A Parson's Letter To A Young Poet Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIIJ KGLMNO KKPQRSOT UVAWXO YOZOOOO ZA2B2OZZOGO OZZ C2OOZKD GZZZZGC2ZZC2D2B ZZE2BGOGF2ZZOG2KG H2KZZI2GG OAKOOZKJ2ZZVOOOK2RGG L2GNZAKZ ZOZZM2M2WZOV KOK2KOOOKZOO ZOOZZON2GNWOO OOOO2P2OOZGQ2 GR2S2OOOOL2GOOK GKT2GOU2U2ZK AROOOZGOOOB2ZD OV2OOZO ZKW2GZ BOZZZZZZGKGX2OS2ZZW2 ZROG OZG2Y2Z2ZA3B3OH2OZOC 2 OC3OOOZZGD3 OZA3 GE3OJ2GOZE2KF3OG3Z OZKZZ2OZH3ZOOI3T2ZU2 J2Z KB3GKZOV2OZOG OKZZOOJ3KOZT2KZOM2RK 3ZK3B3ZZL3ZZKS2 M2OZZM3ZKGAOKG E2OOZOZOT2ZGG KA3N2AOZ2OG KT2OAN3E3Z2ZO3O3OA3 I2OZZGE3ZL2 L2BN2OGRX2OVW2GKZI2G J2ZZOZ WGOP3KWZG OOKWGGZOOZOQ3OGC2Z OOGOKU2OOZ OGOZGR3OZ ZO2AZZZOOD3T2OOC3O GRROX2X2OOG ZOOO3ZB2 GZZGM2O3ZOGOZ

They said Too late too late the work is done	A
Great Homer sang of glory and strong men	B
And that fair Greek whose fault all these long years	C
Wins no forgetfulness nor ever can	D
For yet cold eyes upon her frailty bend	E
For yet the world waits in the victor's tent	F
Daily and sees an old man honourable	G
His white head bowed surprise to passionate tears	H
Awestruck Achilles sighing 'I have endured	I
The like whereof no soul hath yet endured	I
To kiss the hand of him that slew my son '	J
	-
They said We rich by him are rich by more	K
One Aeschylus found watchfires on a hill	G
That lit Old Night's three daughters to their work	L
When the forlorn Fate leaned to their red light	M
And sat a spinning to her feet he came	N
And marked her till she span off all her thread	O
	-
O it is late good sooth to cry for more	K
The work once done well done they said forbear	K
A Tuscan afterward discovered steps	P
Over the line of life in its mid way	Q
He climbed the wall of Heaven beheld his love	R
Safe at her singing and he left his foes	S
In a vale of shadow weltering unassoiled	O
Immortal sufferers henceforth in both worlds	T
	-
Who may inherit next or who shall match	U
The Swan of Avon and go float with him	V
Down the long river of life aneath a sun	A
Not veiled and high at noon the river of life	W
That as it ran reflected all its lapse	X
And rippling on the plumage of his breast	O
	-
Thou hast them heed them for thy poets now	Y
Albeit of tongue full sweet and majesty	O
Like even to theirs are fallen on evil days	Z
Are wronged by thee of life wronged of the world	O
Look back they must and show thee thy fair past	O
Or choosing thy to day they may but chant	O
As they behold	O
	-
The mother glowworm broods	Z
Upon her young fast folded in the egg	A2
And long before they come to life they shine	B2
The mother age broods on her shining thought	O
That liveth but whose life is hid He comes	Z
Her poet son and lo you he can see	Z
The shining and he takes it to his breast	O
And fashions for it wings that it may fly	G
And show its sweet light in the dusky world	O
	-
Mother O Mother of our dusk to day	O
What hast thou lived for bards to sing of thee	Z
Lapsed water cannot flow above its source	Z
'The kid must browse ' they said 'where she is tied '	-
	-
Son of to day rise up and answer them	C2
What wilt thou let thy mother sit ashamed	O
And crownless Set the crown on her fair head	O
She waited for thy birth she cries to thee	Z
Thou art the man He that hath ears to hear	K
To him the mother cries Thou art the man	D
	-
She murmurs for thy mother's voice is low	G
Methought the men of war were even as gods	Z
The old men of the ages Now mine eyes	Z
Retrieve the truth from ruined city walls	Z
That buried it from carved and curious homes	Z
Full of rich garments and all goodly spoil	G
Where having burned battered and wasted them	C2
They flung it Give us give us better gods	Z
Than these that drink with blood upon their hands	Z
For I repent me that I worshipped them	C2
O that there might be yet a going up	D2
O to forget and to begin again	B
	-
Is not thy mother's rede at one with theirs	Z
Who cry The work is done What though to thee	Z
Thee only should the utterance shape itself	E2
O to forget and to begin again	B
Only of thee be heard as that keen cry	G
Rending its way from some distracted heart	O
That yields it and so breaks Yet list the cry	G
Begin for her again and learn to sing	F2
But first in all thy learning learn to be	Z
Is life a field then plough it up re sow	Z
