David And Jonathan Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLKMJ NKONPNNQNRSTNPUVWXYZ TA2B2C2JPDJD2SNE2NF2 PXG2XH2KI2TNJ2 K2L2XJF2H2M2N2NO2KP2 N2Q2N F2SR2NF2S2T2U2A2V2W2 U2ZQNPX2NY2Z2A3ZM2NB 3C3UD3E3C2F3G3KB2XH3 H2NHNNI3M2NNNJ3K3L3 NHNKNNPM3SI3N2NN3K3O 3U2P3D2SN2NF2Q3NR3 S3X NT3PNU2U3V3JJXA2TJI3 KN2M2H2W3X3X3NO3Q3Y3 Z3I2B2A4B4 C4NH2O2X2Z3D4E4NT2F4 G4J2NNNN NF2ANNL3BH4I2KNPNNNL 3NNNI4NG2G3D4NNH4J4B 3NPL3M2I2V3B3NWNH2K4 PV3NL4 P3BM4KNB3F2JN4O4B3NV 3F2S2NP4NF2Q4R4KA4S4 Q3V3XJ2C4T4S3NL3S4NN HD4KN3NU4F2S3NF2PP2M 2V4NJNW4BB2I4KX4JKRJ 2Y4P3N2KJZ4KNF2NNTNN NE4NNNB2ND3NF3F2BB2N NNC4NHTNF2BNNI2NNO2T NJNF2NE2NWNS3L3F2F2F 2NNASO2F2N A2F2QB2O3F2C4F2HNF2

And Jonathan too had honour in his heart	A
Jonathan who with an armour bearer went	B
Alone by Michmash to the Philistines	C
And met a spray of swords because of courage	D
That made him single greater than a host	E
Jonathan too had known his battles dared	F
At any hour the coming of death because	G
In twilight silence he had walked with God	H
Read Him in blossoms and the mountain brooks	I
And learnt that death well known can alter nothing	J
He was a brown man burnt with love of summer	K
His young beard curled and russet as the eyes	L
That looked on life and feared it yet were master	K
Because they knew the tyranny they feared	M
Measured it learnt it gazed it into nothing	J
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And now he watched the boy the son of Jesse	N
David with hair like maples in October	K
And skin that women loving coveted	O
David with eyes that often by the sheepfolds	N
Had looked through leaves up to the folds of heaven	P
And seeing them crammed with golden fleece of stars	N
Had known how the blood can run because of beauty	N
Jonathan watched him take the armour off	Q
Given by Saul and choose the bright smooth pebbles	N
And walk out from the Israelitish throng	R
Into the field against the Philistine giant	S
Watching he snatched his sword and cried to Saul	T
Bid him come back This murder must not be	N
And as he spoke he knew the words were treason	P
His heart alone in all the world was sure	U
That David was the Lord's appointed arm	V
To meet this bulk of dirt this giant fear	W
Brandishing out of the loathly camps of evil	X
And before Saul could answer he put down	Y
The sword and said I love him Let him go	Z
	-
	-
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But the words I love him were not for his father Saul	T
Hardly Jonathan knowing he spake them out	A2
But as he looked on David love was there	B2
Waking from that in David that he himself	C2
A little was and always greatly shaping	J
Himself towards so that his name was spoken	P
Famously in Saul's kingdom It was courage	D
The clean heart undivided in its doing	J
The purpose that being bodied in the brain	D2
Thenceforth knew every trickling argument	S
That fell from tongues of persuading circumstance	N
As lures of evil ever threatening life	E2
That Jonathan loved above all enterprise	N
He knew or the rarer man within him knew	F2
That once your yea in holy meditation	P
Had shaped itself in the perfect syllable	X
Thenceforth no nay from any other tongue	G2
Or wise or passionate or masterful	X
Could be listened to without the shame of sin	H2
Corrupting all your constancy for ever	K
He knew the curse of good betraying good	I2
Till both in bleak irresolution fall	T
And all his years was Jonathan's anguish only	N
To keep this tillage of his wisdom clean	J2
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Since boyhood he had known Philistia	K2
For the black thing it was a plague opposed	L2
Always against the loveliness of Israel	X
And when his father Saul was anointed king	J
By Samuel in Ramah then Jonathan knew	F2
How all the lessons of his youth had been	H2
To fit him for the striking of the men	M2
Who profaned beauty and let the soul be blind	N2
And he was diligent in bronze and arms	N
And kept his body supple and his eye	O2
Keen and the coming of his hooves was thunder	K
Wherever battle fell He bore a flame	P2
Zealous and pure in the heavens of his mind	N2
To serve and to instruct Aye to instruct	Q2
There was the biting blemish as we shall see	N
	-
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Philistia was foul and Jonathan knew	F2
And the voice of God within him was plain and constant	S
To strike and strike unwearying to the end	R2
And then the poor precise infirmity	N
That loads good minds with ever seeming virtue	F2
Until they cast their treasure to the dust	S2
Crept on him wound about the gleaming truth	T2
