Divina Commedia Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCCBDCCBEFEFEF A GHHGGHHGIJKIJK A LIILLIILMNOPPO QOOQQOOQRFSRFS TFFTTFFTT FT F TT TT TFFTFFI | A |
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Oft have I seen at some cathedral door | B |
A laborer pausing in the dust and heat | C |
Lay down his burden and with reverent feet | C |
Enter and cross himself and on the floor | B |
Kneel to repeat his paternoster o'er | D |
Far off the noises of the world retreat | C |
The loud vociferations of the street | C |
Become an undistinguishable roar | B |
So as I enter here from day to day | E |
And leave my burden at this minster gate | F |
Kneeling in prayer and not ashamed to pray | E |
The tumult of the time disconsolate | F |
To inarticulate murmurs dies away | E |
While the eternal ages watch and wait | F |
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II | A |
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How strange the sculptures that adorn these towers | G |
This crowd of statues in whose folded sleeves | H |
Birds build their nests while canopied with leaves | H |
Parvis and portal bloom like trellised bowers | G |
And the vast minster seems a cross of flowers | G |
But fiends and dragons on the gargoyled eaves | H |
Watch the dead Christ between the living thieves | H |
And underneath the traitor Judas lowers | G |
Ah from what agonies of heart and brain | I |
What exultations trampling on despair | J |
What tenderness what tears what hate of wrong | K |
What passionate outcry of a soul in pain | I |
Uprose this poem of the earth and air | J |
This medi val miracle of song | K |
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III | A |
- | |
I enter and I see thee in the gloom | L |
Of the long aisles O poet saturnine | I |
And strive to make my steps keep pace with thine | I |
The air is filled with some unknown perfume | L |
The congregation of the dead make room | L |
For thee to pass the votive tapers shine | I |
Like rooks that haunt Ravenna's groves of pine | I |
The hovering echoes fly from tomb to tomb | L |
From the confessionals I hear arise | M |
Rehearsals of forgotten tragedies | N |
And lamentations from the crypts below | O |
And then a voice celestial that begins | P |
With the pathetic words Although your sins | P |
As scarlet be and ends with as the snow | O |
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IV | - |
- | |
With snow white veil and garments as of flame | Q |
She stands before thee who so long ago | O |
Filled thy young heart with passion and the woe | O |
From which thy song and all its splendors came | Q |
And while with stern rebuke she speaks thy name | Q |
The ice about thy heart melts as the snow | O |
On mountain heights and in swift overflow | O |
Comes gushing from thy lips in sobs of shame | Q |
Thou makest full confession and a gleam | R |
As of the dawn on some dark forest cast | F |
Seems on thy lifted forehead to increase | S |
Lethe and Euno euml the remembered dream | R |
And the forgotten sorrow bring at last | F |
That perfect pardon which is perfect peace | S |
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V | - |
- | |
I lift mine eyes and all the windows blaze | T |
With forms of Saints and holy men who died | F |
Here martyred and hereafter glorified | F |
And the great Rose upon its leaves displays | T |
Christ's Triumph and the angelic roundelays | T |
With splendor upon splendor multiplied | F |
And Beatrice again at Dante's side | F |
No more rebukes but smiles her words of praise | T |
And then the organ sounds and unseen choirs | T |
Sing the old Latin hymns of peace and love | - |
And benedictions of the Holy Ghost | F |
And the melodious bells among the spires | T |
O'er all the house tops and through heaven above | - |
Proclaim the elevation of the Host | F |
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VI | - |
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O star of morning and of liberty | - |
O bringer of the light whose splendor shines | T |
Above the darkness of the Apennines | T |
Forerunner of the day that is to be | - |
The voices of the city and the sea | - |
The voices of the mountains and the pines | T |
Repeat thy song till the familiar lines | T |
Are footpaths for the thought of Italy | - |
Thy fame is blown abroad from all the heights | T |
Through all the nations and a sound is heard | F |
As of a mighty wind and men devout | F |
Strangers of Rome and the new proselytes | T |
In their own language hear thy wondrous word | F |
And many are amazed and many doubt | F |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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