With worthier seed Is life a ship O heed	O
The southing of thy stars Is life a breath	G2
Breathe deeper draw life up from hour to hour	K
Aye from the deepest deep in thy deep soul	G
	-
It may be God's first work is but to breathe	H2
And fill the abysm with drifts of shining air	K
That slowly slowly curdle into worlds	Z
A little space is measured out to us	Z
Of His long leisure breathe and grow therein	I2
For life alas is short and When we die	G
It is not for a little while	G
	-
They said	O
The work is done and is it therefore done	A
Speak rather to thy mother thus All fair	K
Lady of ages beautiful To day	O
And sorrowful To day thy children set	O
The crown of sorrow on their heads their loss	Z
Is like to be the loss of all we hear	K
Lamenting as of some that mourn in vain	J2
Loss of high leadership but where is he	Z
That shall be great enough to lead thee now	Z
Where is thy Poet thou hast wanted him	V
Where Thou hast wakened as a child in the night	O
And found thyself alone The stars have set	O
There is great darkness and the dark is void	O
Of music Who shall set thy life afresh	K2
And sing thee thy new songs Whom wilt thou love	R
And lean on to break silence worthily	G
Discern the beauty in thy goings feel	G
The glory of thy yearning thy self scorn	L2
Matter to dim oblivion with a smile	G
Own thy great want that knew not its great name	N
O who shall make to thee mighty amends	Z
For thy lost childhood joining two in one	A
Thyself and Him Behold Him He is near	K
God is thy Poet now	Z
	-
A King sang once	Z
Long years ago 'My soul is athirst for God	O
Yea for the living God' thy thirst and his	Z
Are one It is thy Poet whom thy hands	Z
Grope for not knowing Life is not enough	M2
Nor love nor learning Death is not enough	M2
Even to them happy who forecast new life	W
But give us now and satisfy us now	Z
Give us now now to live in the life of God	O
Give us now now to be at one with Him	V
	-
Would I had words I have not words for her	K
Only for thee and thus I tell them out	O
For every man the world is made afresh	K2
To God both it and he are young There are	K
Who call upon Him night and morn and night	O
Where is the kingdom Give it us to day	O
We would be here with God not there with God	O
Make Thine abode with us great Wayfarer	K
And let our souls sink deeper into Thee	Z
There are who send but yearnings forth in quest	O
They know not why of good they know not what	O
	-
The unknown life and strange its stirring is	Z
The babe knows nought of life yet clothed in it	O
And yearning only for its mother's breast	O
Feeds thus the unheeded thing and as for thee	Z
That life thou hast is hidden from thine eyes	Z
And when it yearns thou knowing not for what	O
Wouldst fain appease it with one grand deep joy	N2
One draught of passionate peace but wilt thou know	G
The other name of joy the better name	N
Of peace It is thy Father's name Thy life	W
Yearns to its Source The spirit thirsts for God	O
Even the living God	O
	-
But No thou sayest	O
My heart is all in ruins with pain my feet	O
Tread a dry desert where there is no way	O
Nor water I look back and deep through time	O2
The old words come but faintly up the track	P2
Trod by the sons of men The man He sent	O
The Prince of life methinks I could have loved	O
If I had looked once in His deep man's eyes	Z
But long ago He died and long ago	G
Is gone	Q2
	-
He is not dead He cannot go	G
Men's faith at first was like a mastering stream	R2
Like Jordan the descender leaping down	S2
Pure from his snow and warmed of tropic heat	O
Hiding himself in verdure then at last	O
In a Dead Sea absorbed as faith of doubt	O
But yet the snow lies thick on Hermon's breast	O
And daily at his source the stream is born	L2
Go up go mark the whiteness of the snow Thy	G
faith is not thy Saviour not thy God	O
Though faith waste fruitless down a desert old	O
The living God is new and He is near	K
	-
What need to look behind thee and to sigh	G
When God left speaking He went on before	K
To draw men after following up and on	T2
And thy heart fails because thy feet are slow	G
Thou think'st of Him as one that will not wait	O
A Father and not wait He waited long	U2
For us and yet perchance He thinks not long	U2
And will not count the time There are no dates	Z
