A Death In The Desert Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEBFGHIEI AJKLIMNC OPQARLII STIIBU OVWXYZA2B2IOD C2ZZZD2AIIZ ZE2F2 AZZIIZB2 IIZG2H2I2 IAJ2K2K2IAZL2M2R N2AZIIAIZAIIAZZL2IO2 P2AITAI ZQ2M2R2S2T2U2IBV2BAW 2IX2AY2IAI X2Y2ABIIB2I IN2Z ZM2N2ZZZZS2IZK2ZS2ZY ZZI AZZAZK2Z2IA3B2B3ZZC3 ZCZIZL2ZZZID3ZE3ZZIZ ZF3M2G3ZZIII A2BI2ZIW2AZCZBIIZABZ IZH3L2BIC BIIZIZI3IZIIJ3BZZII2 BZIZ L2ZX2IZZW2ZU2ZIZIL2K 3L2ZZX2IVZIZIF2ZX2X2 ZIVBL2ZZABAAZL3BM3ZB IVBAZZZVAX2ZZATX2N3I IZ IL2ZZZX2ZL2B3IZZN2A ZBO3I X2B3ZZI IW2BZAIAZZIZZ A2P3AZIIIL2AZZIS2ZI ZZIIIZZX2AY2ITS2ZX2I IZQ3TIZZZZIIZIR3IZII AIA2IZS3ZL2II3BIX2IZ IZV2IR3ZA V2I C2S2AIN2IW2BD3AZIABL 2IT3ZZAS2S2AZP2ZIH A RX2BAL2X2Z ZS2 ZF2ZIS2G2PZIU3ZIZIZX 2O3G2 BAIZIIS2Z X2ZZ AN2V3IG2 X2 X2ZS2S2Z X2AZTII RIIIAZIW3U3F2NZV2ZAA IAZBIZBW3I3 ZIX2I3A3ZZZI IX2IX2IL3IX2IW3R3X3L 3X2IAZW2B N2IX2IIZS2W2S2ZS2ZZS 2IAS2IH3ZZIZZZZZAIAX 2AZIBI3ZT2ZHZIZX2III BZIIZT2S2IG2IT2ZIIL3 I2IIN2ZAZII ITII ZIAZZIX2IZS2Y3IN2IS2 ZAZ I AS2IIX2AZTZIX2IZIZZI AIZZZ Z

Supposed of Pamphylax the Antiochene	A
It is a parchment of my rolls the fifth	B
Hath three skins glued together is all Greek	C
And goeth from Epsilon down to Mu	D
Lies second in the surnamed Chosen Chest	E
Stained and conserved with juice of terebinth	B
Covered with cloth of hair and lettered Xi	F
From Xanthus my wife's uncle now at peace	G
Mu and Epsilon stand for my own name	H
I may not write it but I make a cross	I
To show I wait His coming with the rest	E
And leave off here beginneth Pamphylax	I
	-
I said If one should wet his lips with wine	A
And slip the broadest plantain leaf we find	J
Or else the lappet of a linen robe	K
Into the water vessel lay it right	L
And cool his forehead just above the eyes	I
The while a brother kneeling either side	M
Should chafe each hand and try to make it warm	N
He is not so far gone but he might speak	C
	-
This did not happen in the outer cave	O
Nor in the secret chamber of the rock	P
Where sixty days since the decree was out	Q
We had him bedded on a camel skin	A
And waited for his dying all the while	R
But in the midmost grotto since noon's light	L
Reached there a little and we would not lose	I
The last of what might happen on his face	I
	-
I at the head and Xanthus at the feet	S
With Valens and the Boy had lifted him	T
And brought him from the chamber in the depths	I
And laid him in the light where we might see	I
For certain smiles began about his mouth	B
And his lids moved presageful of the end	U
	-
Beyond and half way up the mouth o' the cave	O
The Bactrian convert having his desire	V
Kept watch and made pretence to graze a goat	W
That gave us milk on rags of various herb	X
Plantain and quitch the rocks' shade keeps alive	Y
So that if any thief or soldier passed	Z
Because the persecution was aware	A2
Yielding the goat up promptly with his life	B2
Such man might pass on joyful at a prize	I
Nor care to pry into the cool o' the cave	O
Outside was all noon and the burning blue	D
	-
Here is wine answered Xanthus dropped a drop	C2
I stooped and placed the lap of cloth aright	Z
Then chafed his right hand and the Boy his left	Z
But Valens had bethought him and produced	Z
And broke a ball of nard and made perfume	D2
Only he did not so much wake as turn	A
And smile a little as a sleeper does	I
If any dear one call him touch his face	I
And smiles and loves but will not be disturbed	Z
	-
Then Xanthus said a prayer but still he slept	Z
It is the Xanthus that escaped to Rome	E2
Was burned and could not write the chronicle	F2
	-
Then the Boy sprang up from his knees and ran	A
Stung by the splendour of a sudden thought	Z
And fetched the seventh plate of graven lead	Z
Out of the secret chamber found a place	I
Pressing with finger on the deeper dints	I
And spoke as 't were his mouth proclaiming first	Z
I am the Resurrection and the Life	B2
	-
Whereat he opened his eyes wide at once	I
And sat up of himself and looked at us	I
And thenceforth nobody pronounced a word	Z
Only outside the Bactrian cried his cry	G2
