St. Peter's Day Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEDE FGHG IJIJ KLKM NONO KKKK PQPQ BRBS OTOT UKVK WVWV KKKK XYXY KZKZ ZA2ZA2 B2C2B2C2 VZVZThou thrice denied yet thrice beloved | A |
Watch by Thine own forgiven friend | B |
In sharpest perils faithful proved | C |
Let his soul love Thee to the end | B |
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The prayer is heard else why so deep | D |
His slumber on the eve of death | E |
And wherefore smiles he in his sleep | D |
As one who drew celestial breath | E |
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He loves and is beloved again | F |
Can his soul choose but be at rest | G |
Sorrow hath fled away and Pain | H |
Dares not invade the guarded nest | G |
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He dearly loves and not alone | I |
For his winged thoughts are soaring high | J |
Where never yet frail heart was known | I |
To breathe its vain Affection's sigh | J |
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He loves and weeps but more than tears | K |
Have sealed Thy welcome and his love | L |
One look lives in him and endears | K |
Crosses and wrongs where'er he rove | M |
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That gracious chiding look Thy call | N |
To win him to himself and Thee | O |
Sweetening the sorrow of his fall | N |
Which else were rued too bitterly | O |
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E'en through the veil of sheep it shines | K |
The memory of that kindly glance | K |
The Angel watching by divines | K |
And spares awhile his blissful trance | K |
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Or haply to his native lake | P |
His vision wafts him back to talk | Q |
With JESUS ere His flight He take | P |
As in that solemn evening walk | Q |
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When to the bosom of His friend | B |
The Shepherd He whose name is Good | R |
Did His dear lambs and sheep commend | B |
Both bought and nourished with His blood | S |
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Then laid on him th' inverted tree | O |
Which firm embraced with heart and arm | T |
Might cast o'er hope and memory | O |
O'er life and death its awful charm | T |
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With brightening heart he bears it on | U |
His passport through this eternal gates | K |
To his sweet home so nearly won | V |
He seems as by the door he waits | K |
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The unexpressive notes to hear | W |
Of angel song and angel motion | V |
Rising and falling on the ear | W |
Like waves in Joy's unbounded ocean | V |
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His dream is changed the Tyrant's voice | K |
Calls to that last of glorious deeds | K |
But as he rises to rejoice | K |
Not Herod but an Angel leads | K |
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He dreams he sees a lamp flash bright | X |
Glancing around his prison room | Y |
But 'tis a gleam of heavenly light | X |
That fills up all the ample gloom | Y |
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The flame that in a few short years | K |
Deep through the chambers of the dead | Z |
Shall pierce and dry the fount of tears | K |
Is waving o'er his dungeon bed | Z |
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Touched he upstarts his chains unbind | Z |
Through darksome vault up massy stair | A2 |
His dizzy doubting footsteps wind | Z |
To freedom and cool moonlight air | A2 |
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Then all himself all joy and calm | B2 |
Though for a while his hand forego | C2 |
Just as it touched the martyr's palm | B2 |
He turns him to his task below | C2 |
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The pastoral staff the keys of Heaven | V |
To wield a while in grey haired might | Z |
Then from his cross to spring forgiven | V |
And follow JESUS out of sight | Z |
John Keble
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