In His fine leisure	K
	-
Speak then as a son	A
Father I come to satisfy Thy love	R
With mine for I had held Thee as remote	O
The background of the stars Time's yesterday	O
Illimitable Absence Now my heart	O
Communes methinks with somewhat teaching me	Z
Thou art the Great To day God is it so	G
Then for all love that WAS I thank Thee God	O
It is and yet shall hide And I have part	O
In all for in Thine image I was made	O
To Thee my spirit yearns as Thou to mine	B2
If aught be stamped of Thy Divine on me	Z
And man be God like God is like to man	D
	-
Dear and dread Lord I have not found it hard	O
To fear Thee though Thy love in visible form	V2
Bled 'neath a thorny crown but since indeed	O
For kindred's sake and likeness Thou dost thirst	O
To draw men nigh and make them one with Thee	Z
My soul shall answer 'Thou art what I want	O
I am athirst for God the living God '	-
	-
Then straightway flashes up athwart the words	Z
And if I be a son I am very far	K
From my great Father's house I am not clean	W2
I have not always willed it should be so	G
And the gold of life is rusted with my tears	Z
	-
It is enough He never said to men	B
Seek ye My face in vain And have they sought	O
Beautiful children well beloved sons	Z
Opening wide eyes to ache among the moons	Z
All night and sighing because star multitudes	Z
Fainted away as to a glittering haze	Z
And sparkled here and there like silver wings	Z
Confounding them with nameless numberless	Z
Unbearable fine flocks It is not well	G
For them for thee Hast thou gone forth so far	K
To the unimaginable steeps on high	G
Trembling and seeking God Yet now come home	X2
Cry cry to Him I cannot search Thee out	O
But Thou and I must meet O come come down	S2
Come And that cry shall have the mastery	Z
Ay He shall come in truth to visit thee	Z
And thou shalt mourn to Him Unclean unclean	W2
But never more I will to have it so	Z
From henceforth thou shalt learn that there is love	R
To long for pureness to desire a mount	O
Of consecration it were good to scale	G
	-
Look you it is to day as at the first	O
When Adam first was 'ware his new made eyes	Z
And opened them behold the light And breath	G2
Of God was misting yet about his mouth	Y2
Whereof they had made his soul Then he looked forth	Z2
And was a part of light also he saw	Z
Beautiful life and it could move But Eve Eve	A3
was the child of midnight and of sleep	B3
Lo in the dark God led her to his side	O
It may be in the dark she heard him breathe	H2
Before God woke him And she knew not light	O
Nor life but as a voice that left his lips	Z
A warmth that clasped her but the stars were out	O
And she with wide child eyes gazed up at them	C2
	-
Haply she thought that always it was night	O
Haply he whispering to her in that reach	C3
Of beauteous darkness gave her unworn heart	O
A rumour of the dawn and wakened it	O
To a trembling and a wonder and a want	O
Kin to his own and as he longed to gaze	Z
On his new fate the gracious mystery	Z
His wife she may have longed and felt not why	G
After the light that never she had known	D3
	-
So doth each age walk in the light beheld	O
Nor think on light if it be light or no	Z
Then comes the night to it and in the night Eve	A3
	-
The God given the most beautiful	G
Eve And she is not seen for darkness' sake	E3
Yet when she makes her gracious presence felt	O
The age perceives how dark it is and fain	J2
Fain would have daylight fain would see her well	G
A beauty half revealed a helpmeet sent	O
To draw the soul away from valley clods	Z
Made from itself yet now a better self	E2
Soul in the soulless arrow tipped with fire	K
Let down into a careless breast a pang	F3
Sweeter than healing that cries out with it	O
For light all light and is beheld at length	G3
The morning dawns	Z
	-
Were not we born to light	O
Ay and we saw the men and women as saints	Z
Walk in a garden All our thoughts were fair	K
Our simple hearts as dovecotes full of doves	Z
Made home and nest for them They fluttered forth	Z2
And flocks of them flew white about the world	O
And dreams were like to ships that floated us	Z
Far out on silent floods apart from earth	H3
From life so far that we could see their lights	Z
In heaven and hear the everlasting tide	O