Like the lone desert bird that wears the ruff	H2
As signal we were safe from time to time	I2
	-
First he said If a friend declared to me	I
This my son Valens this my other son	A
Were James and Peter nay declared as well	J2
This lad was very John I could believe	K2
Could for a moment doubtlessly believe	K2
So is myself withdrawn into my depths	I
The soul retreated from the perished brain	A
Whence it was wont to feel and use the world	Z
Through these dull members done with long ago	L2
Yet I myself remain I feel myself	M2
And there is nothing lost Let be awhile	R
	-
This is the doctrine he was wont to teach	N2
How divers persons witness in each man	A
Three souls which make up one soul first to wit	Z
A soul of each and all the bodily parts	I
Seated therein which works and is what Does	I
And has the use of earth and ends the man	A
Downward but tending upward for advice	I
Grows into and again is grown into	Z
By the next soul which seated in the brain	A
Useth the first with its collected use	I
And feeleth thinketh willeth is what Knows	I
Which duly tending upward in its turn	A
Grows into and again is grown into	Z
By the last soul that uses both the first	Z
Subsisting whether they assist or no	L2
And constituting man's self is what Is	I
And leans upon the former makes it play	O2
As that played off the first and tending up	P2
Holds is upheld by God and ends the man	A
Upward in that dread point of intercourse	I
Nor needs a place for it returns to Him	T
What Does what Knows what Is three souls one man	A
I give the glossa of Theotypas	I
	-
And then A stick once fire from end to end	Z
Now ashes save the tip that holds a spark	Q2
Yet blow the spark it runs back spreads itself	M2
A little where the fire was thus I urge	R2
The soul that served me till it task once more	S2
What ashes of my brain have kept their shape	T2
And these make effort on the last o' the flesh	U2
Trying to taste again the truth of things	I
He smiled their very superficial truth	B
As that ye are my sons that it is long	V2
Since James and Peter had release by death	B
And I am only he your brother John	A
Who saw and heard and could remember all	W2
Remember all It is not much to say	I
What if the truth broke on me from above	X2
As once and oft times Such might hap again	A
Doubtlessly He might stand in presence here	Y2
With head wool white eyes flame and feet like brass	I
The sword and the seven stars as I have seen	A
I who now shudder only and surmise	I
How did your brother bear that sight and live '	-
	-
If I live yet it is for good more love	X2
Through me to men be nought but ashes here	Y2
That keep awhile my semblance who was John	A
Still when they scatter there is left on earth	B
No one alive who knew consider this	I
Saw with his eyes and handled with his hands	I
That which was from the first the Word of Life	B2
How will it be when none more saith 'I saw'	I
	-
Such ever was love's way to rise it stoops	I
Since I whom Christ's mouth taught was bidden teach	N2
I went for many years about the world	Z
Saying 'It was so so I heard and saw '	-
Speaking as the case asked and men believed	Z
Afterward came the message to myself	M2
In Patmos isle I was not bidden teach	N2
But simply listen take a book and write	Z
Nor set down other than the given word	Z
With nothing left to my arbitrament	Z
To choose or change I wrote and men believed	Z
Then for my time grew brief no message more	S2
No call to write again I found a way	I
And reasoning from my knowledge merely taught	Z
Men should for love's sake in love's strength believe	K2
Or I would pen a letter to a friend	Z
And urge the same as friend nor less nor more	S2
Friends said I reasoned rightly and believed	Z
But at the last why I seemed left alive	Y
Like a sea jelly weak on Patmos strand	Z
To tell dry sea beach gazers how I fared	Z
When there was mid sea and the mighty things	I
Left to repeat 'I saw I heard I knew '	-
And go all over the old ground again	A
With Antichrist already in the world	Z
