Catechism Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIK LMLN FOFO PQPQ RSRT UVUV FWFW| Oh say not dream not heavenly notes | A |
| To childish ears are vain | B |
| That the young mind at random floats | A |
| And cannot reach the strain | B |
| - | |
| Dim or unheard the words may fall | C |
| And yet the heaven taught mind | D |
| May learn the sacred air and all | C |
| The harmony unwind | D |
| - | |
| Was not our Lord a little child | E |
| Taught by degrees to pray | F |
| By father dear and mother mild | E |
| Instructed day by day | F |
| - | |
| And loved He not of Heaven to talk | G |
| With children in His sight | H |
| To meet them in His daily walk | G |
| And to His arms invite | H |
| - | |
| What though around His throne of fire | I |
| The everlasting chant | J |
| Be wafted from the seraph choir | I |
| In glory jubilant | K |
| - | |
| Yet stoops He ever pleased to mark | L |
| Our rude essays of love | M |
| Faint as the pipe of wakening lark | L |
| Heard by some twilight grove | N |
| - | |
| Yet is He near us to survey | F |
| These bright and ordered files | O |
| Like spring flowers in their best array | F |
| All silence and all smiles | O |
| - | |
| Save that each little voice in turn | P |
| Some glorious truth proclaims | Q |
| What sages would have died to learn | P |
| Now taught by cottage dames | Q |
| - | |
| And if some tones be false or low | R |
| What are all prayers beneath | S |
| But cries of babes that cannot know | R |
| Half the deep thought they breathe | T |
| - | |
| In His own words we Christ adore | U |
| But angels as we speak | V |
| Higher above our meaning soar | U |
| Than we o'er children weak | V |
| - | |
| And yet His words mean more than they | F |
| And yet He owns their praise | W |
| Why should we think He turns away | F |
| From infants' simple lays | W |
John Keble
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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