The Knight Of St. John Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAC DEDF GHIH JKJK LLLH MNMN LOLO LPLP QKQK RLRL STST DUDU VOVO LJL WXY ZA2ZA2 JDJD TCTB

Ere down yon blue Carpathian hillsA
The sun shall sink againB
Farewell to life and all its illsA
Farewell to cell and chainC
-
These prison shades are dark and coldD
But darker far than theyE
The shadow of a sorrow oldD
Is on my heart alwayF
-
For since the day when Warkworth woodG
Closed o'er my steed and IH
An alien from my name and bloodI
A weed cast out to dieH
-
When looking back in sunset lightJ
I saw her turret gleamK
And from its casement far and whiteJ
Her sign of farewell streamK
-
Like one who from some desert shoreL
Doth home's green isles descryL
And vainly longing gazes o'erL
The waste of wave and skyH
-
So from the desert of my fateM
I gaze across the pastN
Forever on life's dial plateM
The shade is backward castN
-
I've wandered wide from shore to shoreL
I've knelt at many a shrineO
And bowed me to the rocky floorL
Where Bethlehem's tapers shineO
-
And by the Holy SepulchreL
I've pledged my knightly swordP
To Christ His blessed Church and herL
The Mother of our LordP
-
Oh vain the vow and vain the strifeQ
How vain do all things seemK
My soul is in the past and lifeQ
To day is but a dreamK
-
In vain the penance strange and longR
And hard for flesh to bearL
The prayer the fasting and the thongR
And sackcloth shirt of hairL
-
The eyes of memory will not sleepS
Its ears are open stillT
And vigils with the past they keepS
Against my feeble willT
-
And still the loves and joys of oldD
Do evermore upriseU
I see the flow of locks of goldD
The shine of loving eyesU
-
Ah me upon another's breastV
Those golden locks reclineO
I see upon another restV
The glance that once was mineO
-
'O faithless priest O perjured knight '-
I hear the Master cryL
'Shut out the vision from thy sightJ
Let Earth and Nature dieL
-
'The Church of God is now thy spouseW
And thou the bridegroom artX
Then let the burden of thy vowsY
Crush down thy human heart '-
-
In vain This heart its grief must knowZ
Till life itself hath ceasedA2
And falls beneath the self same blowZ
The lover and the priestA2
-
O pitying Mother souls of lightJ
And saints and martyrs oldD
Pray for a weak and sinful knightJ
A suffering man upholdD
-
Then let the Paynim work his willT
And death unbind my chainC
Ere down yon blue Carpathian hillT
The sun shall fall againB

John Greenleaf Whittier



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