Songs Of The Night Watches, - The Middle Watch. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDEEFFDGHGHIHJIKF FFLLJJJLJAJJAIIA A JFJJFJJJJMJN OOPPJJQQJ A RBBRSSTJTTJ UVUVW UXVX| I | A |
| - | |
| I woke in the night and the darkness was heavy and deep | B |
| I had known it was dark in my sleep | B |
| And I rose and looked out | C |
| And the fathomless vault was all sparkling set thick round about | C |
| With the ancient inhabiters silent and wheeling too far | D |
| For man's heart like a voyaging frigate to sail where remote | E |
| In the sheen of their glory they float | E |
| Or man's soul like a bird to fly near of their beams to partake | F |
| And dazed in their wake | F |
| Drink day that is born of a star | D |
| I murmured Remoteness and greatness how deep you are set | G |
| How afar in the rim of the whole | H |
| You know nothing of me nor of man nor of earth O nor yet | G |
| Of our light bearer drawing the marvellous moons as they roll | H |
| Of our regent the sun | I |
| I look on you trembling and think in the dark with my soul | H |
| How small is our place 'mid the kingdoms and nations of God | J |
| These are greater than we every one | I |
| And there falls a great fear and a dread cometh over that cries | K |
| O my hope Is there any mistake | F |
| Did He speak Did I hear Did I listen aright if He spake | F |
| Did I answer Him duly For surely I now am awake | F |
| If never I woke until now | L |
| And a light baffling wind that leads nowhither plays on my brow | L |
| As a sleep I must think on my day of my path as untrod | J |
| Or trodden in dreams in a dreamland whose coasts are a doubt | J |
| Whose countries recede from my thoughts as they grope round about | J |
| And vanish and tell me not how | L |
| Be kind to our darkness O Fashioner dwelling in light | J |
| And feeding the lamps of the sky | A |
| Look down upon this one and let it be sweet in Thy sight | J |
| I pray Thee to night | J |
| O watch whom Thou madest to dwell on its soil Thou Most High | A |
| For this is a world full of sorrow there may be but one | I |
| Keep watch o'er its dust else Thy children for aye are undone | I |
| For this is a world where we die | A |
| - | |
| II | A |
| - | |
| With that a still voice in my spirit that moved and that yearned | J |
| There fell a great calm while it spake | F |
| I had heard it erewhile but the noises of life are so loud | J |
| That sometimes it dies in the cry of the street and the crowd | J |
| To the simple it cometh the child or asleep or awake | F |
| And they know not from whence of its nature the wise never learned | J |
| By his wisdom its secret the worker ne'er earned | J |
| By his toil and the rich among men never bought with his gold | J |
| Nor the times of its visiting monarchs controlled | J |
| Nor the jester put down with his jeers | M |
| For it moves where it will nor its season the aged discerned | J |
| By thought in the ripeness of years | N |
| - | |
| O elder than reason and stronger than will | O |
| A voice when the dark world is still | O |
| Whence cometh it Father Immortal thou knowest and we | P |
| We are sure of that witness that sense which is sent us of Thee | P |
| For it moves and it yearns in its fellowship mighty and dread | J |
| And let down to our hearts it is touched by the tears that we shed | J |
| It is more than all meanings and over all strife | Q |
| On its tongue are the laws of our life | Q |
| And it counts up the times of the dead | J |
| - | |
| III | A |
| - | |
| I will fear you O stars never more | R |
| I have felt it Go on while the world is asleep | B |
| Golden islands fast moored in God's infinite deep | B |
| Hark hark to the words of sweet fashion the harpings of yore | R |
| How they sang to Him seer and saint in the far away lands | S |
| The heavens are the work of Thy hands | S |
| They shall perish but Thou shalt endure | T |
| Yea they all shall wax old | J |
| But Thy throne is established O God and Thy years are made sure | T |
| They shall perish but Thou shalt endure | T |
| They shall pass like a tale that is told | J |
| - | |
| Doth He answer the Ancient of Days | U |
| Will He speak in the tongue and the fashion of men | V |
| Hist hist while the heaven hung multitudes shine in His praise | U |
| His language of old Nay He spoke with them first it was then | V |
| They lifted their eyes to His throne | W |
| They shall call on Me 'Thou art our Father our God Thou alone ' | - |
| For I made them I led them in deserts and desolate ways | U |
| I have found them a Ransom Divine | X |
| I have loved them with love everlasting the children of men | V |
| I swear by Myself they are Mine | X |
Jean Ingelow
(1)
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