An Epistle - Containing The Strange Medical Experience Of Karshish, The Arab Physician Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST UGGVGWGXYZA2B2C2D2GE 2B2YF2KG2H2I2J2YK2L2 GGGC2M2N2O2P2GB2Q2B2 B2G B2R2S2T2O2U2V2W2P2X2 GB2GP2Y2Z2O2 GGA3B3GUC3GGB2D3O2B2 GC3FGXC3W2E3D3C3B2F3 P2E3O2E3GG3H2P2UB3H3 I3O2GC3I3J3C3W2K3L3U E3M3O2JC3GGP2GC3C3XN 3C3B2P2XD2C3NC3Y2C3G GC3GC3C3GC3C3C3O3C3G GI3B2GGGVP3GC3GGQ3P2 R3UE3C3S3GGE3C3B2C3T 3C3C3B2C3U3C3V3C3B2G GGC3E3W3C3C3GX3C3P2Y 3C3B2C3Z3B2GGC3GW2GC 3A4B4C3B2C3P3C3GC3C4 D4GV3GGGE4C3C3C3C3 C3E4C3C3Z3UB2C3B2C3C 3G3E4GGF4C3C3B2M3C3C 3Z3C3E4G4GC3GC3UGGC3 B2C3H4C3GI4 C3J4B2GGB2C3C3C3M3C3 X3GB2GGC3GC3E4C3 K4GC3B2G4E4L4B2I4

Karshish the picker up of learning's crumbs	A
The not incurious in God's handiwork	B
This man's flesh he hath admirably made	C
Blown like a bubble kneaded like a paste	D
To coop up and keep down on earth a space	E
That puff of vapour from his mouth man's soul	F
To Abib all sagacious in our art	G
Breeder in me of what poor skill I boast	H
Like me inquisitive how pricks and cracks	I
Befall the flesh through too much stress and strain	J
Whereby the wily vapour fain would slip	K
Back and rejoin its source before the term	L
And aptest in contrivance under God	M
To baffle it by deftly stopping such	N
The vagrant Scholar to his Sage at home	O
Sends greeting health and knowledge fame with peace	P
Three samples of true snakestone rarer still	Q
One of the other sort the melon shaped	R
But fitter pounded fine for charms than drugs	S
And writeth now the twenty second time	T
	-
My journeyings were brought to Jericho	U
Thus I resume Who studious in our art	G
Shall count a little labour unrepaid	G
I have shed sweat enough left flesh and bone	V
On many a flinty furlong of this land	G
Also the country side is all on fire	W
With rumours of a marching hitherward	G
Some say Vespasian cometh some his son	X
A black lynx snarled and pricked a tufted ear	Y
Lust of my blood inflamed his yellow balls	Z
I cried and threw my staff and he was gone	A2
Twice have the robbers stripped and beaten me	B2
And once a town declared me for a spy	C2
But at the end I reach Jerusalem	D2
Since this poor covert where I pass the night	G
This Bethany lies scarce the distance thence	E2
A man with plague sores at the third degree	B2
Runs till he drops down dead Thou laughest here	Y
'Sooth it elates me thus reposed and safe	F2
To void the stuffing of my travel scrip	K
And share with thee whatever Jewry yields	G2
A viscid choler is observable	H2
In tertians I was nearly bold to say	I2
And falling sickness hath a happier cure	J2
Than our school wots of there's a spider here	Y
Weaves no web watches on the ledge of tombs	K2
Sprinkled with mottles on an ash grey back	L2
Take five and drop them but who knows his mind	G
The Syrian runagate I trust this to	G
His service payeth me a sublimate	G
Blown up his nose to help the ailing eye	C2
Best wait I reach Jerusalem at morn	M2
There set in order my experiences	N2
Gather what most deserves and give thee all	O2
Or I might add Judea's gum tragacanth	P2
Scales off in purer flakes shines clearer grained	G
Cracks 'twixt the pestle and the porphyry	B2
In fine exceeds our produce Scalp disease	Q2
Confounds me crossing so with leprosy	B2
Thou hadst admired one sort I gained at Zoar	B2
But zeal outruns discretion Here I end	G
	-
Yet stay my Syrian blinketh gratefully	B2
Protesteth his devotion is my price	R2
Suppose I write what harms not though he steal	S2
I half resolve to tell thee yet I blush	T2
What set me off a writing first of all	O2
An itch I had a sting to write a tang	U2
For be it this town's barrenness or else	V2
The Man had something in the look of him	W2
His case has struck me far more than 'Tis worth	P2
So pardon if lest presently I lose	X2
In the great press of novelty at hand	G
The care and pains this somehow stole from me	B2
I bid thee take the thing while fresh in mind	G
Almost in sight for wilt thou have the truth	P2
The very man is gone from me but now	Y2
Whose ailment is the subject of discourse	Z2
Thus then and let thy better wit help all	O2
	-
'Tis but a case of mania subinduced	G
By epilepsy at the turning point	G
Of trance prolonged unduly some three days	A3
When by the exhibition of some drug	B3
Or spell exorcization stroke of art	G
Unknown to me and which 'twere well to know	U
