The Shepherds Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDBBEFGGBBEGHH IIJJEGKLMMNOBBBBDDPP QQRRSTUUVWDDXX| Sweet harmless lives on whose holy leisure | A |
| Waits innocence and pleasure | A |
| Whose leaders to those pastures and clear springs | B |
| Were patriarchs saints and kings | B |
| How happened it that in the dead of night | C |
| You only saw true light | C |
| While Palestine was fast asleep and lay | D |
| Without one thought of day | D |
| Was it because those first and blessed swains | B |
| Were pilgrims on those plains | B |
| When they received the promise for which now | E |
| 'Twas there first shown to you | F |
| 'Tis true He loves that dust whereon they go | G |
| That serve Him here below | G |
| And therefore might for memory of those | B |
| His love there first disclose | B |
| But wretched Salem once His love must now | E |
| No voice nor vision know | G |
| Her stately piles with all their height and pride | H |
| Now languished and died | H |
| And Bethlem's humble cotes above them stepped | I |
| While all her seers slept | I |
| Her cedar fir hewed stones and gold were all | J |
| Polluted through their fall | J |
| And those once sacred mansions were now | E |
| Mere emptiness and show | G |
| This made the angel call at reeds and thatch | K |
| Yet where the shepherds watch | L |
| And God's own lodging though He could not lack | M |
| To be a common rack | M |
| No costly pride no soft clothed luxury | N |
| In those thin cells could lie | O |
| Each stirring wind and storm blew through their cots | B |
| Which never harbored plots | B |
| Only content and love and humble joys | B |
| Lived there without all noise | B |
| Perhaps some harmless cares for the next day | D |
| Did in their bosoms play | D |
| As where to lead their sheep what silent nook | P |
| What springs or shades to look | P |
| But that was all and now with gladsome care | Q |
| They for the town prepare | Q |
| They leave their flock and in a busy talk | R |
| All towards Bethlem walk | R |
| To see their souls' Great Shepherd Who was come | S |
| To bring all stragglers home | T |
| Where now they find Him out and taught before | U |
| That Lamb of God adore | U |
| That Lamb whose days great kings and prophets wished | V |
| And longed to see but missed | W |
| The first light they beheld was bright and gay | D |
| And turned their night to day | D |
| But to this later light they saw in Him | X |
| Their day was dark and dim | X |
Henry Vaughan
(1)
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