The Meeting Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ JJKKJJIGLLMMNNIIGO JJLLIIHPGGIIJJJJJJQQ LLRR SSGGJJIIIITTLL UVQQIIJJLL IIIIGGIIJJGGLLGGLLMM LLVVGGJJGGIIMMJJJJWW XYHHJJZZ A2A2MMB2B2IIJJC2C2JJ LLJJIIJJLLRRC2C2IIJJ D2D2JJG JJJJJ JJC2GJJLLE2PJJGG IIIIIIIIGGJJIIF2F2II JJ JJJJIIIIGGLLIIIIIJ

The elder folks shook hands at lastA
Down seat by seat the signal passedA
To simple ways like ours unusedB
Half solemnized and half amusedB
With long drawn breath and shrug my guestC
His sense of glad relief expressedC
Outside the hills lay warm in sunD
The cattle in the meadow runD
Stood half leg deep a single birdE
The green repose above us stirredE
'What part or lot have you ' he saidF
'In these dull rites of drowsy headF
Is silence worship Seek it whereG
It soothes with dreams the summer airG
Not in this close and rude benched hallH
But where soft lights and shadows fallH
And all the slow sleep walking hoursI
Glide soundless over grass and flowersI
From time and place and form apartJ
Its holy ground the human heartJ
Nor ritual bound nor templewardJ
Walks the free spirit of the LordJ
Our common Master did not penK
His followers up from other menK
His service liberty indeedJ
He built no church He framed no creedJ
But while the saintly PhariseeI
Made broader his phylacteryG
As from the synagogue was seenL
The dusty sandalled NazareneL
Through ripening cornfields lead the wayM
Upon the awful Sabbath dayM
His sermons were the healthful talkN
That shorter made the mountain walkN
His wayside texts were flowers and birdsI
Where mingled with His gracious wordsI
The rustle of the tamarisk treeG
And ripple wash of Galilee 'O
-
'Thy words are well O friend ' I saidJ
'Unmeasured and unlimitedJ
With noiseless slide of stone to stoneL
The mystic Church of God has grownL
Invisible and silent standsI
The temple never made with handsI
Unheard the voices still and smallH
Of its unseen confessionalP
He needs no special place of prayerG
Whose hearing ear is everywhereG
He brings not back the childish daysI
That ringed the earth with stones of praiseI
Roofed Karnak's hall of gods and laidJ
The plinths of Phil e's colonnadeJ
Still less He owns the selfish goodJ
And sickly growth of solitudeJ
The worthless grace that out of sightJ
Flowers in the desert anchoriteJ
Dissevered from the suffering wholeQ
Love hath no power to save a soulQ
Not out of Self the originL
And native air and soil of sinL
The living waters spring and flowR
The trees with leaves of healing growR
-
'Dream not O friend because I seekS
This quiet shelter twice a weekS
I better deem its pine laid floorG
Than breezy hill or sea sung shoreG
But nature is not solitudeJ
She crowds us with her thronging woodJ
Her many hands reach out to usI
Her many tongues are garrulousI
Perpetual riddles of surpriseI
She offers to our ears and eyesI
She will not leave our senses stillT
But drags them captive at her willT
And making earth too great for heavenL
She hides the Giver in the givenL
-
'And so I find it well to comeU
For deeper rest to this still roomV
For here the habit of the soulQ
Feels less the outer world's controlQ
The strength of mutual purpose pleadsI
More earnestly our common needsI
And from the silence multipliedJ
By these still forms on either sideJ
The world that time and sense have knownL
Falls off and leaves us God aloneL
-
'Yet rarely through the charmed reposeI
Unmixed the stream of motive flowsI
A flavor of its many springsI
The tints of earth and sky it bringsI
In the still waters needs must beG
Some shade of human sympathyG
And here in its accustomed placeI
I look on memory's dearest faceI
The blind by sitter guesseth notJ
What shadow haunts that vacant spotJ
No eyes save mine alone can seeG
The love wherewith it welcomes meG
And still with those alone my kinL
In doubt and weakness want and sinL
I bow my head my heart I bareG
As when that face was living thereG
And strive too oft alas in vainL
The peace of simple trust to gainL
Fold fancy's restless wings and layM
The idols of my heart awayM
-
'Welcome the silence all unbrokenL
Nor less the words of fitness spokenL
Such golden words as hers for whomV
Our autumn flowers have just made roomV
Whose hopeful utterance through and throughG
The freshness of the morning blewG
Who loved not less the earth that lightJ
Fell on it from the heavens in sightJ
