The Golden Legend: Vi. The School Of Salerno Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AB CCDEEDDDDFDDDGGHIIII JHKLMJMNHOPPO QD HHJJ PP DD MM JD JD J BJ RJBRR DSDSTUDJDJ DD DDD DDV DJJPWWPPXJXJJ P PJDDJJDDJDDDJJDDDDYY DDZJZDJA2DA2DJJD M JDJDDDDB2B2DMMMMDC2C 2DAD2AD2D2AD2DD D DDIIE2 E2F2F2JG2JG2JJJ MJMMDDJMMJMJJMJDH2DH 2JI2

A traveling Scholastic affixing his Theses to the gateA
of the CollegeB
-
Scholastic There that is my gauntlet my banner my shieldC
Hung up as a challenge to all the fieldC
One hundred and twenty five propositionsD
Which I will maintain with the sword of the tongueE
Against all disputants old and youngE
Let us see if doctors or dialecticiansD
Will dare to dispute my definitionsD
Or attack any one of my learned thesesD
Here stand I the end shall be as God pleasesD
I think I have proved by profound researchF
The error of all those doctrines so viciousD
Of the old Areopagite DionysiusD
That are making such terrible work in the churchesD
By Michael the Stammerer sent from the EastG
And done into Latin by that Scottish beastG
Erigena Johannes who dares to maintainH
In the face of the truth the error infernalI
That the universe is and must be eternalI
At first laying down as a fact fundamentalI
That nothing with God can be accidentalI
Then asserting that God before the creationJ
Could not have existed because it is plainH
That had he existed he would have createdK
Which is begging the question that should be debatedL
And moveth me less to anger than laughterM
All nature he holds is a respirationJ
Of the Spirit of God who in breathing hereafterM
Will inhale it into his bosom againN
So that nothing but God alone will remainH
And therein he contradicteth himselfO
For he opens the whole discussion by statingP
That God can only exist in creatingP
That question I think I have laid on the shelfO
-
He goes out Two Doctors come in disputing andQ
followed by pupilsD
-
Doctor Serafino I with the Doctor Seraphic maintainH
That a word which is only conceived in the brainH
Is a type of eternal GenerationJ
The spoken word is the IncarnationJ
-
Doctor Cherubino What do I care for the Doctor SeraphicP
With all his wordy chaffer and trafficP
-
Doctor Serafino You make but a paltry show of resistanceD
Universals have no real existenceD
-
Doctor Cherubino Your words are but idle and empty chatterM
Ideas are eternally joined to matterM
-
Doctor Serafino May the Lord have mercy on your positionJ
You wretched wrangling culler of herbsD
-
Doctor Cherubino May he send your soul to eternal perditionJ
For your Treatise on the Irregular VerbsD
-
They rush out fighting Two Scholars come inJ
-
First Scholar Monte Cassino then is your CollegeB
What think you of ours here at SalernJ
-
Second Scholar To tell the truth I arrived so latelyR
I hardly yet have had time to discernJ
So much at least I am bound to acknowledgeB
The air seems healthy the buildings statelyR
And on the whole I like it greatlyR
-
First Scholar Yes the air is sweet the Calabrian hillsD
Send us down puffs of mountain airS
And in summer time the sea breeze fillsD
With its coolness cloister and court and squareS
Then at every season of the yearT
There are crowds of guests and travellers hereU
Pilgrims and mendicant friars and tradersD
From the Levant with figs and wineJ
And bands of wounded and sick CrusadersD
Coming back from PalestineJ
-
Second Scholar And what are the studies you pursueD
What is the course you here go throughD
-
First Scholar The first three years of the college courseD
Are given to Logic alone as the sourceD
Of all that is noble and wise and trueD
-
Second Scholar That seems rather strange I must confessD
In a Medical School yet neverthelessD
You doubtless have reasons for thatV
-
First Scholar Oh yesD
For none but a clever dialecticianJ
Can hope to become a great physicianJ
That has been settled long agoP
Logic makes an important partW
Of the mystery of the healing artW
For without it how could you hope to showP
That nobody knows so much as you knowP
After this there are five years moreX
Devoted wholly to medicineJ
With lectures on chirurgical loreX
