St, Francis Xavier Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCCDCDD EFEFFGFGG HGHGGIGII JIJIIKILL MNMNNNNNN NONPOQOQQ| The Apostle of the Indies | A |
| - | |
| He left his dust by all the myriad tread | B |
| Of yon dense millions trampled to the strand | C |
| Or 'neath some cross forgotten lays his head | B |
| Where dark seas whiten on a lonely land | C |
| He left his work what all his life had planned | C |
| A waning flame to flicker and to fall | D |
| Mid the huge myths his toil could scarce withstand | C |
| And the light died in temple and in hall | D |
| And the old twilight sank and settled over all | D |
| - | |
| He left his name a murmur in the East | E |
| That dies to silence amid older creeds | F |
| With which he strove in vain the fiery priest | E |
| Of faiths less fitted to their ruder needs | F |
| As some lone pilgrim with his staff and beads | F |
| Mid forest brutes whom ignorance makes tame | G |
| He dwelt and sowed an Eastern Church's seeds | F |
| He reigned a teacher and a priest of fame | G |
| He died and dying left a murmur and a name | G |
| - | |
| He died and she the Church that bade him go | H |
| Yon dim Enchantress with her mystic claim | G |
| Has ringed his forehead with her aureole glow | H |
| And monkish myths and all the whispered fame | G |
| Of miracle has clung about his name | G |
| So Rome has said but we what answer we | I |
| Who in grim Indian gods and rites of shame | G |
| O'er all the East the teacher's failure see | I |
| His Eastern Church a dream his toil a vanity | I |
| - | |
| This then we say as Time's dark face at last | J |
| Moveth its lips of thunder to decree | I |
| The doom that grew through all the murmuring past | J |
| To be the canon of the times to be | I |
| No child of truth or priest of progress he | I |
| Yet not the less a hero of his wars | K |
| Striving to quench the light he could not see | I |
| And God who knoweth all that makes and mars | L |
| Judges his soul unseen which throbs among the stars | L |
| - | |
| God only knows man failing in his choice | M |
| How far apparent failure may succeed | N |
| God only knows what echo of His voice | M |
| Lives in the cant of many a fallen creed | N |
| God only gives the labourer his meed | N |
| For all the lingering influence widely spread | N |
| Broad branching into many a word and deed | N |
| When dim oblivion veils the fountain head | N |
| So lives and lingers on the spirit of the dead | N |
| - | |
| This then we say let all things further rest | N |
| And this brave life with many thousands more | O |
| Be gathered up in the eternal's breast | N |
| In that dim past his Love is bending o'er | P |
| Healing all shattered hopes and failure sore | O |
| Since he had bravely looked on death and pain | Q |
| For what he chose to worship and adore | O |
| Cast boldly down his life for loss or gain | Q |
| In the eternal lottery not to be in vain | Q |
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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