The Carver In Stone Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFDGHIDJDKLMDKDD DDDDLDDBDDDDDGLNMOPG DQRSDDTUDKVWKXDDYZDY GK A2B2MDK KB2C2MD2E2DDGF2DGG2M K KKEKH2DI2J2DK2DDL2SD KM2N2KMDKO2P2Q2B2N2D KR2S2KT2KD KDG2WIDU2DYDV2T2KLKD W2D CDDKX2DDKKY2DY2DK KDKZ2DA3YB3DO2A2DMZD OKC3O2KDKED KKC2DDMD2C2KDDO2C2KD KKD3DDKDGE3O2MDDKKMD KGDKDF3O2D2LF3KEKDF3 MG3H3 KTDB2KMDDDGMDF3DLKI3 D3J3K3L3DKM3O2DN3O3D DC2DQC2KKKKDDDDG2 C2LDI3KO2U2DDKBPDRO2 DKDMDD EDLP3DKCKDKC3KKC2Q3D KR3MDDZS3

He was a man with wide and patient eyes	A
Grey like the drift of twitch fires blown in June	B
That without fearing searched if any wrong	C
Might threaten from your heart Grey eyes he had	D
Under a brow was drawn because he knew	E
So many seasons to so many pass	F
Of upright service loyal unabased	D
Before the world seducing and so barren	G
Of good words praising and thought that mated his	H
He carved in stone Out of his quiet life	I
He watched as any faithful seaman charged	D
With tidings of the myriad faring sea	J
And thoughts and premonitions through his mind	D
Sailing as ships from strange and storied lands	K
His hungry spirit held till all they were	L
Found living witness in the chiselled stone	M
Slowly out of the dark confusion spread	D
By life's innumerable venturings	K
Over his brain he would triumph into the light	D
Of one clear mood unblemished of the blind	D
Legions of errant thought that cried about	D
His rapt seclusion as a pearl unsoiled	D
Nay rather washed to lonelier chastity	D
In gritty mud And then would come a bird	D
A flower or the wind moving upon a flower	L
A beast at pasture or a clustered fruit	D
A peasant face as were the saints of old	D
The leer of custom or the bow of the moon	B
Swung in miraculous poise some stray from the world	D
Of things created by the eternal mind	D
In joy articulate And his perfect mood	D
Would dwell about the token of God's mood	D
Until in bird or flower or moving wind	D
Or flock or shepherd or the troops of heaven	G
It sprang in one fierce moment of desire	L
To visible form	N
Then would his chisel work among the stone	M
Persuading it of petal or of limb	O
Or starry curve till risen anew there sang	P
Shape out of chaos and again the vision	G
Of one mind single from the world was pressed	D
Upon the daily custom of the sky	Q
Or field or the body of man	R
His people	S
Had many gods for worship The tiger god	D
The owl the dewlapped bull the running pard	D
The camel and the lizard of the slime	T
The ram with quivering fleece and fluted horn	U
The crested eagle and the doming bat	D
Were sacred And the king and his high priests	K
Decreed a temple wide on columns huge	V
Should top the cornlands to the sky's far line	W
They bade the carvers carve along the walls	K
Images of their gods each one to carve	X
As he desired his choice to name his god	D
And many came and he among them glad	D
Of three leagues' travel through the singing air	Y
Of dawn among the boughs yet bare of green	Z
The eager flight of the spring leading his blood	D
Into swift lofty channels of the air	Y
Proud as an eagle riding to the sun	G
An eagle clean of pinion there's his choice	K
	-
Daylong they worked under the growing roof	A2
One at his leopard one the staring ram	B2
And he winning his eagle from the stone	M
Until each man had carved one image out	D
Arow beyond the portal of the house	K
	-
They stood arow the company of gods	K
Camel and bat lizard and bull and ram	B2
The pard and owl dead figures on the wall	C2
Figures of habit driven on the stone	M
By chisels governed by no heat of the brain	D2
But drudges of hands that moved by easy rule	E2
Proudly recorded mood was none no thought	D
Plucked from the dark battalions of the mind	D
And throned in everlasting sight But one	G
God of them all was witness of belief	F2
And large adventure dared His eagle spread	D
Wide pinions on a cloudless ground of heaven	G
Glad with the heart's high courage of that dawn	G2
Moving upon the ploughlands newly sown	M
Dead stone the rest He looked and knew it so	K
	-
Then came the king with priests and counsellors	K
And many chosen of the people wise	K
With words weary of custom and eyes askew	E
That watched their neighbour face for any news	K
Of the best way of judgment till each sure	H2
None would determine with authority	D
All spoke in prudent praise One liked the owl	I2
Because an owl blinked on the beam of his barn	J2
One hoarse with crying gospels in the street	D
Praised most the ram because the common folk	K2
Wore breeches made of ram's wool One declared	D
The tiger pleased him best the man who carved	D
The tiger god was halt out of the womb	L2
A man to praise being so pitiful	S
And one whose eyes dwelt in a distant void	D
