Satan Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBABDD EFGHEFII JKJKJKLL MMMMMMKK NONNKPQ RSRSRSTT| Below the bottom of the great Abyss | A |
| There where one centre reconciles all things | B |
| The world's profound heart pants there placed is | C |
| Mischief's old Master close about him clings | B |
| A curled knot of embracing snakes that kiss | A |
| His correspondent cheeks these loathsome strings | B |
| Hold the perverse prince in eternal ties | D |
| Fast bound since first he forfeited the skies | D |
| - | |
| Heaven's golden winged herald late he saw | E |
| To a poor Galilean virgin sent | F |
| How long the bright youth bowed and with what awe | G |
| Immortal flowers to her fair hand present | H |
| He saw the old Hebrew's womb neglect the law | E |
| Of age and barrenness and her Babe prevent | F |
| His birth by his devotion who began | I |
| Betimes to be a saint before a man | I |
| - | |
| Yet on the other side fain would he start | J |
| Above his fears and think it cannot be | K |
| He studies Scripture strives to sound the heart | J |
| And feel the pulse of every prophecy | K |
| He knows but knows not how or by what art | J |
| The heaven expecting ages hope to see | K |
| A mighty Babe whose pure unspotted birth | L |
| From a chaste virgin womb should bless the earth | L |
| - | |
| But these vast mysteries his senses smother | M |
| And reason for what's faith to him devour | M |
| How she that is a maid should prove a mother | M |
| Yet keep inviolate her virgin flower | M |
| How God's eternal Son should be man's brother | M |
| Poseth his proudest intellectual power | M |
| How a pure spirit should incarnate be | K |
| And life itself wear death's frail livery | K |
| - | |
| That the great angel blinding light should shrink | N |
| His blaze to shine in a poor shepherd's eye | O |
| That the unmeasured God so low should sink | N |
| As prisoner in a few poor rags to lie milk should drink | N |
| Who feeds with nectar Heaven's fair family | K |
| That a vile manger his low bed should prove | P |
| Who in a throne of stars thunders above | Q |
| - | |
| That He whom the sun serves should faintly peep | R |
| Through clouds of infant flesh that He the old | S |
| Eternal Word would be a child and weep | R |
| That He who made the fire should feel the cold | S |
| That Heaven's high Majesty his court should keep | R |
| In a clay cottage by each blast controlled | S |
| That Glory's self should serve our griefs and fears | T |
| And free Eternity submit to years | T |
Richard Crashaw
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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