All dappled with that fair reflected gold	O
Wash up against the city wall and sob	I3
At the dark bows of vessels that drew on	T2
Heavily freighted with departed souls	Z
To whom did spirits sing but on that song	U2
Might none albeit the meaning was right plain	J2
Impose the harsh captivity of words	Z
	-
Afterward waking sweet was early air	K
Full excellent was morning whether deep	B3
The snow lay keenly white and shrouds of hail	G
Blurred the grey breaker on a long foreshore	K
And swarming plover ran and wild white mews	Z
And sea pies printed with a thousand feet	O
The fallen whiteness making shrill the storm	V2
Or whether soothed of sunshine throbbed and hummed	O
The mill atween its bowering maple trees	Z
And churned the leaping beck that reared and urged	O
A diamond dripping wheel	G
	-
The happy find	O
Equality of beauty everywhere	K
To feed on All of shade and sheen is theirs	Z
All the strange fashions and the fair wise ways	Z
Of lives beneath man's own He breathes delight	O
Whose soul is fresh whose feet are wet with dew	O
And the melted mist of morning when at watch	J3
Sunk deep in fern he marks the stealthy roe	K
Silent as sleep or shadow cross the glade	O
Or dart athwart his view as August stars	Z
Shoot and are out while gracefully pace on	T2
The wild eyed harts to their traditional tree	K
To clear the velvet from their budded horns	Z
There is no want both God and life are kind	O
It is enough to hear it is enough	M2
To see the pale wide barley field they love	R
And its weird beauty and the pale wide moon	K3
That lowering seems to lurk between the sheaves	Z
So in the rustic hamlet at high noon	K3
The white owl sailing drowsed and deaf with sleep	B3
To hide her head in turrets browned of moss	Z
That is the rust of time Ay so the pinks	Z
And mountain grass marked on a sharp sea cliff	L3
While far below the northern diver feeds	Z
She having ended settling while she sits	Z
As vessels water logged that sink at sea	K
And quietly into the deep go down	S2
	-
It is enough to wake it is enough	M2
To sleep With God and time he leaves the rest	O
But on a day death on the doorstep sits	Z
Waiting or like a veil d woman walks	Z
Dogging his footsteps or athwart his path	M3
The splendid passion flower love unfolds	Z
Buds full of sorrow not ordained to know	K
Appeasement through the answer of a sigh	G
The kiss of pity with denial given	A
The crown and blossom of accomplishment	O
Or haply comes the snake with subtlety	K
And tempts him with an apple to know all	G
	-
So Shut the gate the story tells itself	E2
Over and over Eden must be lost	O
If after it be won He stands at fault	O
Not knowing at all how this should be he feels	Z
The great bare barrenness o' the outside world	O
He thinks on Time and what it has to say	Z
He thinks on God but God has changed His hand	O
Sitting afar And as the moon draws on	T2
To cover the day king in his eclipse	Z
And thin the last fine sickle of light till all	G
Be gone so fares it with his darkened soul	G
	-
The dark but not Orion sparkling there	K
With his best stars the dark but not yet Eve	A3
And now the wellsprings of sweet natural joy	N2
Lie as the Genie sealed of Solomon	A
Fast prisoned in his heart he hath not learned	O
The spell whereby to loose and set them forth	Z2
And all the glad delights that boyhood loved	O
Smell at Oblivion's poppy and lie still	G
	-
Ah they must sleep The mill can grind no more	K
With water that hath passed Let it run on	T2
For he hath caught a whisper in the night	O
This old inheritance in darkness given	A
The world is widened warmed it is alive	N3
Comes to his beating heart and bids it wake	E3
Opens the door to youth and bids it forth	Z2
Exultant for expansion and release	Z
And bent to satisfy the mighty wish	O3
Comfort and satisfy the mighty wish	O3
Life of his life the soul's immortal child	O
That is to him as Eve	A3
	-
He cannot win	I2
Nor earn nor see nor hear nor comprehend	O
With all the watch tender impetuous	Z
That wastes him this whereof no less he feels	Z
Infinite things but yet the night is full	G
Of air beats and of heart beats for her sake	E3
Eve the aspirer give her what she wants	Z
Or wherefore was he born	L2
	-
O he was born	L2
To wish then turn away to wish again	B