And many Antichrists who answered prompt	Z
'Am I not Jasper as thyself art John	A
'Nay young whereas through age thou mayest forget	Z
'Wherefore explain or how shall we believe	K2
I never thought to call down fire on such	Z2
Or as in wonderful and early days	I
Pick up the scorpion tread the serpent dumb	A3
But patient stated much of the Lord's life	B2
Forgotten or misdelivered and let it work	B3
Since much that at the first in deed and word	Z
Lay simply and sufficiently exposed	Z
Had grown or else my soul was grown to match	C3
Fed through such years familiar with such light	Z
Guarded and guided still to see and speak	C
Of new significance and fresh result	Z
What first were guessed as points I now knew stars	I
And named them in the Gospel I have writ	Z
For men said 'It is getting long ago	L2
'Where is the promise of His coming ' asked	Z
These young ones in their strength as loth to wait	Z
Of me who when their sires were born was old	Z
I for I loved them answered joyfully	I
Since I was there and helpful in my age	D3
And in the main I think such men believed	Z
Finally thus endeavouring I fell sick	E3
Ye brought me here and I supposed the end	Z
And went to sleep with one thought that at least	Z
Though the whole earth should lie in wickedness	I
We had the truth might leave the rest to God	Z
Yet now I wake in such decrepitude	Z
As I had slidden down and fallen afar	F3
Past even the presence of my former self	M2
Grasping the while for stay at facts which snap	G3
Till I am found away from my own world	Z
Feeling for foot hold through a blank profound	Z
Along with unborn people in strange lands	I
Who say I hear said or conceive they say	I
'Was John at all and did he say he saw	I
'Assure us ere we ask what he might see '	-
	-
And how shall I assure them Can they share	A2
They who have flesh a veil of youth and strength	B
About each spirit that needs must bide its time	I2
Living and learning still as years assist	Z
Which wear the thickness thin and let man see	I
With me who hardly am withheld at all	W2
But shudderingly scarce a shred between	A
Lie bare to the universal prick of light	Z
Is it for nothing we grow old and weak	C
We whom God loves When pain ends gain ends too	Z
To me that story ay that Life and Death	B
Of which I wrote 'it was' to me it is	I
Is here and now I apprehend nought else	I
Is not God now i' the world His power first made	Z
Is not His love at issue still with sin	A
Visibly when a wrong is done on earth	B
Love wrong and pain what see I else around	Z
Yea and the Resurrection and Uprise	I
To the right hand of the throne what is it beside	Z
When such truth breaking bounds o'erfloods my soul	H3
And as I saw the sin and death even so	L2
See I the need yet transiency of both	B
The good and glory consummated thence	I
I saw the power I see the Love once weak	C
Resume the Power and in this word 'I see '	-
Lo there is recognized the Spirit of both	B
That moving o'er the spirit of man unblinds	I
His eye and bids him look These are I see	I
But ye the children His beloved ones too	Z
Ye need as I should use an optic glass	I
I wondered at erewhile somewhere i' the world	Z
It had been given a crafty smith to make	I3
A tube he turned on objects brought too close	I
Lying confusedly insubordinate	Z
For the unassisted eye to master once	I
Look through his tube at distance now they lay	I
Become succinct distinct so small so clear	J3
Just thus ye needs must apprehend what truth	B
I see reduced to plain historic fact	Z
Diminished into clearness proved a point	Z
And far away ye would withdraw your sense	I
From out eternity strain it upon time	I2
Then stand before that fact that Life and Death	B
Stay there at gaze till it dispart dispread	Z
As though a star should open out all sides	I
Grow the world on you as it is my world	Z
	-
For life with all it yields of joy and woe	L2
And hope and fear believe the aged friend	Z
Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love	X2
How love might be hath been indeed and is	I
