The Cathedral Of Rheims Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A ABBACDDCECFGF HIIHAJJAKAAKLMLMNNOO GGPAAP BQRRSSAAAA CGCGTTTTA ALLUUVVWWX XAYYAFZZFA2B2B2A2 YAC2YLD2NND2LFrom the French of Emile Verhaeren | A |
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He who walks through the meadows of Champagne | A |
At noon in Fall when leaves like gold appear | B |
Sees it draw near | B |
Like some great mountain set upon the plain | A |
From radiant dawn until the close of day | C |
Nearer it grows | D |
To him who goes | D |
Across the country When tall towers lay | C |
Their shadowy pall | E |
Upon his way | C |
He enters where | F |
The solid stone is hollowed deep by all | G |
Its centuries of beauty and of prayer | F |
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Ancient French temple thou whose hundred kings | H |
Watch over thee emblazoned on thy walls | I |
Tell me within thy memory hallowed halls | I |
What chant of triumph or what war song rings | H |
Thou hast known Clovis and his Frankish train | A |
Whose mighty hand Saint Remy's hand did keep | J |
And in thy spacious vault perhaps may sleep | J |
An echo of the voice of Charlemagne | A |
For God thou has known fear when from His side | K |
Men wandered seeking alien shrines and new | A |
But still the sky was bountiful and blue | A |
And thou wast crowned with France's love and pride | K |
Sacred thou art from pinnacle to base | L |
And in thy panes of gold and scarlet glass | M |
The setting sun sees thousandfold his face | L |
Sorrow and joy in stately silence pass | M |
Across thy walls the shadow and the light | N |
Around thy lofty pillars tapers white | N |
Illuminate with delicate sharp flames | O |
The brows of saints with venerable names | O |
And in the night erect a fiery wall | G |
A great but silent fervour burns in all | G |
Those simple folk who kneel pathetic dumb | P |
And know that down below beside the Rhine | A |
Cannon horses soldiers flags in line | A |
With blare of trumpets mighty armies come | P |
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Suddenly each knows fear | B |
Swift rumours pass that every one must hear | Q |
The hostile banners blaze against the sky | R |
And by the embassies mobs rage and cry | R |
Now war has come and peace is at an end | S |
On Paris town the German troops descend | S |
They are turned back and driven to Champagne | A |
And now as to so many weary men | A |
The glorious temple gives them welcome when | A |
It meets them at the bottom of the plain | A |
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At once they set their cannon in its way | C |
There is no gable now nor wall | G |
That does not suffer night and day | C |
As shot and shell in crushing torrents fall | G |
The stricken tocsin quivers through the tower | T |
The triple nave the apse the lonely choir | T |
Are circled hour by hour | T |
With thundering bands of fire | T |
And Death is scattered broadcast among men | A |
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And then | A |
That which was splendid with baptismal grace | L |
The stately arches soaring into space | L |
The transepts columns windows gray and gold | U |
The organ in whose tones the ocean rolled | U |
The crypts of mighty shades the dwelling places | V |
The Virgin's gentle hands the Saints' pure faces | V |
All even the pardoning hands of Christ the Lord | W |
Were struck and broken by the wanton sword | W |
Of sacrilegious lust | X |
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O beauty slain O glory in the dust | X |
Strong walls of faith most basely overthrown | A |
The crawling flames like adders glistening | Y |
Ate the white fabric of this lovely thing | Y |
Now from its soul arose a piteous moan | A |
The soul that always loved the just and fair | F |
Granite and marble loud their woe confessed | Z |
The silver monstrances that Popes had blessed | Z |
The chalices and lamps and crosiers rare | F |
Were seared and twisted by a flaming breath | A2 |
The horror everywhere did range and swell | B2 |
The guardian Saints into this furnace fell | B2 |
Their bitter tears and screams were stilled in death | A2 |
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Around the flames armed hosts are skirmishing | Y |
The burning sun reflects the lurid scene | A |
The German army fighting for its life | C2 |
Rallies its torn and terrified left wing | Y |
And as they near this place | L |
The imperial eagles see | D2 |
Before them in their flight | N |
Here in the solemn night | N |
The old cathedral to the years to be | D2 |
Showing with wounded arms their own disgrace | L |
Joyce Kilmer
(1)
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