The Sale Of Saint Thomas Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHEIJKLMNOEPQRS NTEUGGGGNGENGGNNNTNV GNGWGGXGYGZGNNNNNISA 2B2TGC2GJD2JGJNJWNE2 F2NWG2NNWH2I2J2NK2NL 2M2NN2GNNNGNGJGO2NP2 G Q2J R2J VGC2GN NS2GNO2NGGNN Q2JGT2S2JA quay with vessels moored | A |
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Thomas | B |
To India Yea here I may take ship | C |
From here the courses go over the seas | D |
Along which the intent prows wonderfully | E |
Nose like lean hounds and tack their journeys out | F |
Making for harbours as some sleuth was laid | G |
For them to follow on their shifting road | H |
Again I front my appointed ministry | E |
But why the Indian lot to me Why mine | I |
Such fearful gospelling For the Lord knew | J |
What a frail soul He gave me and a heart | K |
Lame and unlikely for the large events | L |
And this is worse than Baghdad though that was | M |
A fearful brink of travel But if the lots | N |
That gave to me the Indian duty were | O |
Shuffled by the unseen skill of Heaven surely | E |
That fear of mine in Baghdad was the same | P |
Marvellous Hand working again to guard | Q |
The landward gate of India from me There | R |
I stood waiting in the weak early dawn | S |
To start my journey the great caravan's | N |
Strange cattle with their snoring breaths made steam | T |
Upon the air and as I thought sadly | E |
The beasts at market booths and awnings gay | U |
Of shops the city's comfortable trade | G |
Lookt and then into months of plodding lookt | G |
And swiftly on my brain there came a wind | G |
Of vision and I saw the road mapt out | G |
Along the desert with a chalk of bones | N |
I saw a famine and the Afghan greed | G |
Waiting for us spears at our throats all we | E |
Made women by our hunger and I saw | N |
Gigantic thirst grieving our mouths with dust | G |
Scattering up against our breathing salt | G |
Of blown dried dung till the taste eat like fires | N |
Of a wild vinegar into our sheath d marrows | N |
And a sudden decay thicken'd all our bloods | N |
As rotten leaves in fall will baulk a stream | T |
Then my kill'd life the muncht food of jackals | N |
The wind of vision died in my brain and lo | V |
The jangling of the caravan's long gait | G |
Was small as the luting of a breeze in grass | N |
Upon my ears Into the waiting thirst | G |
Camels and merchants all were gone while I | W |
Had been in my amazement Was this not | G |
A sign God with a vision tript me lest | G |
Those tall fiends that ken for my approach | X |
In middle Asia Thirst and his grisly band | G |
Of plagues should with their brigand fingers stop | Y |
His message in my mouth Therefore I said | G |
If India is the place where I must preach | Z |
I am to go by ship not overland | G |
And here my ship is berthed But worse far worse | N |
Than Baghdad is this roadstead the brown sails | N |
All the enginery of going on sea | N |
The tackle and the rigging tholes and sweeps | N |
The prows built to put by the waves the masts | N |
Stayed for a hurricane and lo that line | I |
Of gilded water there the sun has drawn | S |
In a long narrow band of shining oil | A2 |
His light over the sea how evilly move | B2 |
Ripples along that golden skin the gleam | T |
Works like a muscular thing like the half gorged | G |
Sleepy swallowing of a serpent's neck | C2 |
The sea lives surely My eyes swear to it | G |
And like a murderous smile that glimpses through | J |
A villain's courtesy that twitching dazzle | D2 |
Parts the kind mood of weather to bewray | J |
The feasted waters of the sea stretched out | G |
In lazy gluttony expecting prey | J |
How fearful is this trade of sailing Worse | N |
Than all land evils is the water way | J |
Before me now What cowardice Nay why | W |
Trouble myself with ugly words 'Tis prudence | N |
And prudence is an admirable thing | E2 |
Yet here's much cost these packages piled up | F2 |
Ivory doubless emeralds gums and silks | N |
All these they trust on shipboard Ah but I | W |
I who have seen God I to put myself | G2 |
Amid the heathen outrage of the sea | N |
In a deal wood box It were plain folly | N |
There is naught more precious in the world than I | W |
I carry God in me to give to men | H2 |
And when has the sea been friendly unto man | I2 |
Let it but guess my errand it will call | J2 |
The dangers of the air to wreak upon me | N |
Winds to juggle the puny boat and pinch | K2 |
The water into unbelievable creases | N |
And shall my soul and God in my soul drown | L2 |
Or venture drowning But no no I am safe | M2 |
Smooth as believing souls over their deaths | N |
And over agonies shall slide henceforth | N2 |
To God so shall my way be blest amid | G |
The quiet crouching terrors of the sea | N |
Like panthers when a fire weakens their hearts | N |
Ay this huge sin of nature the salt sea | N |
Shall be afraid of me and of the mind | G |
Within me that with gesture speech and eyes | N |
Of the Messiah flames What element | G |
Dare snarl against my going what incubus dare | J |
Remember to be fiendish when I light | G |
My whole being with memory of Him | O2 |
The malice of the sea will slink from me | N |
And the air be harmless as a muzzled wolf | P2 |
For I am a torch and the flame of me is God | G |
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A Ship's Captain | Q2 |
You are my man my passenger | J |
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Thomas I am | R2 |
I go to India with you | J |
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Captain Well I hope so | V |
There's threatening in the weather Have you a mind | G |
To hug your belly to the slanted deck | C2 |
Like a louse on a whip top when the boat | G |
Spins on an axlie in the hissing gales | N |
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Thomas | N |
Fear not 'Tis likely indeed that storms are now | S2 |
Plotting against our voyage ay no doubt | G |
The very bottom of the sea prepares | N |
To stand up mountainous or reach a limb | O2 |
Out of his night of water and huge shingles | N |
That he and the waves may break our keel Fear not | G |
Like those who manage horses I've a word | G |
Will fasten up within their evil natures | N |
The meanings of the winds and waves and reefs | N |
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Captain | Q2 |
You have a talisman I have one too | J |
I know not if the storms think much of it | G |
I may be shark's meat yet And would your spell | T2 |
Be daunting to a cuttle think you now | S2 |
We had a bout with one on our way here | J |
Lascelles Abercrombie
(1)
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