That was his one foundation Day by day	U2
He was resolved and then the grain of doubt	A2
Would come to hurt the riding of his thought	V2
And break the level balance that it had	W2
Was then the Philistine mere black That day	U2
Jonathan's arm half paused upon the blow	Z
And evil went a little scatheless off	Q
Surely the worst even of adversaries	N
Had somewhere beams that pointed to salvation	P
And hasty judgment might not be the will	X2
Of an all seeing Lord Then would the vengeance	N
Falter and stay and Jonathan's battle failed	Y2
And always then was bitterness and reproach	Z2
In the night watches when upon his couch	A3
He looked on the stars studding his little window	Z
Before sleep came Then he would speak again	M2
The word that single was his valiance	N
His only truth his warrant as a man	B3
And once again Philistia was doomed	C3
Then for a season clean the stroke and sure	U
That Jonathan drove and black was known for black	D3
Till slowly as before would mount and mount	E3
Scruple on scruple as was not he himself	C2
A little black sometimes or plainly wicked	F3
And should the wicked man not be redeemed	G3
Merely destruction surely was no answer	K
Since yet the wickedness must wander somewhere	B2
How should he say I Jonathan of Israel	X
Am good and you the Philistine are cursed	H3
Since in that face was something that had been	H2
Learnt from the buds and corn and frozen hills	N
That he himself had known for seals of God	H
And would not his power on Israel increase	N
Take on a loftier authority	N
If to his famous arms he could add a tale	I3
Of counsel working in the hearts of men	M2
Moving them to a finer charity	N
A little pity for offence And so	N
Instruction like a worm was at his roots	N
And pride of virtue made Jonathan forget	J3
Then sometimes as he knew himself betrayed	K3
He would cry upon his spirit in the night	L3
	-
I Jonathan who know	N
The processes of God	H
Moving within me	N
Turn aside to my idols of desire	K
He has taught me the ways	N
Of Philistine cruelty He	N
Shows me the bad man toiling to the ruin	P
Of beauty and the free spirit on earth	M3
And has equipped me for the establishment	S
Of His will in this battle and I fail	I3
I am a leaf spinning about the wind	N2
Who have been shown the ways of stedfastness	N
O Israel I have heard	N3
My dedication made	K3
To your sweet service by the voice of Him	O3
And I betray	U2
That wisdom that great simpleness of wisdom	P3
Inventing in my brain	D2
Fantastic argument	S
As though God's mind	N2
Had missed the brighter pools	N
That I alone could visit and gaze into	F2
He tells me and I hear	Q3
Voices not His	N
Knowing I question And I am ashamed	R3
	-
So Jonathan saw walking at his side	S3
Always a shadow that was his own denial	X
	-
	-
	-
And now was April mirrored in the plumes	N
Of ravens and the green of the young wheat	T3
And dusky ewes with white lambs in the sun	P
Lay in the valley plain between the hosts	N
Of Israel and Philistia And on this day	U2
Jonathan learnt utter reproach and love	U3
There on the plain Goliath stood alone	V3
Poised in his mighty bulk with black locks flowing	J
A handsbreadth taller even than Saul the king	J
Who shouldered it above the men of Israel	X
And beat his words of sure defiance out	A2
Ringing across the windless noon And all	T
Israel heard and fear was on them knowing	J
If thus the issue how it should prevail	I3
And Jonathan in the tent of Saul his father	K
Watched and his blood was quick and in his mind	N2
He strove against the last of doubt And then	M2
The young man David stood before them bidden	H2
By Saul who heard one say There is a boy	W3
New come from tending sheep in Bethlehem	X3
And seeks the king And David stood before them	X3
And asked no leave but said There was a cause	N
It bade me come and I will fight with him	O3
And Saul denied but David did not hear	Q3
Denial saying the wild beasts of the field	Y3
I with my hand have slain at the fold's gate	Z3
And this is mine to do And David stood	I2
Greater than argument while Saul armed him there	B2
And Jonathan saw the purpose that he was not	A4
Glowing and bodied and his love was born	B4
	-
	-
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Then David flung the armour off and said	C4
I am David and I know not these strange arms	N
I must go out as I have always been	H2
Not girt with new occasion It is I	O2
David the shepherd that am David still	X2
And I know nothing of your spears and plate	Z3
A sheepskin have I worn and in my hand	D4
A sling and pebbles taken from the brook	E4
