Abt Vogler Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDEDF GHGHIJIJ KLMLNOPO QR R GSGS QTOTOUVVV WXWRKOYO VSVSOOOO OTOTOQOQ YDYDYZOZO YONONO O YYOYOA2TB2T YVYVYOC2OC2After he has been extemporizing upon the musical instrument of his invention | A |
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I | - |
Would that the structure brave the manifold music I build | B |
Bidding my organ obey calling its keys to their work | C |
Claiming each slave of the sound at a touch as when Solomon willed | B |
Armies of angels that soar legions of demons that lurk | C |
Man brute reptile fly alien of end and of aim | D |
Adverse each from the other heaven high hell deep removed | E |
Should rush into sight at once as he named the ineffable Name | D |
And pile him a palace straight to pleasure the princess he loved | F |
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II | - |
Would it might tarry like his the beautiful building of mine | G |
This which my keys in a crowd pressed and importuned to raise | H |
Ah one and all how they helped would dispart now and now combine | G |
Zealous to hasten the work heighten their master his praise | H |
And one would bury his brow with a blind plunge down to hell | I |
Burrow awhile and build broad on the roots of things | J |
Then up again swim into sight having based me my palace well | I |
Founded it fearless of flame flat on the nether springs | J |
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III | - |
And another would mount and march like the excellent minion he was | K |
Ay another and yet another one crowd but with many a crest | L |
Raising my rampired walls of gold as transparent as glass | M |
Eager to do and die yield each his place to the rest | L |
For higher still and higher as a runner tips with fire | N |
When a great illumination surprises a festal night | O |
Outlining round and round Rome's dome from space to spire | P |
Up the pinnacled glory reached and the pride of my soul was in sight | O |
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IV | Q |
In sight Not half for it seemed it was certain to match man s birth | R |
Nature in turn conceived obeying an impulse as I | - |
And the emulous heaven yearned down made effort to reach the earth | R |
As the earth had done her best in my passion to scale the sky | - |
Novel splendours burst forth grew familiar and dwelt with mine | G |
Not a point nor peak but found and fixed its wandering star | S |
Meteor moons balls of blaze and they did not pale nor pine | G |
For earth had attained to heaven there was no more near nor far | S |
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V | Q |
Nay more for there wanted not who walked in the glare and glow | T |
Presences plain in the place or fresh from the Protoplast | O |
Furnished for ages to come when a kindlier wind should blow | T |
Lured now to begin and live in a house to their liking at last | O |
Or else the wonderful Dead who have passed through the body and gone | U |
But were back once more to breathe in an old world worth their new | V |
What never had been was now what was as it shall be anon | V |
And what is shall I say matched both for I was made perfect too | V |
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VI | - |
All through my keys that gave their sounds to a wish of my soul | W |
All through my soul that praised as its wish flowed visibly forth | X |
All through music and me For think had I painted the whole | W |
Why there it had stood to see nor the process so wonder worth | R |
Had I written the same made verse still effect proceeds from cause | K |
Ye know why the forms are fair ye hear how the tale is told | O |
It is all triumphant art but art in obedience to laws | Y |
Painter and poet are proud in the artist list enrolled | O |
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VII | - |
But here is the finger of God a flash of the will that can | V |
Existent behind all laws that made them and lo they are | S |
And I know not if save in this such gift be allowed to man | V |
That out of three sounds he frame not a fourth sound but a star | S |
Consider it well each tone of our scale in itself is nought | O |
It is everywhere in the world loud soft and all is said | O |
Give it to me to use I mix it with two in my thought | O |
And there Ye have heard and seen consider and bow the head | O |
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VIII | - |
Well it is gone at last the palace of music I reared | O |
Gone and the good tears start the praises that come too slow | T |
For one is assured at first one scarce can say that he feared | O |
That he even gave it a thought the gone thing was to go | T |
Never to be again But many more of the kind | O |
As good nay better perchance is this your comfort to me | Q |
To me who must be saved because I cling with my mind | O |
To the same same self same love same God ay what was shall be | Q |
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IX | Y |
Therefore to whom turn I but to Thee the ineffable Name | D |
Builder and maker Thou of houses not made with hands | Y |
What have fear of change from Thee who art ever the same | D |
Doubt that Thy power can fill the heart that Thy power expands | Y |
There shall never be one lost good What was shall live as before | Z |
The evil is null is nought is silence implying sound | O |
What was good shall be good with for evil so much good more | Z |
On the earth the broken arcs in the heaven a perfect round | O |
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X | Y |
All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good shall exist | O |
Not its semblance but itself no beauty nor good nor power | N |
Whose voice has gone forth but each survives for the melodist | O |
When eternity affirms the conception of an hour | N |
The high that proved too high the heroic for earth too hard | O |
The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky | - |
Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard | O |
Enough that He heard it once we shall hear it by and by | - |
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XI | Y |
And what is our failure here but a triumph's evidence | Y |
For the fullness of the days Have we withered or agonized | O |
Why else was the pause prolonged but that singing might issue thence | Y |
Why rushed the discords in but that harmony should be prized | O |
Sorrow is hard to bear and doubt is slow to clear | A2 |
Each sufferer says his say his scheme of the weal and woe | T |
But God has a few of us whom He whispers in the ear | B2 |
The rest may reason and welcome 'tis we musicians know | T |
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XII | Y |
Well it is earth with me silence resumes her reign | V |
I will be patient and proud and soberly acquiesce | Y |
Give me the keys I feel for the common chord again | V |
Sliding by semitones till I sink to the minor yes | Y |
And I blunt it into a ninth and I stand on alien ground | O |
Surveying awhile the heights I rolled from into the deep | C2 |
Which hark I have dared and done for my resting place is found | O |
The C Major of this life so now I will try to sleep | C2 |
Robert Browning
(1)
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