And that we hold thenceforth to the uttermost	Z
Such prize despite the envy of the world	Z
And having gained truth keep truth that is all	W2
But see the double way wherein we are led	Z
How the soul learns diversely from the flesh	U2
With flesh that hath so little time to stay	Z
And yields mere basement for the soul's emprise	I
Expect prompt teaching Helpful was the light	Z
And warmth was cherishing and food was choice	I
To every man's flesh thousand years ago	L2
As now to yours and mine the body sprang	K3
At once to the height and stayed but the soul no	L2
Since sages who this noontide meditate	Z
In Rome or Athens may descry some point	Z
Of the eternal power hid yestereve	X2
And as thereby the power's whole mass extends	I
So much extends the ther floating o'er	V
The love that tops the might the Christ in God	Z
Then as new lessons shall be learned in these	I
Till earth's work stop and useless time run out	Z
So duly daily needs provision be	I
For keeping the soul's prowess possible	F2
Building new barriers as the old decay	Z
Saving us from evasion of life's proof	X2
Putting the question ever 'Does God love	X2
'And will ye hold that truth against the world '	-
Ye know there needs no second proof with good	Z
Gained for our flesh from any earthly source	I
We might go freezing ages give us fire	V
Thereafter we judge fire at its full worth	B
And guard it safe through every chance ye know	L2
That fable of Prometheus and his theft	Z
How mortals gained Jove's fiery flower grows old	Z
I have been used to hear the pagans own	A
And out of mind but fire howe'er its birth	B
Here is it precious to the sophist now	A
Who laughs the myth of schylus to scorn	A
As precious to those satyrs of his play	Z
Who touched it in gay wonder at the thing	L3
While were it so with the soul this gift of truth	B
Once grasped were this our soul's gain safe and sure	M3
To prosper as the body's gain is wont	Z
Why man's probation would conclude his earth	B
Crumble for he both reasons and decides	I
Weighs first then chooses will he give up fire	V
For gold or purple once he knows its worth	B
Could he give Christ up were His worth as plain	A
Therefore I say to test man the proofs shift	Z
Nor may he grasp that fact like other fact	Z
And straightway in his life acknowledge it	Z
As say the indubitable bliss of fire	V
Sigh ye 'It had been easier once than now'	A
To give you answer I am left alive	X2
Look at me who was present from the first	Z
Ye know what things I saw then came a test	Z
My first befitting me who so had seen	A
'Forsake the Christ thou sawest transfigured Him	T
'Who trod the sea and brought the dead to life	X2
'What should wring this from thee ' ye laugh and ask	N3
What wrung it Even a torchlight and a noise	I
The sudden Roman faces violent hands	I
And fear of what the Jews might do Just that	Z
And it is written 'I forsook and fled '	-
There was my trial and it ended thus	I
Ay but my soul had gained its truth could grow	L2
Another year or two what little child	Z
What tender woman that had seen no least	Z
Of all my sights but barely heard them told	Z
Who did not clasp the cross with a light laugh	X2
Or wrap the burning robe round thanking God	Z
Well was truth safe for ever then Not so	L2
Already had begun the silent work	B3
Whereby truth deadened of its absolute blaze	I
Might need love's eye to pierce the o'erstretched doubt	Z
Teachers were busy whispering 'All is true	Z
'As the aged ones report but youth can reach	N2
'Where age gropes dimly weak with stir and strain	A
'And the full doctrine slumbers till to day '	-
Thus what the Roman's lowered spear was found	Z
A bar to me who touched and handled truth	B
Now proved the glozing of some new shrewd tongue	O3
This Ebion this Cerinthus or their mates	I
Till imminent was the outcry 'Save our Christ '	-
Whereon I stated much of the Lord's life	X2
Forgotten or misdelivered and let it work	B3
Such work done as it will be what comes next	Z
What do I hear say or conceive men say	Z
'Was John at all and did he say he saw	I