The evil thing out breaking all at once	C3
Left the man whole and sound of body indeed	G
But flinging so to speak life's gates too wide	G
Making a clear house of it too suddenly	B2
The first conceit that entered might inscribe	D3
Whatever it was minded on the wall	O2
So plainly at that vantage as it were	B2
First come first served that nothing subsequent	G
Attaineth to erase those fancy scrawls	C3
The just returned and new established soul	F
Hath gotten now so thoroughly by heart	G
That henceforth she will read or these or none	X
And first the man's own firm conviction rests	C3
That he was dead in fact they buried him	W2
That he was dead and then restored to life	E3
By a Nazarene physician of his tribe	D3
'Sayeth the same bade Rise and he did rise	C3
Such cases are diurnal thou wilt cry	B2
Not so this figment not that such a fume	F3
Instead of giving way to time and health	P2
Should eat itself into the life of life	E3
As saffron tingeth flesh blood bones and all	O2
For see how he takes up the after life	E3
The man it is one Lazarus a Jew	G
Sanguine proportioned fifty years of age	G3
The body's habit wholly laudable	H2
As much indeed beyond the common health	P2
As he were made and put aside to show	U
Think could we penetrate by any drug	B3
And bathe the wearied soul and worried flesh	H3
And bring it clear and fair by three days' sleep	I3
Whence has the man the balm that brightens all	O2
This grown man eyes the world now like a child	G
Some elders of his tribe I should premise	C3
Led in their friend obedient as a sheep	I3
To bear my inquisition While they spoke	J3
Now sharply now with sorrow told the case	C3
He listened not except I spoke to him	W2
But folded his two hands and let them talk	K3
Watching the flies that buzzed and yet no fool	L3
And that's a sample how his years must go	U
Look if a beggar in fixed middle life	E3
Should find a treasure can he use the same	M3
With straitened habits and with tastes starved small	O2
And take at once to his impoverished brain	J
The sudden element that changes things	C3
That sets the undreamed of rapture at his hand	G
And puts the cheap old joy in the scorned dust	G
Is he not such an one as moves to mirth	P2
Warily parsimonious when no need	G
Wasteful as drunkenness at undue times	C3
All prudent counsel as to what befits	C3
The golden mean is lost on such an one	X
The man's fantastic will is the man's law	N3
So here we call the treasure knowledge say	C3
Increased beyond the fleshly faculty	B2
Heaven opened to a soul while yet on earth	P2
Earth forced on a soul's use while seeing heaven	X
The man is witless of the size the sum	D2
The value in proportion of all things	C3
Or whether it be little or be much	N
Discourse to him of prodigious armaments	C3
Assembled to besiege his city now	Y2
And of the passing of a mule with gourds	C3
'Tis one Then take it on the other side	G
Speak of some trifling fact he will gaze rapt	G
With stupor at its very littleness	C3
Far as I see as if in that indeed	G
He caught prodigious import whole results	C3
And so will turn to us the bystanders	C3
In ever the same stupor note this point	G
That we too see not with his opened eyes	C3
Wonder and doubt come wrongly into play	C3
Preposterously at cross purposes	C3
Should his child sicken unto death why look	O3
For scarce abatement of his cheerfulness	C3
Or pretermission of the daily craft	G
While a word gesture glance from that same child	G
At play or in the school or laid asleep	I3
Will startle him to an agony of fear	B2
Exasperation just as like Demand	G
The reason why 'Tis but a word object	G
A gesture he regards thee as our lord	G
Who lived there in the pyramid alone	V
Looked at us dost thou mind when being young	P3
We both would unadvisedly recite	G
Some charm's beginning from that book of his	C3
Able to bid the sun throb wide and burst	G
All into stars as suns grown old are wont	G
Thou and the child have each a veil alike	Q3
Thrown o'er your heads from under which ye both	P2
Stretch your blind hands and trifle with a match	R3
Over a mine of Greek fire did ye know	U
He holds on firmly to some thread of life	E3
It is the life to lead perforcedly	C3
Which runs across some vast distracting orb	S3
Of glory on either side that meagre thread	G
Which conscious of he must not enter yet	G
The spiritual life around the earthly life	E3
The law of that is known to him as this	C3
