The Two Rabbins Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEEFGGHHIIJKLLM MNJ NOOPPQRSSTTUUEE NNVVWWXYAAZA2B2B2TTC 2C2 D2BBFFE2E2F2F2G2 G2H2H2I2J2TTK2K2 L2L2FFM2M2H2| THE Rabbi Nathan two score years and ten | A |
| Walked blameless through the evil world and then | A |
| Just as the almond blossomed in his hair | B |
| Met a temptation all too strong to bear | B |
| And miserably sinned So adding not | C |
| Falsehood to guilt he left his seat and taught | D |
| No more among the elders but went out | E |
| From the great congregation girt about | E |
| With sackcloth and with ashes on his head | F |
| Making his gray locks grayer Long he prayed | G |
| Smiting his breast then as the Book he laid | G |
| Open before him for the Bath Col's choice | H |
| Pausing to hear that Daughter of a Voice | H |
| Behold the royal preacher's words 'A friend | I |
| Loveth at all times yea unto the end | I |
| And for the evil day thy brother lives ' | J |
| Marvelling he said 'It is the Lord who gives | K |
| Counsel in need At Ecbatana dwells | L |
| Rabbi Ben Isaac who all men excels | L |
| In righteousness and wisdom as the trees | M |
| Of Lebanon the small weeds that the bees | M |
| Bow with their weight I will arise and lay | N |
| My sins before him ' | J |
| - | |
| And he went his way | N |
| Barefooted fasting long with many prayers | O |
| But even as one who followed unawares | O |
| Suddenly in the darkness feels a hand | P |
| Thrill with its touch his own and his cheek fanned | P |
| By odors subtly sweet and whispers near | Q |
| Of words he loathes yet cannot choose but hear | R |
| So while the Rabbi journeyed chanting low | S |
| The wail of David's penitential woe | S |
| Before him still the old temptation came | T |
| And mocked him with the motion and the shame | T |
| Of such desires that shuddering he abhorred | U |
| Himself and crying mightily to the Lord | U |
| To free his soul and cast the demon out | E |
| Smote with his staff the blankness round about | E |
| - | |
| At length in the low light of a spent day | N |
| The towers of Ecbatana far away | N |
| Rose on the desert's rim and Nathan faint | V |
| And footsore pausing where for some dead saint | V |
| The faith of Islam reared a domed tomb | W |
| Saw some one kneeling in the shadow whom | W |
| He greeted kindly 'May the Holy One | X |
| Answer thy prayers O stranger ' Whereupon | Y |
| The shape stood up with a loud cry and then | A |
| Clasped in each other's arms the two gray men | A |
| Wept praising Him whose gracious providence | Z |
| Made their paths one But straightway as the sense | A2 |
| Of his transgression smote him Nathan tore | B2 |
| Himself away 'O friend beloved no more | B2 |
| Worthy am I to touch thee for I came | T |
| Foul from my sins to tell thee all my shame | T |
| Haply thy prayers since naught availeth mine | C2 |
| May purge my soul and make it white like thine | C2 |
| Pity me O Ben Isaac I have sinned ' | - |
| - | |
| Awestruck Ben Isaac stood The desert wind | D2 |
| Blew his long mantle backward laying bare | B |
| The mournful secret of his shirt of hair | B |
| 'I too O friend if not in act ' he said | F |
| 'In thought have verily sinned Hast thou not read | F |
| 'Better the eye should see than that desire | E2 |
| Should wander ' Burning with a hidden fire | E2 |
| That tears and prayers quench not I come to thee | F2 |
| For pity and for help as thou to me | F2 |
| Pray for me O my friend ' But Nathan cried | G2 |
| 'Pray thou for me Ben Isaac ' | - |
| - | |
| Side by side | G2 |
| In the low sunshine by the turban stone | H2 |
| They knelt each made his brother's woe his own | H2 |
| Forgetting in the agony and stress | I2 |
| Of pitying love his claim of selfishness | J2 |
| Peace for his friend besought his own became | T |
| His prayers were answered in another's name | T |
| And when at last they rose up to embrace | K2 |
| Each saw God's pardon in his brother's face | K2 |
| - | |
| Long after when his headstone gathered moss | L2 |
| Traced on the targum marge of Onkelos | L2 |
| In Rabbi Nathan's hand these words were read | F |
| ' Hope not the cure of sin till Self is dead | F |
| Forget it in love's service and the debt | M2 |
| Thou canst not pay the angels shall forget | M2 |
| Heaven's gate is shut to him who comes alone | H2 |
| Save thou a soul and it shall save thy own ' | - |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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