'Assure us ere we ask what he might see '	-
	-
Is this indeed a burthen for late days	I
And may I help to bear it with you all	W2
Using my weakness which becomes your strength	B
For if a babe were born inside this grot	Z
Grew to a boy here heard us praise the sun	A
Yet had but yon sole glimmer in light's place	I
One loving him and wishful he should learn	A
Would much rejoice himself was blinded first	Z
Month by month here so made to understand	Z
How eyes born darkling apprehend amiss	I
I think I could explain to such a child	Z
There was more glow outside than gleams he caught	Z
Ay nor need urge 'I saw it so believe '	-
It is a heavy burthen you shall bear	A2
In latter days new lands or old grown strange	P3
Left without me which must be very soon	A
What is the doubt my brothers Quick with it	Z
I see you stand conversing each new face	I
Either in fields of yellow summer eves	I
On islets yet unnamed amid the sea	I
Or pace for shelter 'neath a portico	L2
Out of the crowd in some enormous town	A
Where now the larks sing in a solitude	Z
Or muse upon blank heaps of stone and sand	Z
Idly conjectured to be Ephesus	I
And no one asks his fellow any more	S2
'Where is the promise of His coming ' but	Z
'Was he revealed in any of His lives	I
'As Power as Love as Influencing Soul '	-
	-
Quick for time presses tell the whole mind out	Z
And let us ask and answer and be saved	Z
My book speaks on because it cannot pass	I
One listens quietly nor scoffs but pleads	I
'Here is a tale of things done ages since	I
'What truth was ever told the second day	Z
'Wonders that would prove doctrine go for nought	Z
'Remains the doctrine love well we must love	X2
'And what we love most power and love in one	A
'Let us acknowledge on the record here	Y2
'Accepting these in Christ must Christ then be	I
'Has He been Did not we ourselves make Him	T
'Our mind receives but what it holds no more	S2
'First of the love then we acknowledge Christ	Z
'A proof we comprehend His love a proof	X2
'We had such love already in ourselves	I
'Knew first what else we should not recognize	I
''Tis mere projection from man's inmost mind	Z
'And what he loves thus falls reflected back	Q3
'Becomes accounted somewhat out of him	T
'He throws it up in air it drops down earth's	I
'With shape name story added man's old way	Z
'How prove you Christ came otherwise at least	Z
'Next try the power He made and rules the world	Z
'Certes there is a world once made now ruled	Z
'Unless things have been ever as we see	I
'Our sires declared a charioteer's yoked steeds	I
'Brought the sun up the east and down the west	Z
'Which only of itself now rises sets	I
'As if a hand impelled it and a will	R3
'Thus they long thought they who had will and hands	I
'But the new question's whisper is distinct	Z
'Wherefore must all force needs be like ourselves	I
'We have the hands the will what made and drives	I
'The sun is force is law is named not known	A
'While will and love we do know marks of these	I
'Eye witnesses attest so books declare	A2
'As that to punish or reward our race	I
'The sun at undue times arose or set	Z
'Or else stood still what do not men affirm	S3
'But earth requires as urgently reward	Z
'Or punishment to day as years ago	L2
'And none expects the sun will interpose	I
'Therefore it was mere passion and mistake	I3
'Or erring zeal for right which changed the truth	B
'Go back far farther to the birth of things	I
'Ever the will the intelligence the love	X2
'Man's which he gives supposing he but finds	I
'As late he gave head body hands and feet	Z
'To help these in what forms he called his gods	I
'First Jove's brow Juno's eyes were swept away	Z
'But Jove's wrath Juno's pride continued long	V2
'As last will power and love discarded these	I
'So law in turn discards power love and will	R3
'What proveth God is otherwise at least	Z
'All else projection from the mind of man	A
	-
Nay do not give me wine for I am strong	V2
But place my gospel where I put my hands	I
	-
