Guy Of The Temple Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJ KLMNKOPQRKSTUKKMVWXY ZA2B2C2D2KE2KKKF2IA KKKKA2KA2K KA2G2H2KI2A2J2KA2K2A 2KA2A2L2M2YN2KA2KA2O 2GKKA2KKA2A2KP2KM2KK C2A2KQ2R2A2KKPMA2S2K A2A2MF2T2MA2A2T2KQ2K KU2A2 KV2KV2A2A2A2A2 T2KA2O2A2KKA2KV2A2T2 A2C2T2W2KKA2KA2A2X2K F2T2C2V2KKKGOKA2A2OP 2A2KOKA2OV2KKKA2Y2KT 2KKT2KKKKZ2T2KP2A3A2 A2V2T2A2A2T2KA2KA2T2 A2A2KKC2A2OT2KB3KKT2 A2KA2J2Q2C3KKKA2KA2K K KKT2D3A2KKA2E3Z2KZ2K F3A2KKKKKKKA2A2T2KKA 2KU2KKT2KKV2 J2A2J2A2OKOK V2T2 KA2A2A2KKA2KA2A2G3T2 MA2U2KA2KKA2BKKZ2KKI 2A2U2H3A2KA2A2KKA2T2 T2K KKKSKKOI3J3A2A2T2E2A 2U2A2A2K3 A2KL3 KKKKK3KK3KDown the dim west slowly fails the stricken sun | A |
And from his hot face fades the crimson flush | B |
Veiled in death's herald shadows sick and grey | C |
Silent and dark the sombre valley lies | D |
Forgotten happy in the late fond beams | E |
Glimmer the constant waves of Galilee | F |
Afar below in airy music ring | G |
The bugles of my host the column halts | H |
A wearied serpent glittering in the vale | I |
Where rising mist like gleam the tented camps | J |
- | |
Pitch my pavilion here where its high cross | K |
May catch the last light lingering on the hill | L |
The savage shadows struggling by the shore | M |
Have conquered in the valley inch by inch | N |
The vanquished light fights bravely to these crags | K |
To perish glorious in the sunset fire | O |
Even as our hunted Cause so pressed and torn | P |
In Syrian valleys and the trampled marge | Q |
Of consecrated streams displays at last | R |
Its narrowing glories from these steadfast walls | K |
Here in God's name we stand and brighter far | S |
Shines the stern virtue of my martyr host | T |
Through these invidious fortunes than of old | U |
When the still sunshine glinted on their helms | K |
And dallying breezes woke their bridle bells | K |
To tinkling music by the reedy shore | M |
Of calm Tiberias where our angry Lord | V |
Wroth at the deadly sin that cursed our camp | W |
Denied and blinded us and gave us up | X |
To the avenging sword of Saladin | Y |
Yet would He not permit His truth to sink | Z |
To utter loss amid that foundering fight | A2 |
But led us scarred and shattered from the spoil | B2 |
Of Paynim rage the desert's thirsty death | C2 |
To where beneath the sheltering crags we prayed | D2 |
And rested and grew strong Heroes and saints | K |
To alien peoples shall they be my brave | E2 |
And patient warriors for in their stout hearts | K |
God's Spirit dwells for ever and their hands | K |
Are swift to do His service on His foes | K |
The swelling music of their vesper hymn | F2 |
Is rising fragrant from the shadowed vale | I |
Familiar to the welcoming gates of heaven | A |
- | |
Mother of God as evening falls | K |
Upon the silent sea | K |
And shadows veil the mountain walls | K |
We lift our souls to thee | K |
From lurking perils of the night | A2 |
The desert's hidden harms | K |
From plagues that waste from blasts that smite | A2 |
Defend thy men at arms | K |
- | |
Ay Heaven keep them and ye angel hosts | K |
That wait with fluttering plumes around the great | A2 |
White throne of God guard them from scath and harm | G2 |
For in your starry records never shone | H2 |
The memory of desert so great as theirs | K |
I hold not first though peerless else on earth | I2 |
That knightly valour born of gentle blood | A2 |
And war's long tutelage which hath made their name | J2 |
Blaze like a baleful planet o'er these lands | K |
Firm seat in saddle lance unmoved a hand | A2 |
Wedding the hilt with death's persistent grasp | K2 |
One minded rush in fight that naught can stay | A2 |
Not these the highest though I scorn not these | K |
But rather offer Heaven with humble heart | A2 |
The deeds that Heaven hath given us arms to do | A2 |
For when God's smile was with us we were strong | L2 |
To go like sudden lightning to our mark | M2 |
As on that summer day when Saladin | Y |
Passing in scorn our host at Antioch | N2 |
Who spent the days in revel and shamed the stars | K |
With nightly scandal came with all his host | A2 |
Its gay battalia brave with saffron silks | K |
Flaunting the banners of the Caliphate | A2 |
Beneath the walls of fair Jerusalem | O2 |
And white and shaking came the Leper King | G |
