Canticle Of The Babe Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A ABCDEFEAFEEA GHGIIIH A GEJGJKKLLMMEEEE A NONOPOP O QRGFFRG O ASGASGTSUVSSTVUSWNNW A SJSJEEWEEWWOOEEKKJJF FUU XXFF EEEESSYYSSS SSHHZEZEA2B2B2XC2X EEI | A |
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Over the broken world the dark gone by | A |
Horror of outcast darkness torn with wars | B |
And timeless agony | C |
Of the white fire heaped high by blinded Stars | D |
Unfaltering unaghast | E |
Out of the midmost Fire | F |
At last at last | E |
Cry | A |
O darkness' one desire | F |
O darkness have you heard | E |
Black Chaos blindly striving towards the Word | E |
The Cry | A |
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Behold thy conqueror Death | G |
Behold behold from whom | H |
It flutters forth that triumph of First Breath | G |
Victorious one that can but breathe and cling | I |
This pulsing flower this weaker than a wing | I |
Halcyon thing | I |
Cradled above unfathomable doom | H |
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II | A |
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Under my feet O Death | G |
Under my trembling feet | E |
Back through the gates of hell now give me way | J |
I come I bring new Breath | G |
Over the trampled shards of mine own clay | J |
That smoulder still and burn | K |
Lo I return | K |
Hail singing Light that floats | L |
Pulsing with chorused motes | L |
Hail to thee Sun that lookest on all lands | M |
And take thou from my weak undying hands | M |
A precious thing unblemished undefiled | E |
Here on my heart uplift | E |
Behold the Gift | E |
Thy glory and my glory and my child | E |
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III | A |
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And our eyes were opened eyes that had been holden | N |
And I saw the world and the fruits thereof | O |
And I saw their glories scarlet stained and golden | N |
All a crumbled dust beneath the feet of Love | O |
And I saw their dreams all of nothing worth | P |
But a path for Love for Him to walk above | O |
And I saw new heaven and new earth | P |
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IV | O |
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The grass is full of murmurs | Q |
The sky is full of wings | R |
The earth is full of breath | G |
With voices choir on choir | F |
With tongues of fire | F |
They sing how Life out sings | R |
Out numbers Death | G |
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V | O |
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Who are these that fly | A |
As doves and as doves to the windows | S |
Doves like hovering dreams round Love that slumbereth | G |
Silvering clouds blown by | A |
Doves and doves to the windows | S |
Warm through the radiant sky their wings beat breath | G |
They are the world's new born | T |
Doves doves to the windows | S |
Lighting as flakes of snow | U |
Lighting as flakes of flame | V |
Some to the fair sown furrows | S |
Some to the huts and burrows | S |
Choked of the mire and thorn | T |
Deep in the city's shame | V |
Wind scattered wreaths they go | U |
Doves and doves to the windows | S |
Some for worshipping arms to shelter and fold and shrine | W |
Some to be torn and trodden | N |
Withered and waste and sodden | N |
Pitiful sacred leaves from Life's dishonored vine | W |
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VI | A |
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O Vine of Life that in these reaching fingers | S |
Urges a sunward way | J |
Hold here and climb and halt not that there lingers | S |
So far outstripped my halting wistful clay | J |
Make here thy foothold of my rapturous heart | E |
Yea though the tendrils start | E |
To hold and twine | W |
I am the heart that nursed | E |
Thy sunward thirst | E |
A little while a little while O Vine | W |
My own and never mine | W |
Feed thy sweet roots with me | O |
Abundantly | O |
O wonder wildness of the pushing Bud | E |
With hunger at the flood | E |
Climb on and seek and spurn | K |
Let my dull spirit learn | K |
To follow with its longing as it may | J |
While thou seek higher day | J |
But thou the reach of my own heart's desire | F |
Be free as fire | F |
Still climb and cling and so | U |
Outstrip outgrow | U |
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O Vine of Life my own and not my own | X |
So far am I outgrown | X |
High as I may I lift thee Soul's Desire | F |
Lift thou me higher | F |
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And thou Wayfaring Woman whom I meet | E |
On all the highways every brimming street | E |
Lady Demeter is it thou grown gaunt | E |
With work and want | E |
At last and with what shamed and stricken eyes | S |
I see through thy disguise | S |
Of drudge and Exile even the holy boon | Y |
That silvers yonder in the Harvest moon | Y |
That dimly under glows | S |
The furrows of thy worn immortal face | S |
With mother grace | S |
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O Queen and Burden bearer what of those | S |
To whom thou gavest the lily and the rose | S |
Of thy far youth For whom | H |
Out of the wondrous loom | H |
Of thine enduring body thou didst make | Z |
Garments of beauty cunningly adorned | E |
But only for Death's sake | Z |
Largess of life but to lie waste and scorned | E |
Could not such cost of pain | A2 |
Nor daily utmost of thy toil prevail | B2 |
But they must fade and pale | B2 |
And wither from thy desolated throne | X |
And still no Summer give thee back again | C2 |
Thine own | X |
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Lady of Sorrows Mother Drudge august | E |
Behold me in the dust | E |
Josephine Preston Peabody
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