Ezekiel Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEE FFGGHIJJKK LMNNOOPPQQ RRSSTTUVLL WWQQXXYZA2A2 B2B2C2WUULLD2D2 LLE2ZF2F2HIG2 G2LLG2G2G2G2G2G2H2H2 G2G2I2J2ZZK2K2G2G2 LLL2M2LLLLG2G2 N2O2LLP2P2HILL LLQ2Q2R2S2LLAAThey hear Thee not O God nor see | A |
Beneath Thy rod they mock at Thee | A |
The princes of our ancient line | B |
Lie drunken with Assyrian wine | B |
The priests around Thy altar speak | C |
The false words which their hearers seek | C |
And hymns which Chaldea's wanton maids | D |
Have sung in Dura's idol shades | D |
Are with the Levites' chant ascending | E |
With Zion's holiest anthems blending | E |
- | |
On Israel's bleeding bosom set | F |
The heathen heel is crushing yet | F |
The towers upon our holy hill | G |
Echo Chaldean footsteps still | G |
Our wasted shrines who weeps for them | H |
Who mourneth for Jerusalem | I |
Who turneth from his gains away | J |
Whose knee with mine is bowed to pray | J |
Who leaving feast and purpling cup | K |
Takes Zion's lamentation up | K |
- | |
A sad and thoughtful youth I went | L |
With Israel's early banishment | M |
And where the sullen Chebar crept | N |
The ritual of my fathers kept | N |
The water for the trench I drew | O |
The firstling of the flock I slew | O |
And standing at the altar's side | P |
I shared the Levites' lingering pride | P |
That still amidst her mocking foes | Q |
The smoke of Zion's offering rose | Q |
- | |
In sudden whirlwind cloud and flame | R |
The Spirit of the Highest came | R |
Before mine eyes a vision passed | S |
A glory terrible and vast | S |
With dreadful eyes of living things | T |
And sounding sweep of angel wings | T |
With circling light and sapphire throne | U |
And flame like form of One thereon | V |
And voice of that dread Likeness sent | L |
Down from the crystal firmament | L |
- | |
The burden of a prophet's power | W |
Fell on me in that fearful hour | W |
From off unutterable woes | Q |
The curtain of the future rose | Q |
I saw far down the coming time | X |
The fiery chastisement of crime | X |
With noise of mingling hosts and jar | Y |
Of falling towers and shouts of war | Z |
I saw the nations rise and fall | A2 |
Like fire gleams on my tent's white wall | A2 |
- | |
In dream and trance I saw the slain | B2 |
Of Egypt heaped like harvest grain | B2 |
I saw the walls of sea born Tyre | C2 |
Swept over by the spoiler's fire | W |
And heard the low expiring moan | U |
Of Edom on his rocky throne | U |
And woe is me the wild lament | L |
From Zion's desolation sent | L |
And felt within my heart each blow | D2 |
Which laid her holy places low | D2 |
- | |
In bonds and sorrow day by day | L |
Before the pictured tile I lay | L |
And there as in a mirror saw | E2 |
The coming of Assyria's war | Z |
Her swarthy lines of spearmen pass | F2 |
Like locusts through Bethhoron's grass | F2 |
I saw them draw their stormy hem | H |
Of battle round Jerusalem | I |
And listening heard the Hebrew wail | G2 |
- | |
Blend with the victor trump of Baal | G2 |
Who trembled at my warning word | L |
Who owned the prophet of the Lord | L |
How mocked the rude how scoffed the vile | G2 |
How stung the Levites' scornful smile | G2 |
As o'er my spirit dark and slow | G2 |
The shadow crept of Israel's woe | G2 |
As if the angel's mournful roll | G2 |
Had left its record on my soul | G2 |
And traced in lines of darkness there | H2 |
The picture of its great despair | H2 |
- | |
Yet ever at the hour I feel | G2 |
My lips in prophecy unseal | G2 |
Prince priest and Levite gather near | I2 |
And Salem's daughters haste to hear | J2 |
On Chebar's waste and alien shore | Z |
The harp of Judah swept once more | Z |
They listen as in Babel's throng | K2 |
The Chaldeans to the dancer's song | K2 |
Or wild sabbeka's nightly play | G2 |
As careless and as vain as they | G2 |
- | |
- | |
- | |
And thus O Prophet bard of old | L |
Hast thou thy tale of sorrow told | L |
The same which earth's unwelcome seers | L2 |
Have felt in all succeeding years | M2 |
Sport of the changeful multitude | L |
Nor calmly heard nor understood | L |
Their song has seemed a trick of art | L |
Their warnings but the actor's part | L |
With bonds and scorn and evil will | G2 |
The world requites its prophets still | G2 |
- | |
So was it when the Holy One | N2 |
The garments of the flesh put on | O2 |
Men followed where the Highest led | L |
For common gifts of daily bread | L |
And gross of ear of vision dim | P2 |
Owned not the Godlike power of Him | P2 |
Vain as a dreamer's words to them | H |
His wail above Jerusalem | I |
And meaningless the watch He kept | L |
Through which His weak disciples slept | L |
- | |
Yet shrink not thou whoe'er thou art | L |
For God's great purpose set apart | L |
Before whose far discerning eyes | Q2 |
The Future as the Present lies | Q2 |
Beyond a narrow bounded age | R2 |
Stretches thy prophet heritage | S2 |
Through Heaven's vast spaces angel trod | L |
And through the eternal years of God | L |
Thy audience worlds all things to be | A |
The witness of the Truth in thee | A |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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