The Mystic Lyre Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEDE FGFG HIHI JKJK LMMM MEME NMNM OPOP CBAB| HEAVEN GIFTED was the mortal thrice illum'ed by heaven's own fire | A |
| A bard the chords of whose great soul to love and truth were strung | B |
| Who deemed the mighty universe itself a seven stringed lyre | C |
| From which at the Creator's touch the anthem Life is wrung | B |
| - | |
| An instrument it is by which a gamut vast is spann'd | D |
| Whose every tone's in unison with every other tone | E |
| And which alone is given to the heart to understand | D |
| Who to pity gives an ear of soul to self an ear of stone | E |
| - | |
| To such a one the accents of that magic lyre expound | F |
| The kinship of all beings great and small and how the sweet | G |
| Yet mighty octave to the key struck in yon planet's found | F |
| Within the little dew drop that sparkles at our feet | G |
| - | |
| In the seeming great the little in the seeming small the great | H |
| Are rendered by that music to the pure in spirit plain | I |
| And the thistle's and the lily's and the mourn'd and envied state | H |
| Are but altos and contraltos in one bright harmonic strain | I |
| - | |
| In the seeming ill the good is in the seeming good the ill | J |
| But in Life's complex measure what the ill deplored appears | K |
| Is often but a needful step into a varied trill | J |
| That terminates with rapture what began mid doubts and fears | K |
| - | |
| All height and depth of moral being are compass'd in one chant | L |
| And thro' vast scales descending in the lowest soul is heard | M |
| True echoes true tho' faint of what the highest soul can vaunt | M |
| Whilst to the lowest full as oft the highest yields a chord | M |
| - | |
| The measure of the man with all his destiny so vast | M |
| When the key note of the living known is stricken may be shown | E |
| And the burden of the future and the burden of the past | M |
| Are but coloured octaves to the note from out the present thrown | E |
| - | |
| The measure of the angel in the measure of the man | N |
| Yea he the highest seraph in the lowest serf's concealed | M |
| And the diapason struck on earth compriseth in its span | N |
| An echo of the heaven itself in angel states reveal'd | M |
| - | |
| Not that which was is that which is as sang the Hebrew sage | O |
| But a duller to a brighter chord and that which is in turn | P |
| Is but a stage in life's great march prophetic of a stage | O |
| That awaits the soul's arrival when we leap death's dreaded burn | P |
| - | |
| The mighty universe itself is but a mighty lyre | C |
| From which at the Creator's touch the anthem Life is flung | B |
| And could we heed its music up would leap our souls on fire | A |
| And up a hymn to Love Eterne would leap from every tongue | B |
Joseph Skipsey
(1)
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