Questions Of Life Poem Rhyme Scheme

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A bending staff I would not break	A
A feeble faith I would not shake	A
Nor even rashly pluck away	B
The error which some truth may stay	B
Whose loss might leave the soul without	C
A shield against the shafts of doubt	C
	-
And yet at times when over all	D
A darker mystery seems to fall	D
May God forgive the child of dust	E
Who seeks to know where Faith should trust	E
I raise the questions old and dark	F
Of Uzdom's tempted patriarch	F
And speech confounded build again	G
The baffled tower of Shinar's plain	H
	-
I am how little more I know	I
Whence came I Whither do I go	I
A centred self which feels and is	J
A cry between the silences	J
A shadow birth of clouds at strife	K
With sunshine on the hills of life	K
A shaft from Nature's quiver cast	L
Into the Future from the Past	L
Between the cradle and the shroud	M
A meteor's flight from cloud to cloud	M
	-
Thorough the vastness arching all	D
I see the great stars rise and fall	D
The rounding seasons come and go	I
The tided oceans ebb and flow	I
The tokens of a central force	N
Whose circles in their widening course	N
O'erlap and move the universe	O
The workings of the law whence springs	P
The rhythmic harmony of things	P
Which shapes in earth the darkling spar	Q
And orbs in heaven the morning star	Q
Of all I see in earth and sky	R
Star flower beast bird what part have I	R
This conscious life is it the same	S
Which thrills the universal frame	S
Whereby the caverned crystal shoots	T
And mounts the sap from forest roots	T
Whereby the exiled wood bird tells	U
When Spring makes green her native dells	U
How feels the stone the pang of birth	V
Which brings its sparkling prism forth	W
The forest tree the throb which gives	U
The life blood to its new born leaves	U
Do bird and blossom feel like me	X
Life's many folded mystery	X
The wonder which it is to be	X
Or stand I severed and distinct	Y
From Nature's 'chain of life' unlinked	Y
Allied to all yet not the less	U
Prisoned in separate consciousness	U
Alone o'erburdened with a sense	U
Of life and cause and consequence	U
	-
In vain to me the Sphinx propounds	U
The riddle of her sights and sounds	U
Back still the vaulted mystery gives	U
The echoed question it receives	U
What sings the brook What oracle	Z
Is in the pine tree's organ swell	A2
What may the wind's low burden be	X
The meaning of the moaning sea	X
The hieroglyphics of the stars	U
Or clouded sunset's crimson bars	U
I vainly ask for mocks my skill	B2
The trick of Nature's cipher still	B2
	-
I turn from Nature unto men	G
I ask the stylus and the pen	G
What sang the bards of old What meant	Y
The prophets of the Orient	Y
The rolls of buried Egypt hid	Y
In painted tomb and pyramid	Y
What mean Idumea's arrowy lines	U
Or dusk Elora's monstrous signs	U
How speaks the primal thought of man	C2
From the grim carvings of Copan	C2
	-
Where rests the secret Where the keys	U
Of the old death bolted mysteries	U
Alas the dead retain their trust	Y
Dust hath no answer from the dust	Y
	-
The great enigma still unguessed	Y
Unanswered the eternal quest	Y
I gather up the scattered rays	U
Of wisdom in the early days	U
Faint gleams and broken like the light	Y
Of meteors in a northern night	Y
Betraying to the darkling earth	V
The unseen sun which gave them birth	V
I listen to the sibyl's chant	Y
The voice of priest and hierophant	Y
I know what Indian Kreeshna saith	V
And what of life and what of death	V
The demon taught to Socrates	U
And what beneath his garden trees	U
Slow pacing with a dream like tread	Y
The solemn thoughted Plato said	Y
Nor lack I tokens great or small	D
Of God's clear light in each and all	D
While holding with more dear regard	Y
The scroll of Hebrew seer and bard	Y
The starry pages promise lit	Y
With Christ's Evangel over writ	Y
Thy miracle of life and death	V
O Holy One of Nazareth	V
	-
On Aztec ruins gray and lone	C2
The circling serpent coils in stone	C2
Type of the endless and unknown	C2
Whereof we seek the clue to find	Y
With groping fingers of the blind	Y
Forever sought and never found	Y
We trace that serpent symbol round	Y
Our resting place our starting bound	Y
Oh thriftlessness of dream and guess	U
Oh wisdom which is foolishness	U
Why idly seek from outward things	U
The answer inward silence brings	U
Why stretch beyond our proper sphere	D2
And age for that which lies so near	D2
Why climb the far off hills with pain	C2
A nearer view of heaven to gain	C2
In lowliest depths of bosky dells	U
The hermit Contemplation dwells	U
A fountain's pine hung slope his seat	Y
And lotus twined his silent feet	Y
Whence piercing heaven with screened sight	Y
He sees at noon the stars whose light	Y
Shall glorify the coining night	Y
	-
Here let me pause my quest forego	I
Enough for me to feel and know	I
That He in whom the cause and end	Y
The past and future meet and blend	Y
Who girt with his Immensities	U
Our vast and star hung system sees	U
Small as the clustered Pleiades	U
Moves not alone the heavenly quires	U
But waves the spring time's grassy spires	U
Guards not archangel feet alone	C2
But deigns to guide and keep my own	C2
Speaks not alone the words of fate	Y
Which worlds destroy and worlds create	Y
But whispers in my spirit's ear	E2
In tones of love or warning fear	D2
A language none beside may hear	E2
	-
To Him from wanderings long and wild	Y
I come an over wearied child	Y
In cool and shade His peace to find	Y
Lice dew fall settling on my mind	Y
Assured that all I know is best	Y
And humbly trusting for the rest	Y
I turn from Fancy's cloud built scheme	F2
Dark creed and mournful eastern dream	F2
Of power impersonal and cold	Y
Controlling all itself controlled	Y
Maker and slave of iron laws	U
Alike the subject and the cause	U
From vain philosophies that try	R
The sevenfold gates of mystery	X
And baffled ever babble still	B2
Word prodigal of fate and will	B2
From Nature and her mockery Art	Y
And book and speech of men apart	Y
To the still witness in my heart	Y
With reverence waiting to behold	Y
His Avatar of love untold	Y
The Eternal Beauty new and old	Y

John Greenleaf Whittier

Questions Of Life Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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