Mediëvalism Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH GIGC JKLK MNMN OKOKIf men should rise and return to the noise and time of the tourney | A |
The name and fame of the tabard the tangle of gules and gold | B |
Would these things stand and suffice for the bourne of a backward journey | A |
A light on our days returning as it was in the days of old | B |
- | |
Nay there is none rides back to pick up a glove or a feather | C |
Though the gauntlet rang with honour or the plume was more than a crown | D |
And hushed is the holy trumpet that called the nations together | C |
And under the Horns of Hattin the hope of the world went down | D |
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Ah not in remembrance stored but out of oblivion starting | E |
Because you have sought new homes and all that you sought is so | F |
Because you had trodden the fire and barred the door in departing | E |
Returns in your chosen exile the glory of long ago | F |
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Not then when you barred the door not then when you trod the embers | G |
But now at your new road's end you have seen the face of a fate | H |
That not as a child looks back and not as a fool remembers | G |
All that men took too lightly and all that they love too late | H |
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It is you that have made no rubric for saints no raiment for lovers | G |
Your caps that cry for a feather your roofs that sigh for a spire | I |
Is it a dream from the dead if your own decay discovers | G |
Alive in your rotting graveyard the worm of the world's desire | C |
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Therefore the old trees tower that the green trees grow and are stunted | J |
Therefore these dead men mock you that you the living are dead | K |
Since ever you battered the saints and the tools of your crafts were blunted | L |
Or shattered the glass in its glory and loaded yourselves with the lead | K |
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When the usurer hunts the squire as the squire has hunted the peasant | M |
As sheep that are eaten of worms where men were eaten of sheep | N |
Now is the judgment of earth and the weighing of past and present | M |
Who scorn to weep over ruins behold your ruin and weep | N |
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Have ye not known ye fools that have made the present a prison | O |
That thirst can remember water and hunger remember bread | K |
We went not gathering ghosts but the shriek of your shame is arisen | O |
Out of your own black Babel too loud and it woke the dead | K |
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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