The Eternal Goodness Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDED FGFG HIJI KAKA LMLM GGGG NONO PQPQ GNGNGRGS QGQG OTOT UVUV WDXD YGZG FA2B2A2 C2D2E2T GF2GF2 G2BG2B A2H2A2H2 I2GI2G| O Friends with whom my feet have trod | A |
| The quiet aisles of prayer | B |
| Glad witness to your zeal for God | A |
| And love of man I bear | B |
| - | |
| I trace your lines of argument | C |
| Your logic linked and strong | D |
| I weigh as one who dreads dissent | E |
| And fears a doubt as wrong | D |
| - | |
| But still my human hands are weak | F |
| To hold your iron creeds | G |
| Against the words ye bid me speak | F |
| My heart within me pleads | G |
| - | |
| Who fathoms the Eternal Thought | H |
| Who talks of scheme and plan | I |
| The Lord is God He needeth not | J |
| The poor device of man | I |
| - | |
| I walk with bare hushed feet the ground | K |
| Ye tread with boldness shod | A |
| I dare not fix with mete and bound | K |
| The love and power of God | A |
| - | |
| Ye praise His justice even such | L |
| His pitying love I deem | M |
| Ye seek a king I fain would touch | L |
| The robe that hath no seam | M |
| - | |
| Ye see the curse which overbroods | G |
| A world of pain and loss | G |
| I hear our Lord's beatitudes | G |
| And prayer upon the cross | G |
| - | |
| More than your schoolmen teach within | N |
| Myself alas I know | O |
| Too dark ye cannot paint the sin | N |
| Too small the merit show | O |
| - | |
| I bow my forehead to the dust | P |
| I veil mine eyes for shame | Q |
| And urge in trembling self distrust | P |
| A prayer without a claim | Q |
| - | |
| I see the wrong that round me lies | G |
| I feel the guilt within | N |
| I hear with groan and travail cries | G |
| The world confess its sin | N |
| Yet in the maddening maze of things | G |
| And tossed by storm and flood | R |
| To one fixed trust my spirit clings | G |
| I know that God is good | S |
| - | |
| Not mine to look where cherubim | Q |
| And seraphs may not see | G |
| But nothing can be good in Him | Q |
| Which evil is in me | G |
| - | |
| The wrong that pains my soul below | O |
| I dare not throne above | T |
| I know not of His hate I know | O |
| His goodness and His love | T |
| - | |
| I dimly guess from blessings known | U |
| Of greater out of sight | V |
| And with the chastened Psalmist own | U |
| His judgments too are right | V |
| - | |
| I long for household voices gone | W |
| For vanished smiles I long | D |
| But God hath led my dear ones on | X |
| And He can do no wrong | D |
| - | |
| I know not what the future hath | Y |
| Of marvel or surprise | G |
| Assured alone that life and death | Z |
| His mercy underlies | G |
| - | |
| And if my heart and flesh are weak | F |
| To bear an untried pain | A2 |
| The bruised reed He will not break | B2 |
| But strengthen and sustain | A2 |
| - | |
| No offering of my own I have | C2 |
| Nor works my faith to prove | D2 |
| I can but give the gifts He gave | E2 |
| And plead His love for love | T |
| - | |
| And so beside the Silent Sea | G |
| I wait the muffled oar | F2 |
| No harm from Him can come to me | G |
| On ocean or on shore | F2 |
| - | |
| I know not where His islands lift | G2 |
| Their fronded palms in air | B |
| I only know I cannot drift | G2 |
| Beyond His love and care | B |
| - | |
| O brothers if my faith is vain | A2 |
| If hopes like these betray | H2 |
| Pray for me that my feet may gain | A2 |
| The sure and safer way | H2 |
| - | |
| And Thou O Lord by whom are seen | I2 |
| Thy creatures as they be | G |
| Forgive me if too close I lean | I2 |
| My human heart on Thee | G |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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