I say that man was made to grow not stop	C2
That help he needed once and needs no more	S2
Having grown but an inch by is withdrawn	A
For he hath new needs and new helps to these	I
This imports solely man should mount on each	N2
New height in view the help whereby he mounts	I
The ladder rung his foot has left may fall	W2
Since all things suffer change save God the Truth	B
Man apprehends Him newly at each stage	D3
Whereat earth's ladder drops its service done	A
And nothing shall prove twice what once was proved	Z
You stick a garden plot with ordered twigs	I
To show inside lie germs of herbs unborn	A
And check the careless step would spoil their birth	B
But when herbs wave the guardian twigs may go	L2
Since should ye doubt of virtues question kinds	I
It is no longer for old twigs ye look	T3
Which proved once underneath lay store of seed	Z
But to the herb's self by what light ye boast	Z
For what fruit's signs are This book's fruit is plain	A
Nor miracles need prove it any more	S2
Doth the fruit show Then miracles bade 'ware	S2
At first of root and stem saved both till now	A
From trampling ox rough boar and wanton goat	Z
What Was man made a wheelwork to wind up	P2
And be discharged and straight wound up anew	Z
No grown his growth lasts taught he ne'er forgets	I
May learn a thousand things not twice the same	H
	-
This might be pagan teaching now hear mine	A
	-
I say that as the babe you feed awhile	R
Becomes a boy and fit to feed himself	X2
So minds at first must be spoon fed with truth	B
When they can eat babe's nurture is withdrawn	A
I fed the babe whether it would or no	L2
I bid the boy or feed himself or starve	X2
I cried once 'That ye may believe in Christ	Z
'Behold this blind man shall receive his sight '	-
I cry now 'Urgest thou for I am shrewd	Z
'And smile at stories how John's word could cure	S2
'Repeat that miracle and take my faith '	-
I say that miracle was duly wrought	Z
When save for it no faith was possible	F2
Whether a change were wrought i' the shows o' the world	Z
Whether the change came from our minds which see	I
Of shows o' the world so much as and no more	S2
Than God wills for His purpose what do I	G2
See now suppose you there where you see rock	P
Round us I know not such was the effect	Z
So faith grew making void more miracles	I
Because too much they would compel not help	U3
I say the acknowledgment of God in Christ	Z
Accepted by thy reason solves for thee	I
All questions in the earth and out of it	Z
And has so far advanced thee to be wise	I
Wouldst thou unprove this to re prove the proved	Z
In life's mere minute with power to use that proof	X2
Leave knowledge and revert to how it sprung	O3
Thou hast it use it and forthwith or die	G2
	-
For I say this is death and the sole death	B
When a man's loss comes to him from his gain	A
Darkness from light from knowledge ignorance	I
And lack of love from love made manifest	Z
A lamp's death when replete with oil it chokes	I
A stomach's when surcharged with food it starves	I
With Ignorance was surety of a cure	S2
When man appalled at nature questioned first	Z
'What if there lurk a might behind this might '	-
He needed satisfaction God could give	X2
And did give as ye have the written word	Z
But when he finds might still redouble might	Z
Yet asks 'Since all is might what use of will '	-
Will the one source of might he being man	A
With a man's will and a man's might to teach	N2
In little how the two combine in large	V3
That man has turned round on himself and stands	I
Which in the course of nature is to die	G2
	-
And when man questioned 'What if there be love	X2
'Behind the will and might as real as they '	-
He needed satisfaction God could give	X2
And did give as ye have the written word	Z
But when beholding that love everywhere	S2
He reasons 'Since such love is everywhere	S2
'And since ourselves can love and would be loved	Z
'We ourselves make the love and Christ was not '	-
How shall ye help this man who knows himself	X2
That he must love and would be loved again	A