Now shall I go content that God has watched me	N
So habited and armed through all my youth	T2
Should I pretend another David now	F4
I should meet this man with neither honour nor hope	G4
If I am sent against the Philistine	J2
Out of God's anger and I know it is so	N
It is not one the chosen of Saul's hosts	N
But I David of Bethlehem must go	N
The son of Jesse and keeper of his flocks	N
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	-
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Almost the tears were seen in Jonathan's eyes	N
Because of David's words of which he knew	F2
The poor ghosts hiding somewhere in his own heart	A
And then he spoke his fear and then the words	N
Resting his sword I love him Let him go	N
And David stept out of the emerald light	L3
That played up from the grass floor of the tent	B
Into the full flood of the April noon	H4
And walked a little way and those two stood	I2
Parted a hundred paces the man of terror	K
Hewn massy and with shock of builded limbs	N
And David moulded like a sea boy risen	P
From caves of music where the water spins	N
Wet sand into the shapes of flowing flowers	N
David with limbs all bright with the sun's tones	N
And ruddy locks curling with youth and light	L3
His body all alert on steady loins	N
Clean spun of flesh that knew the winter snows	N
And mellow pools of summer and the dews	N
Dropping among the crocuses of dawn	I4
His sandle straps bound ankles as a girl's	N
And fluttering to his knees the sheepskin hung	G2
Cloaking one shoulder while the other gleamed	G3
And there he paused the sling in his right hand	D4
His left hand fingering the pouch of pebbles	N
While Israel fearing murmured and the hosts	N
Of Philistine derision rocked the noon	H4
Then did Goliath cry Am I a dog	J4
For a boy's whipping Have you not a man	B3
That you would send a cleaner up of crumbs	N
From the queen's table Come then and be broken	P
For birds to find you and the dogs at night	L3
And Jonathan heard Philistia shout again	M2
And David like a flame unwinded stood	I2
Quivering at the cry and laid a stone	V3
In the sling's fold and cast his staff and ran	B3
Fleet as the king bird gliding under leaves	N
Towards Goliath And a giant spear	W
Swung from the Philistine hand and forty paces	N
Sang in the air and brushed the flying sheepskin	H2
And sudden David's feet were planted firm	K4
Locked on the earth and circling in the sun	P
The tight thong flashed and loosened and the stone	V3
Smote the Philistine wrath above the eyes	N
And the day was clouded from him and he fell	L4
	-
	-
	-
Then Israel spared not And when night was come	P3
Jonathan sent for David to his tent	B
And those two sat while the yellow torches burned	M4
And Jonathan spoke and said David my brother	K
To day you have made a story that shall be	N
For ever fruitful in the heart of man	B3
This day is David's But of this day I too	F2
Share not in the honour but in the harvesting	J
Or the harvesting I think is wholly mine	N4
Shall I speak on And David said Speak on	O4
Then Jonathan This morning there was a man	B3
And it was Jonathan who many years	N
Had gone snared in a purpose not his own	V3
That is not truly mine Always I knew	F2
Walking by that self I said was honest	S2
Another self the true self in a shadow	N
Or at an angle that my eyes refused	P4
I was a proud man David very virtuous	N
Or in fairness to myself desiring virtue	F2
Truly desiring it I may say that	Q4
And yet even in that desire there moved	R4
A lie for I knew the virtue of my desire	K
Was something tainted No I knew it not	A4
But that other self walking beside me knew it	S4
And whispered I knew a thing that I would not hear	Q3
Always it whispered as I stood alone	V3
I said in subtle thought among all Israel	X
God had spoken to me David that the Philistine	J2
Was evil evil that was all God said	C4
And bade me strike as a man by God assured	T4
But the man to whom God spoke I put aside	S3
The still self walking whispering in the shadow	N
And I the Jonathan of daily light	L3
Tempered the word of God I tempered it	S4
I who should be God's outcast doing so	N
I counted evil twenty different ways	N
And none of them plain evil I diced with God	H
And the dice fell as often to my hand	D4
It seemed as His but falling so the whisper	K
Was ever shadowed at my ear unheard	N3
And ever as this new intelligence	N
This pride of thought crept over me and filled	U4
My dawn and noon and sleep a hunger grew	F2
A dreadful hunger for that self denied	S3
And every word I spoke for righteousness	N
Turned bitter on my lips because I knew	F2
