Suggested By Matthew Arnold's Stanzas Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACDD EFEFGH IJIKLM NEOEPP QRQRSS TUTUII VWVWXX YZYZEE A2EA2EB2B2 B2B2B2B2EE C2SC2SLM D2ID2IA2A2 B2B2B2B2B2B2 E2B2E2B2XX B2F2B2F2B2B2 G2B2G2B2H2I2 J2RJ2RK2K2 QL2QM2D2D2 E2N2E2O2P2P2 Q2 R2B2R2B2S2S2 T2AT2AEE DU2DV2EE W2D2W2D2EE B2X2B2X2FF Y2EY2EW2W2 B2D2B2D2B2B2 FGFGEE Z2B2Z2B2GG QIQIW2W2 A3B3A3B3B2B2 C2GC2GC3C3 D3B2D3B2II Q2 C3EC3EC2C2 EB2EB2LM W2EW2EP2P2 GPGPE3E3 Y2P2Y2P2F3F3 B2C2That one long dirge moan sad and deep | A |
Low muffled by the solemn stress | B |
Of such emotion as doth steep | A |
The soul in brooding quietness | C |
Befits our anguished time too well | D |
Whose Life march is a funeral knell | D |
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Dirge for a mighty Creed outworn | E |
Its spirit fading from the earth | F |
Its mouldering body left forlorn | E |
Weak idol feeding scornful mirth | F |
In shallow hearts divine no more | G |
Save to some ignorant pagan poor | H |
- | |
And some who know how by Its light | I |
The past world well did walk and live | J |
And feel It even now more bright | I |
Than any lamp mere men can give | K |
So cling to It with yearning faith | L |
Yet own It almost quenched in death | M |
- | |
While many who win wealth and power | N |
And honours serving at Its shrine | E |
Rather than lose their worldly dower | O |
Proclaim their dead thing 'Life divine' | E |
And sacrifice to coward lust | P |
Their own souls' truth a peoplc's trust | P |
- | |
And will none mourn the mighty Dead | Q |
Pillar of heavenly fire and cloud | R |
Which through this life's wild desert led | Q |
For whole millenniums each grand crowd | R |
Of sages bards saints heroes all | S |
Whose names we glory to recall | S |
- | |
None mourn Him dead with deep moved soul | T |
Whom living all our sires adored | U |
None feel the heavy darkness roll | T |
Stifling about us when the Lord | U |
Leaves us to walk by our own light | I |
That one pale speck in boundless Night | I |
- | |
That earthly lamp when sun and star | V |
When all the heavenly lights are lost | W |
Does it shed radiance round afar | V |
Our pathway is by deep gulfs cross'd | W |
It fathoms none We lift it high | X |
It casts not one beam on the sky | X |
- | |
If He thus died as no more fit | Y |
To lead the modern marcli of thought | Z |
Supreme commanding guiding it | Y |
With noblest love and wisdom fraught | Z |
He was at least Divine and none | E |
Of human souls can lead it on | E |
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We pine in our dark living tomb | A2 |
Waiting the God illumined One | E |
Who only can disperse the gloom | A2 |
Completing what the Dead begun | E |
Or farther leading us some space | B2 |
Toward our eternal resting place | B2 |
- | |
But Israel wanders shepherdless | B2 |
Or gloom involved unloving lies | B2 |
And in despair's stark sinfulness | B2 |
Reviles the promised Paradise | B2 |
It cannot reach Father divine | E |
Let us not long thus hopeless pine | E |
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Still the deep dirge notcs long and low | C2 |
Breathe forth strange anguish to recall | S |
Could we forget our direst woe | C2 |
A proud strong Age fast losing all | S |
Earth has of heaven bereft of faith | L |
And living in Eternal Death | M |
- | |
And loudly boastful of such life | D2 |
Blinded by our material might | I |
Absorbed in frantic worldly strife | D2 |
Unconscious of the utter Night | I |
Whose palpable and monstrous gloom | A2 |
Is gathering for our spirits' tomb | A2 |
- | |
We feel as gods in our own hearts | B2 |
Seeming to conquer Time and Space | B2 |
Wealth gorging our imperial marts | B2 |
Earth pregnant from the fierce embrace | B2 |
Our matter lusting spirits press | B2 |
With unexampled fruitfulness | B2 |
- | |
God answering well our worldly prayer | E2 |
Our hearts' chief prayer through all the hours | B2 |
Of selfish joy and sordid care | E2 |
Comes down to us in golden showers | B2 |
God turns to Mammon at our cry | X |
Our souls wealth crushed dross stifled lie | X |
- | |
Those few how rich while this great mass | B2 |
Myriads with equal greed for gold | F2 |
Sink in such want and woe alas | B2 |
As never can on earth be told | F2 |
These starve and those yet wealthier rise | B2 |
Meanwhile in both the spirit dies | B2 |
- | |
Hear now the thrilling dirge notes peal | G2 |
The anguished cry in thunder rolls | B2 |
The few yet left who think and feel | G2 |
Who yearn with strenuous soaring souls | B2 |
For more than earth or time can grant | H2 |
Where where shall they appease their want | I2 |
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Black disbelief substantial doubt | J2 |
Wreathe blent into one louring cloud | R |
Through which Heaven's light can scarce shine out | J2 |
Round all the Faiths all in such shroud | R |
Fade ghostlike to th' entombing Past | K2 |
Our Heaven is wildly overcast | K2 |
- | |
Yet each Creed senile sick half dead | Q |
With bitter spite and doting rage | L2 |
Reviles all others Whoso led | Q |