And dissections of the bodies of swineJ
As likest the human form divineJ
-
Second Scholar What are the books now most in vogueP
-
First Scholar Quite an extensive catalogueP
Mostly however books of our ownJ
As Gariopontus' PassionariusD
And the writings of Matthew PlateariusD
And a volume universally knownJ
As the Regimen of the School of SalernJ
For Robert of Normandy written in terseD
And very elegant Latin verseD
Each of these writings has its turnJ
And when at length we have finished theseD
Then comes the struggle for degreesD
With all the oldest and ablest criticsD
The public thesis and disputationJ
Question and answer and explanationJ
Of a passage out of HippocratesD
Or Aristotle's AnalyticsD
There the triumphant Magister standsD
A book is solemnly placed in his handsD
On which he swears to follow the ruleY
And ancient forms of the good old SchoolY
To report if any confectionariusD
Mingles his drugs with matters variousD
And to visit his patients twice a dayZ
And once in the night if they live in townJ
And if they are poor to take no payZ
Having faithfully promised theseD
His head is crowned with a laurel crownJ
A kiss on his cheek a ring on his handA2
The Magister Artium et PhysicesD
Goes forth from the school like a lord of the landA2
And now as we have the whole morning before usD
Let us go in if you make no objectionJ
And listen awhile to a learned prelectionJ
On Marcus Aurelius CassiodorusD
-
They go in Enter LUCIFER as a DoctorM
-
Lucifer This is the great School of SalernJ
A land of wrangling and of quarrelsD
Of brains that seethe and hearts that burnJ
Where every emulous scholar hearsD
In every breath that comes to his earsD
The rustling of another's laurelsD
The air of the place is called salubriousD
The neighborhood of Vesuvius lends itB2
An odor volcanic that rather mends itB2
And the buildings have an aspect lugubriousD
That inspires a feeling of awe and terrorM
Into the heart of the beholderM
And befits such an ancient homestead of errorM
Where the old falsehoods moulder and smoulderM
And yearly by many hundred handsD
Are carried away in the zeal of youthC2
And sown like tares in the field of truthC2
To blossom and ripen in other landsD
What have we here affixed to the gateA
The challenge of some scholastic wightD2
Who wishes to hold a public debateA
On sundry questions wrong or rightD2
Ah now this is my great delightD2
For I have often observed of lateA
That such discussions end in a fightD2
Let us see what the learned wag maintainsD
With such a prodigal waste of brainsD
-
ReadsD
-
'Whether angels in moving from place to placeD
Pass through the intermediate spaceD
Whether God himself is the author of evilI
Or whether that is the work of the DevilI
When where and wherefore Lucifer fellE2
And whether he now is chained in hell '-
-
I think I can answer that question wellE2
So long as the boastful human mindF2
Consents in such mills as this to grindF2
I sit very firmly upon my throneJ
Of a truth it almost makes me laughG2
To see men leaving the golden grainJ
To gather in piles the pitiful chaffG2
That old Peter Lombard thrashed with his brainJ
To have it caught up and tossed againJ
On the horns of the Dumb Ox of CologneJ
-
But my guests approach there is in the airM
A fragrance like that of the Beautiful GardenJ
Of Paradise in the days that wereM
An odor of innocence and of prayerM
And of love and faith that never failsD
Which as the fresh young heart exhalesD
Before it begins to wither and hardenJ
I cannot breathe such an atmosphereM
My soul is filled with a nameless fearM
That after all my trouble and painJ
After all my restless endeavorM
The youngest fairest soul of the twainJ
The most ethereal most divineJ
Will escape from my hands forever and everM
But the other is already mineJ
Let him live to corrupt his raceD
Breathing among them with every breathH2
Weakness selfishness and the baseD
And pusillanimous fear of deathH2
I know his nature and I knowJ
That of all who in myI2

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



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