And half forget his wish for earthlier joy	N2
He draws the net to land that brings red gold	O
His dreams among the meshes tangled lie	G
And learning hath him at her feet and love	R
The sea born creature fresh from her sea foam	X2
Touches the ruddiest veins in his young heart	O
Makes it to sob in him and sigh in him	V
Restless repelled dying alive and keen	W2
Fainting away for the remorseless ALL	G
Gone by gone up or sweetly gone before	K
But never in his arms Then pity comes	Z
Knocks at his breast it may be and comes in	I2
Makes a wide wound that haply will not heal	G
But bleeds for poverty and crime and pain	J2
Till for the dear kin's sake he grandly dares	Z
Or wastes him with a wise improvidence	Z
But who can stir the weighty world or who	O
Can drink a sea of tears	Z
	-
O love and life	W
O world and can it be that this is all	G
Leave him to tread expectance underfoot	O
Let him alone to tame down his great hope	P3
Before it breaks his heart Give me my share	K
That I foresaw my place my draught of life	W
This that I bear what is it me no less	Z
It binds I cannot disenslave my soul	G
	-
There is but halting for the wearied foot	O
The better way is hidden faith hath failed	O
One stronger far than reason mastered her	K
It is not reason makes faith hard but life	W
The husks of his dead creed downtrod and dry	G
Are powerless now as some dishonoured spell	G
Some aged Pythia in her priestly clothes	Z
Some widow'd witch divining by the dead	O
Or if he keep one shrine undesecrate	O
And go to it from time to time with tears	Z
What lies there A dead Christ enswathed and cold	O
A Christ that did not rise The linen cloth	Q3
Is wrapped about His head He lies embalmed	O
With myrrh and spices in His sepulchre	G
The love of God that daily dies to them	C2
That trust it the One Life the all that lives	Z
	-
O mother Eve who wert beguiled of old	O
Thy blood is in thy children thou art yet	O
Their fate and copy with thy milk they drew	G
The immortal want of morning but thy day	O
Dawned and was over and thy children know	K
Contentment never nor continuance long	U2
For even thus it is with them the day	O
Waxeth to wane anon and a long night	O
Leaves the dark heart unsatisfied with stars	Z
	-
A soul in want and restless and bereft	O
To whom all life hath lied shall it too lie	G
Saying I yield Thee thanks most mighty God	O
Thou hast been pleased to make me thus and thus	Z
I do submit me to Thy sovereign will	G
That I full oft should hunger and not have	R3
And vainly yearn after the perfect good	O
Gladness and peace	Z
	-
No rather dare think thus	Z
Ere chaos first had being earth or time	O2
My Likeness was apparent in high heaven	A
Divine and manlike and his dwelling place	Z
Was the bosom of the Father By His hands	Z
Were the worlds made and filled with diverse growths	Z
And ordered lives Then afterward they said	O
Taking strange counsel as if he who worked	O
Hitherto should not henceforth work alone	D3
'Let us make man ' and God did look upon	T2
That Divine Word which was the form of God	O
And it became a thought before the event	O
There they foresaw my face foreheard my speech	C3
God like God loved God loving God derived	O
	-
And I was in a garden and I fell	G
Through envy of God's evil son but Love	R
Would not be robbed of me for ever Love	R
For my sake passed into humanity	O
And there for my first Father won me home	X2
How should I rest then I have NOT gone home	X2
I feed on husks and they given grudgingly	O
While my great Father Father O my God	O
What shall I do	G
	-
Ay I will dare think thus	Z
I cannot rest because He doth not rest	O
In whom I have my being THIS is GOD	O
My soul is conscious of His wondrous wish	O3
And my heart's hunger doth but answer His	Z
Whose thought has met with mine	B2
	-
I have not all	G
He moves me thus to take of Him what lacks	Z
My want is God's desire to give He yearns	Z
To add Himself to life and so for aye	G
Make it enough	M2
A thought by night a wish	O3
After the morning and behold it dawns	Z
Pathetic in a still solemnity	O
And mighty words are said for him once more	G
Let there be light Great heaven and earth have heard	O
And God comes down to him and Christ doth rise	Z

Jean Ingelow

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