Great Baldwin's blasted scion and Tripoli | K |
And I and twenty score of Temple Knights | K |
To meet the myriads marshalled by the bright | A2 |
Untarnished flower of Eastern chivalry | K |
A moment paused with level fronting spears | K |
And moveless helms before that shining host | A2 |
Whose gay attire abashed the morning light | A2 |
And then struck spur and charged while from the mass | K |
Of rushing terror burst the awful cry | P2 |
GOD AND THE TEMPLE As the avalanche slides | K |
Down Alpine slopes precipitous cold and dark | M2 |
Unpitying and unwrathful grinds and crushes | K |
The mountain violets and the valley weeds | K |
And drags behind a trail of chaos and death | C2 |
So burst we on that field and through and through | A2 |
The gay battalia brave with saffron silks | K |
Crushed and abolished every grace and gleam | Q2 |
And dragged where'er we rode a sinuous track | R2 |
Of chaos and death till all the plain was filled | A2 |
With battered armour turbaned trunkless heads | K |
With silken mantles blushing angry gules | K |
And Bagdad's banners trampled and forlorn | P |
And Saladin stunned and bewildered sore | M |
The greatest prince save in the grace of God | A2 |
That now wears sword mounted his brother's barb | S2 |
And followed by a half score followers | K |
Sped to his castle Shaubec over against | A2 |
The cliffs by Ascalon and there abode | A2 |
And sullenly made order that no more | M |
The royal nouba should be played for him | F2 |
Until he should erase the rusting stain | T2 |
Upon his knightly honour and no more | M |
The nouba sounded by the Sultan's tent | A2 |
Morning nor evening by the silent tent | A2 |
Until the headlong greed of Chatillon | T2 |
Spread ruin on our cause from Montreale | K |
But greatest are my warriors as I deem | Q2 |
In that their hearts nearer than any else | K |
Keep true the pledge of perfect purity | K |
They pledged upon their sword hilts long ago | U2 |
For all is possible to the pure in heart | A2 |
- | |
Mother of God thy starry smile | K |
Still bless us from above | V2 |
Keep pure our souls from passion's guile | K |
Our hearts from earthly love | V2 |
Still save each soul from guilt apart | A2 |
As stainless as each sword | A2 |
And guard undimmed in every heart | A2 |
The image of our Lord | A2 |
- | |
O goodliest fellowship that the world has known | T2 |
True hearts and stalwart arms above your breasts | K |
Glitters no flash of wreathen amulet | A2 |
Forged against sword stroke by the chanted rhythm | O2 |
Of charms accurst but in each steadfast heart | A2 |
Blazes the light of cloudless purity | K |
That like a splendid jewel glorifies | K |
With restless fire the gold that spheres it round | A2 |
And marks you children of our God whose lives | K |
He guards with the awful jealousy of love | V2 |
And even me that generous love has spared | A2 |
Me trustless knight and miserable man | T2 |
Sad prey of dark and mutinous thoughts that tempt | A2 |
My sick soul into perjury and death | C2 |
Since His great love had pity on my pain | T2 |
Has spared to lead these blameless warriors safe | W2 |
Into the desert from the blazing towns | K |
Out of the desert to the inviolate hills | K |
Where God has roofed them with His hollow shield | A2 |
Through all these days of tempest and eclipse | K |
His hand has led me and His wrath has flashed | A2 |
Its lightnings in the pathway of my sword | A2 |
And so I hope and so my crescent faith | X2 |
Gains daily power that all my prayers and tears | K |
And toils and blood and anguish borne for Him | F2 |
May blot the accusing of my deadly sin | T2 |
From heavens high compt and give me rest in death | C2 |
And lay the pallid ghost of mortal love | V2 |
That fills with banned and mournful loveliness | K |
Unblest the haunted chambers of my soul | K |
My misery will atone my misery | K |
Dear God will surely atone for not the sting | G |
Of lacerating thongs nor the slow horror | O |
Of crowns of thorny iron maddening the brows | K |
Nor all that else pale hermits have devised | A2 |
To scourge the rebel senses in their shade | A2 |
Of caverned desolation have the power | O |
To smart and goad and lash and mortify | P2 |
Like the great love that binds my ruined heart | A2 |
Relentless as the insidious ivy binds | K |