That every word was righteousness undone	P
Such was the man this morning when you came	P2
Who from the king's tent watched you David Then	M2
Change and completion and I know not what	V4
Of heavenly fulfilment fell upon me	N
Not from myself nor of my own devising	J
But marvellously spoken in a space	N
Of golden light that glowed about the form	W4
Of a boy standing in my father's tent	B
Quite suddenly the thing I lacked was there	B2
The shadow whispering at my side had gone	I4
And stood there bodied in you David brother	K
O dear young shepherd from your sheepfolds called	X4
Nay Jonathan myself it was there standing	J
Or barren branches of myself in flower	K
My jailored thought flooded with light of song	R
And in that moment nothing was between	J2
Your soul and mine and knowing you I loved	Y4
Since love is understanding and must come	P3
When mind looks on the presence of very mind	N2
I loved you David and I love and ever	K
Because my mind even in one day's passing	J
Has learnt you as no years could better learn	Z4
My love is fixed upon you And moreover	K
Since from this hour I must for ever know	N
Some element of me lodged sole in you	F2
Some certainty in you alone to be	N
Among my weeds the patient husbandman	N
I must in your love prosper or not at all	T
Now therefore David let a covenant be	N
Between us from this day for the heart knows	N
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David and Jonathan under the long torches	N
Were silent then And David's eyes were fixed
Long upon Jonathan as eyes may sometimes look	E4
On eyes and see no face looking beyond
Into unimaged life into the brain	N
Moving behind the circumstance of flesh
Eyes that to morrow passing might hardly know	N
The mere face that to night they gaze upon	N
And Jonathan having spoken waited there	B2
While David searched him slowly with still eyes	N
Then David rose and drew the tent fold back	D3
And looked upon the stars of Palestine	N
Long and a mallow moon and Jonathan waited	F3
Then David came again and spoke I too	F2
Standing this morning in your father's tent	B
Knew that a life unwonted was near me there	B2
And now you have spoken and the love you say	N
I know and as your will is so is mine	N
Something I am for you that none can be	N
Let it be so but all is not then said	C4
This morning when I smote the Philistine	N
I was God's purpose that I must believe
But purpose only is not all of God	H
Hearing you now I know it is not all	T
When first I saw you I did not know it then	N
Only facing the Philistine something new	F2
A moment marked me and unnoted went	B
No touch of it upon my will But now	N
I have heard you speak and what it was I know	N
You loved me Jonathan seeing as I stood	I2
That shadowy self of you of which you tell me	N
Suddenly living fearless in the sun	N
That is your reaping of my field and I	O2
Glory to give it you But were that all	T
Proud to be loved I should not love again	N
But now I know for me is too a reaping	J
Your shadow to my living purpose leaps	N
And that is wonderful But as you spoke
Some David hidden from the man that slew	F2
Goliath listened also and is now	N
With us for ever And he that wrought this life	E2
Is you Jonathan of doubts and speculation	N
The man who sits there plainly now the mere	W
Jonathan when the shadow is forgotten	N
Now do I know my purpose magnified	S3
Sure as of old but learning in its flight	L3
Of pity and the sad heart of man from you	F2
And how the jealous and unmerciful	F2
Being stricken down are but poor sorrows too	F2
So Jonathan my brother as you take
So do you give and in us now shall be	N
The perfect whole of purpose and compassion	N
And resolution without pride of heart	A
Now therefore will I make the covenant	S
Knowing that never more can you or I	O2
Without this love be better than a tale	F2
Of corrupting seed and fallow lands unsown	N
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Now Jonathan rose and put the torches out	A2
And a grey beam of dawn was on those two	F2
And Jonathan took his outer garment off	Q
Which was the king's son's and robed David there	B2
And he took the sword that Saul had given him	O3
Belted in gold and cased in figured steel	F2
And it hung on David's loins And Jonathan said	C4
Who fails in this that is the last betrayal	F2
The quenching of the holy spirit of God	H
And David said So be it And they embraced
And kissed And David went into the dawn	N
And Jonathan watched until the day was full	F2

John Drinkwater

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