Yet owning his own love that proveth Christ	Z
Rejecteth Christ though very need of Him	T
The lamp o'erswims with oil the stomach flags	I
Loaded with nurture and that man's soul dies	I
	-
If he rejoin 'But this was all the while	R
'A trick the fault was first of all in thee	I
'Thy story of the places names and dates	I
'Where when and how the ultimate truth had rise	I
'Thy prior truth at last discovered none	A
'Whence now the second suffers detriment	Z
'What good of giving knowledge if because	I
'O' the manner of the gift its profit fail	W3
'And why refuse what modicum of help	U3
'Had stopped the after doubt impossible	F2
'I' the face of truth truth absolute uniform	N
'Why must I hit of this and miss of that	Z
'Distinguish just as I be weak or strong	V2
'And not ask of thee and have answer prompt	Z
'Was this once was it not once then and now	A
'And evermore plain truth from man to man	A
'Is John's procedure just the heathen bard's	I
'Put question of his famous play again	A
'How for the ephemerals' sake Jove's fire was filched	Z
'And carried in a cane and brought to earth	B
'The fact is in the fable cry the wise	I
'Mortals obtained the boon so much is fact	Z
'Though fire be spirit and produced on earth	B
'As with the Titan's so now with thy tale	W3
'Why breed in us perplexity mistake	I3
'Nor tell the whole truth in the proper words '	-
	-
I answer Have ye yet to argue out	Z
The very primal thesis plainest law	I
Man is not God but hath God's end to serve	X2
A master to obey a course to take	I3
Somewhat to cast off somewhat to become	A3
Grant this then man must pass from old to new	Z
From vain to real from mistake to fact	Z
From what once seemed good to what now proves best	Z
How could man have progression otherwise	I
Before the point was mooted 'What is God '	-
No savage man inquired 'What am myself '	-
Much less replied 'First last and best of things '	-
Man takes that title now if he believes	I
Might can exist with neither will nor love	X2
In God's case what he names now Nature's Law	I
While in himself he recognizes love	X2
No less than might and will and rightly takes	I
Since if man prove the sole existent thing	L3
Where these combine whatever their degree	I
However weak the might or will or love	X2
So they be found there put in evidence	I
He is as surely higher in the scale	W3
Than any might with neither love nor will	R3
As life apparent in the poorest midge	X3
When the faint dust speck flits ye guess its wing	L3
Is marvellous beyond dead Atlas' self	X2
Given to the nobler midge for resting place	I
Thus man proves best and highest God in fine	A
And thus the victory leads but to defeat	Z
The gain to loss best rise to the worst fall	W2
His life becomes impossible which is death	B
	-
But if appealing thence he cower avouch	N2
He is mere man and in humility	I
Neither may know God nor mistake himself	X2
I point to the immediate consequence	I
And say by such confession straight he falls	I
Into man's place a thing nor God nor beast	Z
Made to know that he can know and not more	S2
Lower than God who knows all and can all	W2
Higher than beasts which know and can so far	S2
As each beast's limit perfect to an end	Z
Nor conscious that they know nor craving more	S2
While man knows partly but conceives beside	Z
Creeps ever on from fancies to the fact	Z
And in this striving this converting air	S2
Into a solid he may grasp and use	I
Finds progress man's distinctive mark alone	A
Not God's and not the beasts' God is they are	S2
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be	I
Such progress could no more attend his soul	H3
Were all it struggles after found at first	Z
And guesses changed to knowledge absolute	Z
Than motion wait his body were all else	I
Than it the solid earth on every side	Z
Where now through space he moves from rest to rest	Z
Man therefore thus conditioned must expect	Z
He could not what he knows now know at first	Z
What he considers that he knows to day	Z
Come but to morrow he will find misknown	A