The shattered bulk of some deserted tower | O |
Enlacing slow and riving with strong hands | K |
Of pitiless verdure every seam and jut | A2 |
Till none may tear it forth and save the tower | O |
So binds and masters me my hopeless love | V2 |
So through the desert in the silent hills | K |
I' the current of the battle's storm and stress | K |
One thought has driven me that though men may call | K |
Me stainless Paladin Knight leal and true | A2 |
To Christ and Our Lady still I know myself | Y2 |
A knight not after God's own heart a soul | K |
Recreant and whelmed in the forbidden sin | T2 |
For dearer to my sad heart than the cross | K |
I give my heart's best blood for are the eyes | K |
That long ago when youth and hope were mine | T2 |
I loved in thy still valleys far Provence | K |
And sweeter to my spirit than the bells | K |
Of rescued Salem are the loving tones | K |
Of her dear voice soft echoing o'er the years | K |
They haunt me in the stillness and the glare | Z2 |
Of desert noontide when the horizon's line | T2 |
Swims faintly throbbing and my shadow hides | K |
Skulking beneath me from the brassy sky | P2 |
And when night comes to soothe with breath of balm | A3 |
And pomp of stars the worn and weary world | A2 |
Her eyes rise in my soul and make its day | A2 |
And even into the battle comes my love | V2 |
Snatching the duty that I offer Heaven | T2 |
At closing of El Majed's awful day | A2 |
When the last quivering sunbeams choked with dust | A2 |
And fume of blood failed on the level plain | T2 |
In the last charge when gathered all our knights | K |
The precious handful who from morn had stemmed | A2 |
The fury of the multitudinous hosts | K |
Of Islam where in youth's hot fire and pride | A2 |
Ramped the young lion whelp Ben Saladin | T2 |
As down the slope we rode at eventide | A2 |
The dying sunlight faintly smiled to greet | A2 |
Our tattered guidons and our dinted helms | K |
And lance heads blooming with the battle's rose | K |
Into the vale dusk with the shadow of death | C2 |
With silent lips and ringing mail we rode | A2 |
And something in the spirit of the hour | O |
Or fate or memory or sorrow or sin | T2 |
Or love which unto me is all of these | K |
Possessed and bound me for when dashed our troop | B3 |
In stormy clangour on the Paynim lines | K |
The soul of my dead youth came into me | K |
Faded away my oath the woes of Zion | T2 |
God was forgot blazed in my leaping heart | A2 |
With instant flash life's inextinguished fires | K |
Plunging along each tense limb poured the blood | A2 |
Hot with its years of sleeping smothered flame | J2 |
And in a dream I charged and in a dream | Q2 |
I smote resistless foemen in my path | C3 |
Fell unregarded like the wayside flowers | K |
Clipped by the truant's staff in daisied lanes | K |
For over me burned lustrous the dear eyes | K |
Of my beloved I strove as at a joust | A2 |
To gain at end the guerdon of her smile | K |
And ever as in the dense melee I dashed | A2 |
Her name burst from my lips as lightning breaks | K |
Out of the plunging wrack of summer storms | K |
- | |
O my lost love Bright o'er the waste of years | K |
That bliss and beauty shines upon my soul | K |
As far beyond yon desert hangs the sun | T2 |
Gilding with tender beam the barren stretch | D3 |
Of sands that intervene In this still light | A2 |
The old sweet memories glimmer back to me | K |
Fair summers of my youth the idle days | K |
I wandered in the bosky coverts hid | A2 |
In the dim woods that girt my ancient home | E3 |
The blue young eyes I met and worshipped there | Z2 |
The love that growing turned those gloomy wilds | K |
To faery dells and filled the vernal air | Z2 |
With light that bathed the hills of Paradise | K |
The warm long days of rapturous summer time | F3 |
When through the forests thick and lush we strayed | A2 |
And love made our own sunshine in the shades | K |
And all things fair and graceful in the woods | K |
I loved with liberal heart the violets | K |
Were dear for her dear eyes the quiring birds | K |
That caught the musical tremble of her voice | K |
O happy twilights in the leafy glooms | K |
When in the glowing dusk the winsome arts | K |
And maiden graces that all day had kept | A2 |