With spell and omen pat upon his lips	K
And a purse for any crystal prophet ripe	M2
A zealot of the mist gazed at the bull	N2
A lean ill shapen bull of meagre lines	K
That scarce the steel had graved upon the stone	M
Saying that here was very mystery	D
And truth did men but know And one there was	K
Who praised his eagle but remembering	O2
The lither pinion of the swift the curve	P2
That liked him better of the mirrored swan	Q2
And they who carved the tiger god and ram	B2
The camel and the pard the owl and bull	N2
And lizard listened greedily and made	D
Humble denial of their worthiness	K
And when the king his royal judgment gave	R2
That all had fashioned well and bade that each	S2
Re shape his chosen god along the walls	K
Till all the temple boasted of their skill	T2
They bowed themselves in token that as this	K
Never had carvers been so fortunate	D
	-
Only the man with wide and patient eyes	K
Made no denial neither bowed his head	D
Already while they spoke his thoughts had gone	G2
Far from his eagle leaving it for a sign	W
Loyally wrought of one deep breath of life	I
And played about the image of a toad	D
That crawled among his ivy leaves A queer	U2
Puff bellied toad with eyes that always stared	D
Sidelong at heaven and saw no heaven there	Y
Weak hammed and with a throttle somehow twisted	D
Beyond full wholesome draughts of air and skin	V2
Of wrinkled lips the only zest or will	T2
The little flashing tongue searching the leaves	K
And king and priest chosen and counsellor	L
Babbling out of their thin and jealous brains	K
Seemed strangely one a queer enormous toad	D
Panting under giant leaves of dark	W2
Sunk in the loins peering into the day	D
	-
Their judgment wry he counted not for wrong	C
More than the fabled poison of the toad	D
Striking at simple wits how should their thought	D
Or word in praise or blame come near the peace	K
That shone in seasonable hours above	X2
The patience of his spirit's husbandry	D
They foolish and not seeing how should he	D
Spend anger there or fear great ceremonies	K
Equal for none save great antagonists	K
The grave indifference of his heart before them	Y2
Was moved by laughter innocent of hate	D
Chastising clean of spite that moulded them	Y2
Into the antic likeness of his toad	D
Bidding for laughter underneath the leaves	K
	-
He bowed not nor disputed but he saw	K
Those ill created joyless gods and loathed	D
And saw them creeping creeping round the walls	K
Death breeding death wile witnessing to wile	Z2
And sickened at the dull iniquity	D
Should be rewarded and for ever breathe	A3
Contagion on the folk gathered in prayer	Y
His truth should not be doomed to march among	B3
This falsehood to the ages He was called	D
And he must labour there if so the king	O2
Would grant it where the pillars bore the roof	A2
A galleried way of meditation nursed	D
Secluded time with wall of ready stone	M
In panels for the carver set between	Z
The windows there his chisel should be set	D
It was his plea And the king spoke of him	O
Scorning as one lack fettle among all these	K
Eager to take the riches of renown	C3
One fearful of the light or knowing nothing	O2
Of light's dimension a witling who would throw	K
Honour aside and praise spoken aloud	D
All men of heart should covet Let him go	K
Grubbing out of the sight of those who knew	E
The worth of substance there was his proper trade	D
	-
A squat and curious toad indeed The eyes	K
Patient and grey were dumb as were the lips	K
That fixed and governed hoarded from them all	C2
The larger laughter lifting in his heart	D
Straightway about his gallery he moved	D
Measured the windows and the virgin stone	M
Till all was weighed and patterned in his brain	D2
Then first where most the shadows struck the wall	C2
Under the sills and centre of the base	K
From floor to sill out of the stone was wooed	D
Memorial folly as from the chisel leapt	D
His chastening laughter searching priest and king	O2
Huge and wrinkled toad with legs asplay	C2
And belly loaded leering with great eyes	K
Busily fixed upon the void	D
	-
All days	K
His chisel was the first to ring across	K
The temple's quiet and at fall of dusk	D3
Passing among the carvers homeward they	D
Would speak of him as mad or weak against	D
The challenge of the world and let him go	K
Lonely as was his will under the night	D
Of stars or cloud or summer's folded sun	G
Through crop and wood and pasture land to sleep	E3
None took the narrow stair as wondering	O2
How did his chisel prosper in the stone	M
Unvisited his labour and forgot	D
And times when he would lean out of his height	D
And watch the gods growing along the walls	K
The row of carvers in their linen coats	K
Took in his vision a virtue that alone	M
