On A Spanish Cathedral Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCAA DDEEFFAA GGHHIIJJ AAKKAALL MNOPDDAA QROSTTBB UUAAAAVW DDXXOOYZDEEP under the spires of a hill by the feet of the thunder cloud trod | A |
I pause in a luminous still magnificent temple of God | A |
At the steps of the altar august a vision of angels in stone | B |
I kneel with my head to the dust on the floors by the seraphim known | B |
No father in Jesus is near with the high the compassionate face | C |
But the glory of Godhead is here its presence transfigures the place | C |
Behold in this beautiful fane with the lights of blue heaven impearled | A |
I think of the Elders of Spain in the deserts the wilds of the world | A |
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I think of the wanderers poor who knelt on the flints and the sands | D |
When the mighty and merciless Moor was lord of the Lady of Lands | D |
Where the African scimitar flamed with a swift bitter death in its kiss | E |
The fathers unknown and unnamed found God in cathedrals like this | E |
The glow of His Spirit the beam of His blessing made lords of the men | F |
Whose food was the herb of the stream whose roof was the dome of the den | F |
And far in the hills by the sea these awful hierophants prayed | A |
For Rome and its temples to be in a temple by Deity made | A |
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Who knows of their faith of its power Perhaps with the light in their eyes | G |
They saw in some wonderful hour the marvel of centuries rise | G |
Perhaps in some moment supreme when the mountains were holy and still | H |
They dreamed the magnificent dream that came to the monks of Seville | H |
Surrounded by pillars and spires whose summits shone out in the glare | I |
Of the high the omnipotent fires who knows what was seen by them there | I |
Be sure if they saw in the noon of their faith some ineffable fane | J |
They looked on the church like a moon dropped down by the Lord into Spain | J |
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And the Elders who shone in the time when Christ over Christendom beamed | A |
May have dreamed at their altars sublime the dream that their fathers had dreamed | A |
By the glory of Italy moved the majesty shining in Rome | K |
They turned to the land that they loved and prayed for a church in their home | K |
And a soul of unspeakable fire descended on them and they fought | A |
And laboured a life for the spire and tower and dome of their thought | A |
These grew under blessing and praise as morning in summertime grows | L |
As Troy in the dawn of the days to the music of Delphicus rose | L |
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In a land of bewildering light where the feet of the season are Spring s | M |
They worked in the day and the night surrounded by beautiful things | N |
The wonderful blossoms in stone the flower and leaf of the Moor | O |
On column and cupola shone and gleamed on the glimmering floor | P |
In a splendour of colour and form from the marvellous African s hands | D |
Yet vivid and shining and warm they planted the Flower of the Lands | D |
Inspired by the patience supreme of the mute the magnificent past | A |
They toiled till the dome of their dream in the firmament blossomed at last | A |
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Just think of these men of their time of the days of their deed and the scene | Q |
How touching their zeal how sublime their suppression of self must have been | R |
In a city yet hacked by the sword and scarred by the flame of the Moor | O |
They started the work of their Lord sad silent and solemnly poor | S |
These fathers how little they thought of themselves and how much of the days | T |
When the children of men would be brought to pray in their temple and praise | T |
Ah full of the radiant still heroic old life that has flown | B |
The merciful monks of Seville toiled on and died bare and unknown | B |
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The music the colour the gleam of their mighty cathedral will be | U |
Hereafter a luminous dream of the heaven I never may see | U |
To a spirit that suffers and seeks for the calm of a competent creed | A |
This temple whose majesty speaks becomes a religion indeed | A |
The passionate lights the intense the ineffable beauty of sound | A |
Go straight to the heart through the sense as a song would of seraphim crowned | A |
And lo by these altars august the life that is highest we live | V |
And are filled with the infinite trust and the peace that the world cannot give | W |
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They have passed have the elders of time they have gone but the work of their hands | D |
Pre eminent peerless sublime like a type of eternity stands | D |
They are mute are the fathers who made this church in the century dim | X |
But the dome with their beauty arrayed remains a perpetual hymn | X |
Their names are unknown but so long as the humble in spirit and pure | O |
Are worshipped in speech and in song our love for these monks will endure | O |
And the lesson by sacrifice taught will live in the light of the years | Y |
With a reverence not to be bought and a tenderness deeper than tears | Z |
Henry Kendall
(1)
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