be face to face with one	H
Of mortal birth Thou too canst feel revenge	L3
And knowest how to wreak it but take heed	E
The power which brought thee hither can and may	G
Deal harshly with thee If thou knowest aught	E
Worthy of an immortal mind to know	E
To which I have not pierced reveal thy knowledge	G3
	-
Spirit	E
	-
We may not tell the secrets of eternity	E
But I can show thee things thou hast not seen	M3
And they may profit thee although 'twill shake	Q
Even thy proud heart to look upon them	I2
Would'st see them	I2
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Werner	C
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It is my wish	N3
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Spirit	E
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Come then	M
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Werner	C
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Lead on	E3
Although thy path be through hell's gloomy gate	E
I too will pass its portals at thy back	Q
Thou canst not enter where I dare not pass	J
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The cloud closes around them and moves away and a voice sings as it disappears	J
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To the region of shadow	E
The region of death	Y2
Where dust is a stranger	C
And life has no breath	Y2
Where darkness and silence	J
Their dim shrouds have cast	E
Round the phantoms of worlds	J
That belong to the past	E
Spirits who sit on	E3
The thrones of the air	C
Guide ye our chariot	E
Waft ye us there	C
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Exeunt	E

George W. Sands

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