Sandalphon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCB DDEEEE FGHFFH IIJHHJ KKBHHB HHELLE JJKMMK EEHNNH EEOMMOHave you read in the Talmud of old | A |
In the Legends the Rabbins have told | A |
Of the limitless realms of the air | B |
Have you read it the marvellous story | C |
Of Sandalphon the Angel of Glory | C |
Sandalphon the Angel of Prayer | B |
- | |
How erect at the outermost gates | D |
Of the City Celestial he waits | D |
With his feet on the ladder of light | E |
That crowded with angels unnumbered | E |
By Jacob was seen as he slumbered | E |
Alone in the desert at night | E |
- | |
The Angels of Wind and of Fire | F |
Chant only one hymn and expire | G |
With the song's irresistible stress | H |
Expire in their rapture and wonder | F |
As harp strings are broken asunder | F |
By music they throb to express | H |
- | |
But serene in the rapturous throng | I |
Unmoved by the rush of the song | I |
With eyes unimpassioned and slow | J |
Among the dead angels the deathless | H |
Sandalphon stands listening breathless | H |
To sounds that ascend from below | J |
- | |
From the spirits on earth that adore | K |
From the souls that entreat and implore | K |
In the fervor and passion of prayer | B |
From the hearts that are broken with losses | H |
And weary with dragging the crosses | H |
Too heavy for mortals to bear | B |
- | |
And he gathers the prayers as he stands | H |
And they change into flowers in his hands | H |
Into garlands of purple and red | E |
And beneath the great arch of the portal | L |
Through the streets of the City Immortal | L |
Is wafted the fragrance they shed | E |
- | |
It is but a legend I know | J |
A fable a phantom a show | J |
Of the ancient Rabbinical lore | K |
Yet the old mediaeval tradition | M |
The beautiful strange superstition | M |
But haunts me and holds me the more | K |
- | |
When I look from my window at night | E |
And the welkin above is all white | E |
All throbbing and panting with stars | H |
Among them majestic is standing | N |
Sandalphon the angel expanding | N |
His pinions in nebulous bars | H |
- | |
And the legend I feel is a part | E |
Of the hunger and thirst of the heart | E |
The frenzy and fire of the brain | O |
That grasps at the fruitage forbidden | M |
The golden pomegranates of Eden | M |
To quiet its fever and pain | O |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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