The Preacher Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCCDDEEFF GHHHGIJKI LMKLN OOPPQRRRSSS TTUUDDVVRRRR JJWRRRRHHCC XXYYYYZZA2A2 RRRRB2B2RRRR YYC2C2D2E2F2F2YYRRJJ J VVYYG2H2RRRRI2I2 H2H2RRYYJ2J2K2K2YYL2 L2M2M2 YYBB YYC2C2N2N2YYC2C2SSRR O2O2P2P2RRRR I2I2RRRRRP2P2YY RRO2Q2B2B2YYC2C2DDRR RM2M2RR YYEEYYR2R2S2S2Y RRRRRRRRYYCC YYB2B2YEIts windows flashing to the sky | A |
Beneath a thousand roofs of brown | B |
Far down the vale my friend and I | A |
Beheld the old and quiet town | B |
The ghostly sails that out at sea | C |
Flapped their white wings of mystery | C |
The beaches glimmering in the sun | D |
And the low wooded capes that run | D |
Into the sea mist north and south | E |
The sand bluffs at the river's mouth | E |
The swinging chain bridge and afar | F |
The foam line of the harbor bar | F |
- | |
Over the woods and meadow lands | G |
A crimson tinted shadow lay | H |
Of clouds through which the setting day | H |
Flung a slant glory far away | H |
It glittered on the wet sea sands | G |
It flamed upon the city's panes | I |
Smote the white sails of ships that wore | J |
Outward or in and glided o'er | K |
The steeples with their veering vanes | I |
- | |
Awhile my friend with rapid search | L |
O'erran the landscape 'Yonder spire | M |
Over gray roofs a shaft of fire | K |
What is it pray ' 'The Whitefield Church | L |
Walled about by its basement stones | N |
There rest the marvellous prophet's bones ' | - |
Then as our homeward way we walked | O |
Of the great preacher's life we talked | O |
And through the mystery of our theme | P |
The outward glory seemed to stream | P |
And Nature's self interpreted | Q |
The doubtful record of the dead | R |
And every level beam that smote | R |
The sails upon the dark afloat | R |
A symbol of the light became | S |
Which touched the shadows of our blame | S |
With tongues of Pentecostal flame | S |
- | |
Over the roofs of the pioneers | T |
Gathers the moss of a hundred years | T |
On man and his works has passed the change | U |
Which needs must be in a century's range | U |
The land lies open and warm in the sun | D |
Anvils clamor and mill wheels run | D |
Flocks on the hillsides herds on the plain | V |
The wilderness gladdened with fruit and grain | V |
But the living faith of the settlers old | R |
A dead profession their children hold | R |
To the lust of office and greed of trade | R |
A stepping stone is the altar made | R |
- | |
The church to place and power the door | J |
Rebukes the sin of the world no more | J |
Nor sees its Lord in the homeless poor | W |
Everywhere is the grasping hand | R |
And eager adding of land to land | R |
And earth which seemed to the fathers meant | R |
But as a pilgrim's wayside tent | R |
A nightly shelter to fold away | H |
When the Lord should call at the break of day | H |
Solid and steadfast seems to be | C |
And Time has forgotten Eternity | C |
- | |
But fresh and green from the rotting roots | X |
Of primal forests the young growth shoots | X |
From the death of the old the new proceeds | Y |
And the life of truth from the rot of creeds | Y |
On the ladder of God which upward leads | Y |
The steps of progress are human needs | Y |
For His judgments still are a mighty deep | Z |
And the eyes of His providence never sleep | Z |
When the night is darkest He gives the morn | A2 |
When the famine is sorest the wine and corn | A2 |
- | |
In the church of the wilderness Edwards wrought | R |
Shaping his creed at the forge of thought | R |
And with Thor's own hammer welded and bent | R |
The iron links of his argument | R |
Which strove to grasp in its mighty span | B2 |
The purpose of God and the fate of man | B2 |
Yet faithful still in his daily round | R |
To the weak and the poor and sin sick found | R |
The schoolman's lore and the casuist's art | R |
Drew warmth and life from his fervent heart | R |
- | |
Had he not seen in the solitudes | Y |
Of his deep and dark Northampton woods | Y |
A vision of love about him fall | C2 |
Not the blinding splendor which fell on Saul | C2 |
But the tenderer glory that rests on them | D2 |
Who walk in the New Jerusalem | E2 |
Where never the sun nor moon are known | F2 |
But the Lord and His love are the light alone | F2 |
And watching the sweet still countenance | Y |
Of the wife of his bosom rapt in trance | Y |
Had he not treasured each broken word | R |
Of the mystical wonder seen and heard | R |
And loved the beautiful dreamer more | J |
That thus to the desert of earth she bore | J |
Clusters of Eshcol from Canaan's shore | J |
- | |
As the barley winnower holding with pain | V |
Aloft in waiting his chaff and grain | V |
Joyfully welcomes the far off breeze | Y |
Sounding the pine tree's slender keys | Y |
So he who had waited long to hear | G2 |
The sound of the Spirit drawing near | H2 |
Like that which the son of Iddo heard | R |