Us twain and separate melted away | A2 |
In blushing silence and my love was mine | T2 |
Utterly utterly with clinging arms | K |
And quick caressing fingers warm red lips | K |
Where vows half uttered drowned in kisses died | A2 |
Mine with the starlight in her passionate eyes | K |
The wild wind of the woodland breathing low | U2 |
To wake the elfin music of the leaves | K |
And free the prisoned odours of the flowers | K |
In honour of young Love come to his throne | T2 |
While we under the stars with twining arms | K |
And mutual lips insatiate gave our souls | K |
Madly forgetting earth and heaven to love | V2 |
- | |
In desert march or battle flame | J2 |
In fortress and in field | A2 |
Our war cry is thy holy name | J2 |
Thy love our joy and shield | A2 |
And if we falter let thy power | O |
Thy stern avenger be | K |
And God forget us in the hour | O |
We cease to think of thee | K |
- | |
Curse me not God of Justice and of Love | V2 |
Pitiful God let my long woe atone | T2 |
- | |
I cannot deem but God has pitied me | K |
Else why with painful care have I been saved | A2 |
Whenever tossed and drenched in the fierce tide | A2 |
Of Saladin's victories by the walls profaned | A2 |
Of Jaffa on the sands of far Daroum | K |
Or in the battle thundering on the downs | K |
Of Ramlah or the bloody day that shed | A2 |
Red horrors on high Gaza's parapets | K |
For never a storm of fatal fight has raged | A2 |
In Islam's track of rout and ruin swept | A2 |
From Egypt to Gebail but when the ebb | G3 |
Of battle came I and my host have lain | T2 |
Scarred scorched safe somewhere on its fiery shore | M |
At Marcab's lingering siege where day by day | A2 |
We told the Moslem legions toiling slow | U2 |
Planting their engines delving in their mines | K |
To quench in our destruction this last light | A2 |
Of Christendom our fortress in the crags | K |
God's beacon swung defiant from the stars | K |
One thunderous night I knew their miners groped | A2 |
Below and thought ere morn to die in crush | B |
And tumult of the falling citadel | K |
And pondering of my fate the broken storm | K |
Sobbing its life away I was aware | Z2 |
There grew between me and the quieting skies | K |
A face and form I knew not as in dreams | K |
The sad dishevelled loveliness of earth | I2 |
But lighter than the thin air where she swayed | A2 |
Gold hair flame fluttered eyes and mouth aglow | U2 |
With lambent light of spiritual joy | H3 |
With sweet command she beckoned me away | A2 |
And led me vaguely dreaming till I saw | K |
Where the wild flood in sudden fury had burst | A2 |
A passage through the rocks and thence I led | A2 |
My host unharmed following her luminous eyes | K |
Until the east was grey and with a smile | K |
Wooing me heavenward still she passed away | A2 |
Into the rosy trouble of the dawn | T2 |
- | |
And I believe my love is shrived in heaven | T2 |
And I believe that I shall soon be free | K |
- | |
For ever as I journey on to me | K |
Waking or sleeping come faint whisperings | K |
And fancies not of earth as if the gates | K |
Of near eternity stood for me ajar | S |
And ghostly gales come blowing o'er my soul | K |
Fraught with the amaranth odours of the skies | K |
I go to join the Lion Heart at Acre | O |
And there after due homage to my liege | I3 |
And after patient penance of the Church | J3 |
And after final devoir in the fight | A2 |
If that my God be gracious I shall die | A2 |
And so I pray Lord pardon if I sin | T2 |
That I may lose in death's embittered wave | E2 |
The stain of sinful loving and may find | A2 |
In glory again the love I lost below | U2 |
With all of fair and bright and unattained | A2 |
Beautiful in the cherishing smile of God | A2 |
By the glad waters of the River of Life | K3 |
- | |
Night hangs above the valley dies the day | A2 |
In peace casting his last glance on my cross | K |
And warns me to my prayers Ave Maria | L3 |
- | |
Mother of God the evening fades | K |
On wave and hill and lea | K |
And in the twilight's deepening shades | K |
We lift our souls to thee | K |
In passion's stress the battle's strife | K3 |
The desert's lurking harms | K |
Maid Mother of the Lord of Life | K3 |
Protect thy men at arms | K |
John Milton Hay
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