Getting increase of knowledge since he learns	I
Because he lives which is to be a man	A
Set to instruct himself by his past self	X2
First like the brute obliged by facts to learn	A
Next as man may obliged by his own mind	Z
Bent habit nature knowledge turned to law	I
God's gift was that man should conceive of truth	B
And yearn to gain it catching at mistake	I3
As midway help till he reach fact indeed	Z
The statuary ere he mould a shape	T2
Boasts a like gift the shape's idea and next	Z
The aspiration to produce the same	H
So taking clay he calls his shape thereout	Z
Cries ever 'Now I have the thing I see'	I
Yet all the while goes changing what was wrought	Z
From falsehood like the truth to truth itself	X2
How were it had he cried 'I see no face	I
'No breast no feet i' the ineffectual clay'	I
Rather commend him that he clapped his hands	I
And laughed 'It is my shape and lives again '	-
EnJoyed the falsehood touched it on to truth	B
Until yourselves applaud the flesh indeed	Z
In what is still flesh imitating clay	I
Right in you right in him such way be man's	I
God only makes the live shape at a jet	Z
Will ye renounce this pact of creatureship	T2
The pattern on the Mount subsists no more	S2
Seemed awhile then returned to nothingness	I
But copies Moses strove to make thereby	G2
Serve still and are replaced as time requires	I
By these make newest vessels reach the type	T2
If ye demur this judgment on your head	Z
Never to reach the ultimate angel's law	I
Indulging every instinct of the soul	I
There where law life joy impulse are one thing	L3
	-
Such is the burthen of the latest time	I2
I have survived to hear it with my ears	I
Answer it with my lips does this suffice	I
For if there be a further woe than such	N2
Wherein my brothers struggling need a hand	Z
So long as any pulse is left in mine	A
May I be absent even longer yet	Z
Plucking the blind ones back from the abyss	I
Though I should tarry a new hundred years	I
	-
But he was dead 'twas about noon the day	I
Somewhat declining we five buried him	T
That eve and then dividing went five ways	I
And I disguised returned to Ephesus	I
	-
By this the cave's mouth must be filled with sand	Z
Valens is lost I know not of his trace	I
The Bactrian was but a wild childish man	A
And could not write nor speak but only loved	Z
So lest the memory of this go quite	Z
Seeing that I to morrow fight the beasts	I
I tell the same to Phoebas whom believe	X2
For many look again to find that face	I
Beloved John's to whom I ministered	Z
Somewhere in life about the world they err	S2
Either mistaking what was darkly spoke	Y3
At ending of his book as he relates	I
Or misconceiving somewhat of this speech	N2
Scattered from mouth to mouth as I suppose	I
Believe ye will not see him any more	S2
About the world with his divine regard	Z
For all was as I say and now the man	A
Lies as he lay once breast to breast with God	Z
	-
Cerinthus read and mused one added this	I
	-
If Christ as thou affirmest be of men	A
Mere man the first and best but nothing more	S2
Account Him for reward of what He was	I
Now and for ever wretchedest of all	I
For see Himself conceived of life as love	X2
Conceived of love as what must enter in	A
Fill up make one with His each soul He loved	Z
Thus much for man's joy all men's joy for Him	T
Well He is gone thou sayest to fit reward	Z
But by this time are many souls set free	I
And very many still retained alive	X2
Nay should His coming be delayed awhile	I
Say ten years longer twelve years some compute	Z
See if for every finger of thy hands	I
There be not found that day the world shall end	Z
Hundreds of souls each holding by Christ's word	Z
That He will grow incorporate with all	I
With me as Pamphylax with him as John	A
Groom for each bride Can a mere man do this	I
Yet Christ saith this He lived and died to do	Z
Call Christ then the illimitable God	Z
Or lost	Z
	-
But 'twas Cerinthus that is lost	Z

Robert Browning

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