By thirst of love to pilgrimage | M2 |
Seeks now old God given Wells of Life | D2 |
Finds drought dry centres of vain strife | D2 |
- | |
And turns away in blank despair | E2 |
To scoff or weep as fits his mood | N2 |
God in Heaven hear our prayer | E2 |
We know Thou art Allwise Allgood | O2 |
Yet sink in godless misery | P2 |
Oh teach us how to worship Thee | P2 |
- | |
- | |
- | |
PART II | Q2 |
- | |
The great Form lies there nerveless still | R2 |
But as we fix our longing gaze | B2 |
It grows in grandest beauty till | R2 |
We worship in entranced amaze | B2 |
Such holy love and wisdom seem | S2 |
To be there rapt in heavenly dream | S2 |
- | |
Oh if He may once more awake | T2 |
Oh if it be not death but sleep | A |
And He from that dread slumber break | T2 |
Refreshed and strong full powered to sweep | A |
The darkness from our path again | E |
Once more the Guiding Star of men | E |
- | |
Yet though it be death view It well | D |
The brow how nobly high and broad | U2 |
What love on those shut lips might well | D |
This Form sublimely templed God | V2 |
And if not perfect is a shrine | E |
Approaching well the most divine | E |
- | |
Do not turn hastily away | W2 |
From mighty death to petty life | D2 |
Gaze in deep reverence on the clay | W2 |
With such a soul's expression rife | D2 |
Read here read long the features worn | E |
By One incarnate Heavenly born | E |
- | |
So may we hope to recognise | B2 |
That Greater One who shall succeed | X2 |
This death bound Monarch who now lies | B2 |
In mute appealing for our need | X2 |
God cannot long desert His earth | F |
In the Old's death the New has birth | F |
- | |
What say we we know well this truth | Y2 |
There is no death for the Divine | E |
Which lives in ever perfect youth | Y2 |
The Form alone its earthly shrine | E |
Is subject to earth's mortal sway | W2 |
Sickens and dies and rots away | W2 |
- | |
Thus each Form in its turn expires | B2 |
No more with all revealed Truth rife | D2 |
Which even at that time inspires | B2 |
Some new and nobler form with life | D2 |
Grander and vaster to express | B2 |
More of Its infinite heavenliness | B2 |
- | |
Thus has it been since Time's first birth | F |
Thus must it be for evermore | G |
Still lie moth eaten on the earth | F |
Old garments which this Spirit wore | G |
Till soiled and rent they were off thrown | E |
And wider flowing robes put on | E |
- | |
They could not grow with His great growth | Z2 |
Pauseless though slow throughout the years | B2 |
And vainly worshippers so loath | Z2 |
To leave what lengthened use endears | B2 |
May still the empty robes adore | G |
Their virtue was from Him who wore | G |
- | |
Let none say the Divine is dead | Q |
Although this Form be soul less quite | I |
The Heavenly Sun doth ever shed | Q |
His lifeful heat His saving light | I |
Never our earth doth lose His ray | W2 |
Save when she turns herself away | W2 |
- | |
Let none say the Divine is dumb | A3 |
Although His voice no more we hear | B3 |
It is that we are deaf become | A3 |
For measured to each eye and ear | B3 |
His glory shines His voice outspeaks | B2 |
To each He gives the most it seeks | B2 |
- | |
Our spirits may for ever grow | C2 |
And He will fill them as before | G |
And still their measure overflow | C2 |
With His unlessened infinite More | G |
He gives us all we can receive | C3 |
He teaches all we can believe | C3 |
- | |
The pure can see Him perfect pure | D3 |
The strong feel Him Omnipotence | B2 |
The wise All wise He is obscure | D3 |
But to the gross and earth bound sense | B2 |
Alas for us with blinded sight | I |
Who dare to cry There is no light | I |
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- | |
- | |
PART III | Q2 |
- | |
Nay ask us not to rise and leave | C3 |
Him from whom power and life seem gone | E |
Say not that it is weak to grieve | C3 |
Duty does not now urge us on | E |
In vain ye urge too well we know | C2 |
We cannot by our own strength go | C2 |
- | |
Vainly ye choose you Saviours now | E |
Of men however good and wise | B2 |
Be those your mean faith would endow | E |
With power to which no man can rise | B2 |
No best men living lure our faith | L |
From the Divine though veiled in death | M |
- | |
Vainly ye wander every way | W2 |
Throughout the earth in search of Heaven | E |
Changing your useless path each day | W2 |
With each new transient impulse given | E |
By human guides who still agree | P2 |
In naught but fallibility | P2 |
- | |
We should know better from the lore | G |
Of worldly wisdom keen mistrust | P |
On which our minds so love to pore | G |
Nor leave for any child of dust | P |
This One Divine to Him adhere | E3 |
Till the diviner One appear | E3 |
- | |
My brothers let us own the truth | Y2 |
Bitter and mournful though it be | P2 |
That we who spent our dreary youth | Y2 |
In foul and sensual slavery | P2 |
Are all too slavish too unmanned | F3 |
For Conquerors of the Promised Land | F3 |
- | |
In unprogressive wanderings | B2 |
We pl | C2 |
James Thomson
(1)
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