The Men Of Old Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBACCDEEDFFGGHHHIIH JJKKLLHMHMNHNHOHPCQC CQQRRSSTTUUULLVVFFWX WXXYY| WELL speed thy mission bold Iconoclast | A |
| Yet all unworthy of its trust thou art | B |
| If with dry eye and cold unloving heart | B |
| Thou tread'st the solemn Pantheon of the Past | A |
| By the great Future's dazzling hope made blind | C |
| To all the beauty power and truth behind | C |
| Not without reverent awe shouldst thou put by | D |
| The cypress branches and the amaranth blooms | E |
| Where with clasped hands of prayer upon their tombs | E |
| The effigies of old confessors lie | D |
| God's witnesses the voices of His will | F |
| Heard in the slow march of the centuries still | F |
| Such were the men at whose rebuking frown | G |
| Dark with God's wrath the tyrant's knee went down | G |
| Such from the terrors of the guilty drew | H |
| The vassal's freedom and the poor man's due | H |
| St Anselm may he rest forevermore | H |
| In Heaven's sweet peace forbade of old the sale | I |
| Of men as slaves and from the sacred pale | I |
| Hurled the Northumbrian buyers of the poor | H |
| To ransom souls from bonds and evil fate | J |
| St Ambrose melted down the sacred plate | J |
| Image of saint the chalice and the pix | K |
| Crosses of gold and silver candlesticks | K |
| 'Man is worth more than temples ' he replied | L |
| To such as came his holy work to chide | L |
| And brave Cesarius stripping altars bare | H |
| And coining from the Abbey's golden hoard | M |
| The captive's freedom answered to the prayer | H |
| Or threat of those whose fierce zeal for the Lord | M |
| Stifled their love of man 'An earthen dish | N |
| The last sad supper of the Master bore | H |
| Most miserable sinners do ye wish | N |
| More than your Lord and grudge His dying poor | H |
| What your own pride and not His need requires | O |
| Souls than these shining gauds He values more | H |
| Mercy not sacrifice His heart desires ' | P |
| O faithful worthies resting far behind | C |
| In your dark ages since ye fell asleep | Q |
| Much has been done for truth and human kind | C |
| Shadows are scattered wherein ye groped blind | C |
| Man claims his birthright freer pulses leap | Q |
| Through peoples driven in your day like sheep | Q |
| Yet like your own our age's sphere of light | R |
| Though widening still is walled around by night | R |
| With slow reluctant eye the Church has read | S |
| Skeptic at heart the lessons of its Head | S |
| Counting too oft its living members less | T |
| Than the wall's garnish and the pulpit's dress | T |
| World moving zeal with power to bless and feed | U |
| Life's fainting pilgrims to their utter need | U |
| Instead of bread holds out the stone of creed | U |
| Sect builds and worships where its wealth and pride | L |
| And vanity stand shrined and deified | L |
| Careless that in the shadow of its walls | V |
| God's living temple into ruin falls | V |
| We need methinks the prophet hero still | F |
| Saints true of life and martyrs strong of will | F |
| To tread the land even now as Xavier trod | W |
| The streets of God barefoot with his bell | X |
| Proclaiming freedom in the name of God | W |
| And startling tyrants with the fear of hell | X |
| Soft words smooth prophecies are doubtless well | X |
| But to rebuke the age's popular crime | Y |
| We need the souls of fire the hearts of that old time | Y |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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