But saw in all fair forms more fairG
The Eternal beauty mirrored thereG
Whose eighty years but added graceI
And saintlier meaning to her faceI
The look of one who bore awayM
Glad tidings from the hills of dayM
While all our hearts went forth to meetJ
The coming of her beautiful feetJ
Or haply hers whose pilgrim treadJ
Is in the paths where Jesus ledJ
Who dreams her childhood's Sabbath dreamW
By Jordan's willow shaded streamW
And of the hymns of hope and faithX
Sung by the monks of NazarethY
Hears pious echoes in the callH
To prayer from Moslem minarets fallH
Repeating where His works were wroughtJ
The lesson that her Master taughtJ
Of whom an elder Sibyl gaveZ
The prophecies of Cuma 's caveZ
-
'I ask no organ's soulless breathA2
To drone the themes of life and deathA2
No altar candle lit by dayM
No ornate wordsman's rhetoric playM
No cool philosophy to teachB2
Its bland audacities of speechB2
To double tasked idolatersI
Themselves their gods and worshippersI
No pulpit hammered by the fistJ
Of loud asserting dogmatistJ
Who borrows for the Hand of loveC2
The smoking thunderbolts of JoveC2
I know how well the fathers taughtJ
What work the later schoolmen wroughtJ
I reverence old time faith and menL
But God is near us now as thenL
His force of love is still unspentJ
His hate of sin as imminentJ
And still the measure of our needsI
Outgrows the cramping bounds of creedsI
The manna gathered yesterdayJ
Already savors of decayJ
Doubts to the world's child heart unknownL
Question us now from star and stoneL
Too little or too much we knowR
And sight is swift and faith is slowR
The power is lost to self deceiveC2
With shallow forms of make believeC2
W e walk at high noon and the bellsI
Call to a thousand oraclesI
But the sound deafens and the lightJ
Is stronger than our dazzled sightJ
The letters of the sacred BookD2
Glimmer and swim beneath our lookD2
Still struggles in the Age's breastJ
With deepening agony of questJ
The old entreaty 'Art thou HeG
Or look we for the Christ to be '-
-
'God should be most where man is leastJ
So where is neither church nor priestJ
And never rag of form or creedJ
To clothe the nakedness of needJ
Where farmer folk in silence meetJ
I turn my bell unsummoned feet '-
I lay the critic's glass asideJ
I tread upon my lettered prideJ
And lowest seated testifyC2
To the oneness of humanityG
Confess the universal wantJ
And share whatever Heaven may grantJ
He findeth not who seeks his ownL
The soul is lost that's saved aloneL
Not on one favored forehead fellE2
Of old the fire tongued miracleP
But flamed o'er all the thronging hostJ
The baptism of the Holy GhostJ
Heart answers heart in one desireG
The blending lines of prayer aspireG
'Where in my name meet two or three '-
Our Lord hath said 'I there will be '-
-
'So sometimes comes to soul and senseI
The feeling which is evidenceI
That very near about us liesI
The realm of spiritual mysteriesI
The sphere of the supernal powersI
Impinges on this world of oursI
The low and dark horizon liftsI
To light the scenic terror shiftsI
The breath of a diviner airG
Blows down the answer of a prayerG
That all our sorrow pain and doubtJ
A great compassion clasps aboutJ
And law and goodness love and forceI
Are wedded fast beyond divorceI
Then duty leaves to love its taskF2
The beggar Self forgets to askF2
With smile of trust and folded handsI
The passive soul in waiting standsI
To feel as flowers the sun and dewJ
The One true Life its own renewJ
-
'So to the calmly gathered thoughtJ
The innermost of truth is taughtJ
The mystery dimly understoodJ
That love of God is love of goodJ
And chiefly its divinest traceI
In Him of Nazareth's holy faceI
That to be saved is only thisI
Salvation from our selfishnessI
From more than elemental fireG
The soul's unsanetified desireG
From sin itself and not the painL
That warns us of its chafing chainL
That worship's deeper meaning liesI
In mercy and not sacrificeI
Not proud humilities of senseI
And posturing of penitenceI
But love's unforced obedienceI
That Book and Church and DayJ

John Greenleaf Whittier



Rate:
(1)



Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation


Write your comment about The Meeting poem by John Greenleaf Whittier


 

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 1 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Popular Poets