When the feet of angels the myrtles stirred | R |
Felt the answer of prayer at last | R |
As over his church the afflatus passed | R |
Breaking its sleep as breezes break | I2 |
To sun bright ripples a stagnant lake | I2 |
- | |
At first a tremor of silent fear | H2 |
The creep of the flesh at danger near | H2 |
A vague foreboding and discontent | R |
Over the hearts of the people went | R |
All nature warned in sounds and signs | Y |
The wind in the tops of the forest pines | Y |
In the name of the Highest called to prayer | J2 |
As the muezzin calls from the minaret stair | J2 |
Through ceiled chambers of secret sin | K2 |
Sudden and strong the light shone in | K2 |
A guilty sense of his neighbor's needs | Y |
Startled the man of title deeds | Y |
The trembling hand of the worldling shook | L2 |
The dust of years from the Holy Book | L2 |
And the psalms of David forgotten long | M2 |
Took the place of the scoffer's song | M2 |
- | |
The impulse spread like the outward course | Y |
Of waters moved by a central force | Y |
The tide of spiritual life rolled down | B |
From inland mountains to seaboard town | B |
- | |
Prepared and ready the altar stands | Y |
Waiting the prophet's outstretched hands | Y |
And prayer availing to downward call | C2 |
The fiery answer in view of all | C2 |
Hearts are like wax in the furnace who | N2 |
Shall mould and shape and cast them anew | N2 |
Lo by the Merrimac Whitefield stands | Y |
In the temple that never was made by hands | Y |
Curtains of azure and crystal wall | C2 |
And dome of the sunshine over all | C2 |
A homeless pilgrim with dubious name | S |
Blown about on the winds of fame | S |
Now as an angel of blessing classed | R |
And now as a mad enthusiast | R |
Called in his youth to sound and gauge | O2 |
The moral lapse of his race and age | O2 |
And sharp as truth the contrast draw | P2 |
Of human frailty and perfect law | P2 |
Possessed by the one dread thought that lent | R |
Its goad to his fiery temperament | R |
Up and down the world he went | R |
A John the Baptist crying Repent | R |
- | |
No perfect whole can our nature make | I2 |
Here or there the circle will break | I2 |
The orb of life as it takes the light | R |
On one side leaves the other in night | R |
Never was saint so good and great | R |
As to give no chance at St Peter's gate | R |
For the plea of the Devil's advocate | R |
So incomplete by his being's law | P2 |
The marvellous preacher had his flaw | P2 |
With step unequal and lame with faults | Y |
His shade on the path of History halts | Y |
- | |
Wisely and well said the Eastern bard | R |
Fear is easy but love is hard | R |
Easy to glow with the Santon's rage | O2 |
And walk on the Meccan pilgrimage | Q2 |
But he is greatest and best who can | B2 |
Worship Allah by loving man | B2 |
Thus he to whom in the painful stress | Y |
Of zeal on fire from its own excess | Y |
Heaven seemed so vast and earth so small | C2 |
That man was nothing since God was all | C2 |
Forgot as the best at times have done | D |
That the love of the Lord and of man are one | D |
Little to him whose feet unshod | R |
The thorny path of the desert trod | R |
Careless of pain so it led to God | R |
Seemed the hunger pang and the poor man's wrong | M2 |
The weak ones trodden beneath the strong | M2 |
Should the worm be chooser the clay withstand | R |
The shaping will of the potter's hand | R |
- | |
In the Indian fable Arjoon hears | Y |
The scorn of a god rebuke his fears | Y |
'Spare thy pity ' Krishna saith | E |
'Not in thy sword is the power of death | E |
All is illusion loss but seems | Y |
Pleasure and pain are only dreams | Y |
Who deems he slayeth doth not kill | R2 |
Who counts as slain is living still | R2 |
Strike nor fear thy blow is crime | S2 |
Nothing dies but the cheats of time | S2 |
Slain or slayer small the odds | Y |
To each immortal as Indra's gods ' | - |
- | |
So by Savannah's banks of shade | R |
The stones of his mission the preacher laid | R |
On the heart of the negro crushed and rent | R |
And made of his blood the wall's cement | R |
Bade the slave ship speed from coast to coast | R |
Fanned by the wings of the Holy Ghost | R |
And begged for the love of Christ the gold | R |
Coined from the hearts in its groaning hold | R |
What could it matter more or less | Y |
Of stripes and hunger and weariness | Y |
Living or dying bond or free | C |
What was time to eternity | C |
- | |
Alas for the preacher's cherished schemes | Y |
Mission and church are now but dreams | Y |
Nor prayer nor fasting availed the plan | B2 |
To honor God through the wrong of man | B2 |
Of all his labors no trace remains | Y |
Save the | E |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Preacher poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
Best Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier