The Old And The New Masters Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST U VVWUAXNTXXYXDZA2B2C2 UXXTD2D2XE2ND2D F2TD2XF2D2XD2XXDG2

About suffering about adoration the old mastersA
Disagree When someone suffers no one else eatsB
Or walks or opens the window no one breathesC
As the sufferers watch the suffererD
In St Sebastian Mourned by St IreneE
The flame of one torch is the only lightF
All the eyes except the maidservant's she weepsG
And covers them with a cloth are fixed on the shaftH
Set in his chest like a column St Irene'sI
Hands are spread in the gesture of the MadonnaJ
Revealing accepting what she does not understandK
Her hands say Lo BeholdL
Beside her a monk's hooded head is bowed his handsM
Are put together in the work of mourningN
It is as if they were still looking at the lanceO
Piercing the side of Christ nailed on his crossP
The same nails pierce all their hands and feet the sameQ
Thin blood mixed with water trickles from their sidesR
The taste of vinegar is on every tongueS
That gasps My God my God why hast Thou forsaken meT
They watch they are the one thing in the worldU
-
So earlier everything is pointedV
In van der Goes' Nativity toward the nakedV
Shining baby like the needle of a compassW
The different orders and sizes of the worldU
The angels like Little People perched in the raftersA
Or hovering in mid air like hummingbirdsX
The shepherds so big and crude so plainly adoringN
The medium sized donor his little familyT
And their big patron saints the Virgin who kneelsX
Before her child in worship the Magi out in the hillsX
With their camels they ask directions and have pointed outY
By a man kneeling the true way the oxX
And the donkey two heads in the mangerD
So much greater than a human head who also adoreZ
Even the offerings a sheaf of wheatA2
A jar and a glass of flowers are absolutely stillB2
In natural concentration as they take their partC2
In the salvation of the natural worldU
The time of the world concentratesX
On this one instant far off in the rocksX
You can see Mary and Joseph and their donkeyT
Coming to Bethlehem on the grassy hillsideD2
Where their flocks are grazing the shepherds gesticulateD2
In wonder at the star and so many hundredsX
Of years in the future the donor his wifeE2
And their children are kneeling looking everythingN
That was or will be in the world is fixedD2
On its small helpless human centerD
-
After a while the masters show the crucifixionF2
In one corner of the canvas the men come to seeT
What is important see that it is not importantD2
The new masters paint a subject as they pleaseX
And Veronese is prosecuted by the InquisitionF2
For the dogs playing at the feet of ChristD2
The earth is a planet among galaxiesX
Later Christ disappears the dogs disappear in abstractD2
Understanding without adoration the last master putsX
Colors on canvas a picture of the universeX
In which a bright spot somewhere in the cornerD
Is the small radioactive planet men called EarthG2

Randall Jarrell



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