Carving they had not nor the thing they carved	D
Knowing the health that flowed about his close	K
Imagining the daily quiet won	G
From process of his clean and supple craft	D
Those carvers there far on the floor below	K
Would haply be transfigured in his thought	D
Into a gallant company of men	F3
Glad of the strict and loyal reckoning	O2
That proved in the just presence of the brain	D2
Each chisel stroke How surely would he prosper	L
In pleasant talk at easy hours with men	F3
So fashioned if it might be and his eyes	K
Would pass again to those dead gods that grew	E
In spreading evil round the temple walls	K
And one dead pressure made the carvers moved	D
Along the wall to mould and mould again	F3
The self same god their chisels on the stone	M
Tapping in dull precision as before	G3
And he would turn back to his lonely truth	H3
	-
He carved apace And first his people's gods	K
About the toad out of their sterile time	T
Under his hand thrilled and were recreate	D
The bull the pard the camel and the ram	B2
Tiger and owl and bat all were the signs	K
Visibly made body on the stone	M
Of sightless thought adventuring the host	D
That is mere spirit these the bloom achieved	D
By secret labour in the flowing wood	D
Of rain and air and wind and continent sun	G
His tiger lithe immobile in the stone	M
A swift destruction for a moment leashed	D
Sprang crying from the jealous stealth of men	F3
Opposed in cunning watch with engines hid	D
Of torment and calamitous desire	L
His leopard swift on lean and paltry limbs	K
Was fear in flight before accusing faith	I3
His bull with eyes that often in the dusk	D3
Would lift from the sweet meadow grass to watch	J3
Him homeward passing bore on massy beam	K3
The burden of the patient of the earth	L3
His camel bore the burden of the damned	D
Being gaunt with eyes aslant along the nose	K
He had a friend who hammered bronze and iron	M3
And cupped the moonstone on a silver ring	O2
One constant like himself would come at night	D
Or bid him as a guest when they would make	N3
Their poets touch a starrier height or search	O3
Together with unparsimonious mind	D
The crowded harbours of mortality	D
And there were jests wholesome as harvest ale	C2
Of homely habit bred of hearts that dared	D
Judgment of laughter under the eternal eye	Q
This frolic wisdom was his carven owl	C2
His ram was lordship on the lonely hills	K
Alert and fleet content only to know	K
The wind mightily pouring on his fleece	K
With yesterday and all unrisen suns	K
Poorer than disinherited ghosts His bat	D
Was ancient envy made a mockery	D
Cowering below the newer eagle carved	D
Above the arches with wide pinion spread	D
His faith's dominion of that happy dawn	G2
	-
And so he wrought the gods upon the wall	C2
Living and crying out of his desire	L
Out of his patient incorruptible thought	D
Wrought them in joy was wages to his faith	I3
And other than the gods he made The stalks	K
Of bluebells heavy with the news of spring	O2
The vine loaded with plenty of the year	U2
And swallows merely tenderness of thought	D
Bidding the stone to small and fragile flight	D
Leaves the thin relics of autumnal boughs	K
Or massed in June	B
All from their native pressure bloomed and sprang	P
Under his shaping hand into a proud	D
And governed image of the central man	R
Their moulding charts of all his travelling	O2
And all were deftly ordered duly set	D
Between the windows underneath the sills	K
And roofward as a motion rightly planned	D
Till on the wall out of the sullen stone	M
A glory blazed his vision manifest	D
His wonder captive And he was content	D
	-
And when the builders and the carvers knew	E
Their labours done and high the temple stood	D
Over the cornlands king and counsellor	L
And priest and chosen of the people came	P3
Among a ceremonial multitude	D
To dedication And below the thrones	K
Where king and archpriest ruled above the throng	C
Highest among the ranked artificers	K
The carvers stood And when the temple vowed	D
To holy use tribute and choral praise	K
Given as was ordained the king looked down	C3
Upon the gathered folk and bade them see	K
The comely gods fashioned about the walls	K
And keep in honour men whose precious skill	C2
Could so adorn the sessions of their worship	Q3
Gravely the carvers bowed them to the ground	D
Only the man with wide and patient eyes	K
Stood not among them nor did any come	R3
To count his labour where he watched alone	M
Above the coloured throng He heard and looked	D
Again upon his work and knew it good	D
Smiled on his toad passed down the stair unseen	Z
And sang across the teeming meadows home	S3

John Drinkwater

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