To Edmund Clerihew Bentley Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFFAAGGHHAA AAIIJJKKCCLLAALLMMAA KKAAAA| Dedication to 'The Man who was Thursday' | A |
| - | |
| A cloud was on the mind of men and wailing went the weather | B |
| Yea a sick cloud upon the soul when we were boys together | B |
| Science announced nonentity and art admired decay | C |
| The world was old and ended but you and I were gay | C |
| Round us in antic order their crippled vices came | D |
| Lust that had lost its laughter fear that had lost its shame | D |
| Like the white lock of Whistler that lit our aimless gloom | E |
| Men showed their own white feather as proudly as a plume | E |
| Life was a fly that faded and death a drone that stung | F |
| The world was very old indeed when you and I were young | F |
| They twisted even decent sin to shapes not to be named | A |
| Men were ashamed of honour but we were not ashamed | A |
| Weak if we were and foolish not thus we failed not thus | G |
| When that black Baal blocked the heavens he had no hymns from us | G |
| Children we were our forts of sand were even as weak as we | H |
| High as they went we piled them up to break that bitter sea | H |
| Fools as we were in motley all jangling and absurd | A |
| When all church bells were silent our cap and bells were heard | A |
| - | |
| Not all unhelped we held the fort our tiny flags unfurled | A |
| Some giants laboured in that cloud to lift it from the world | A |
| I find again the book we found I feel the hour that flings | I |
| Far out of fish shaped Paumanok some cry of cleaner things | I |
| And the Green Carnation withered as in forest fires that pass | J |
| Roared in the wind of all the world ten million leaves of grass | J |
| Or sane and sweet and sudden as a bird sings in the rain | K |
| Truth out of Tusitala spoke and pleasure out of pain | K |
| Yea cool and clear and sudden as a bird sings in the grey | C |
| Dunedin to Samoa spoke and darkness unto day | C |
| But we were young we lived to see God break their bitter charms | L |
| God and the good Republic come riding back in arms | L |
| We have seen the City of Mansoul even as it rocked relieved | A |
| Blessed are they who did not see but being blind believed | A |
| This is a tale of those old fears even of those emptied hells | L |
| And none but you shall understand the true thing that it tells | L |
| Of what colossal gods of shame could cow men and yet crash | M |
| Of what huge devils hid the stars yet fell at a pistol flash | M |
| The doubts that were so plain to chase so dreadful to withstand | A |
| Oh who shall understand but you yea who shall understand | A |
| The doubts that drove us through the night as we two talked amain | K |
| And day had broken on the streets e'er it broke upon the brain | K |
| Between us by the peace of God such truth can now be told | A |
| Yea there is strength in striking root and good in growing old | A |
| We have found common things at last and marriage and a creed | A |
| And I may safely write it now and you may safely read | A |
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
(1)
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