His heart and brain move there his feet stay here	B2
So is the man perplext with impulses	C3
Sudden to start off crosswise not straight on	T3
Proclaiming what is right and wrong across	C3
And not along this black thread through the blaze	C3
It should be baulked by here it cannot be	B2
And oft the man's soul springs into his face	C3
As if he saw again and heard again	U3
His sage that bade him Rise and he did rise	C3
Something a word a tick of the blood within	V3
Admonishes then back he sinks at once	C3
To ashes who was very fire before	B2
In sedulous recurrence to his trade	G
Whereby he earneth him the daily bread	G
And studiously the humbler for that pride	G
Professedly the faultier that he knows	C3
God's secret while he holds the thread of life	E3
Indeed the especial marking of the man	W3
Is prone submission to the heavenly will	C3
Seeing it what it is and why it is	C3
'Sayeth he will wait patient to the last	G
For that same death which must restore his being	X3
To equilibrium body loosening soul	C3
Divorced even now by premature full growth	P2
He will live nay it pleaseth him to live	Y3
So long as God please and just how God please	C3
He even seeketh not to please God more	B2
Which meaneth otherwise than as God please	C3
Hence I perceive not he affects to preach	Z3
The doctrine of his sect whate'er it be	B2
Make proselytes as madmen thirst to do	G
How can he give his neighbour the real ground	G
His own conviction Ardent as he is	C3
Call his great truth a lie why still the old	G
Be it as God please reassureth him	W2
I probed the sore as thy disciple should	G
How beast said I this stolid carelessness	C3
Sufficeth thee when Rome is on her march	A4
To stamp out like a little spark thy town	B4
Thy tribe thy crazy tale and thee at once	C3
He merely looked with his large eyes on me	B2
The man is apathetic you deduce	C3
Contrariwise he loves both old and young	P3
Able and weak affects the very brutes	C3
And birds how say I flowers of the field	G
As a wise workman recognizes tools	C3
In a master's workshop loving what they make	C4
Thus is the man as harmless as a lamb	D4
Only impatient let him do his best	G
At ignorance and carelessness and sin	V3
An indignation which is promptly curbed	G
As when in certain travels I have feigned	G
To be an ignoramus in our art	G
According to some preconceived design	E4
And happed to hear the land's practitioners	C3
Steeped in conceit sublimed by ignorance	C3
Prattle fantastically on disease	C3
Its cause and cure and I must hold my peace	C3
	-
Thou wilt object why have I not ere this	C3
Sought out the sage himself the Nazarene	E4
Who wrought this cure inquiring at the source	C3
Conferring with the frankness that befits	C3
Alas it grieveth me the learned leech	Z3
Perished in a tumult many years ago	U
Accused our learning's fate of wizardry	B2
Rebellion to the setting up a rule	C3
And creed prodigious as described to me	B2
His death which happened when the earthquake fell	C3
Prefiguring as soon appeared the loss	C3
To occult learning in our lord the sage	G3
Who lived there in the pyramid alone	E4
Was wrought by the mad people that's their wont	G
On vain recourse as I conjecture it	G
To his tried virtue for miraculous help	F4
How could he stop the earthquake That's their way	C3
The other imputations must be lies	C3
But take one though I loathe to give it thee	B2
In mere respect for any good man's fame	M3
And after all our patient Lazarus	C3
Is stark mad should we count on what he says	C3
Perhaps not though in writing to a leech	Z3
'Tis well to keep back nothing of a case	C3
This man so cured regards the curer then	E4
As God forgive me who but God himself	G4
Creator and sustainer of the world	G
That came and dwelt in flesh on 't awhile	C3
'Sayeth that such an one was born and lived	G
Taught healed the sick broke bread at his own house	C3
Then died with Lazarus by for aught I know	U
And yet was what I said nor choose repeat	G
And must have so avouched himself in fact	G
In hearing of this very Lazarus	C3
Who saith but why all this of what he saith	B2
Why write of trivial matters things of price	C3
Calling at every moment for remark	H4
I noticed on the margin of a pool	C3
Blue flowering borage the Aleppo sort	G
Aboundeth very nitrous It is strange	I4
	-
Thy pardon for this long and tedious case	C3
Which now that I review it needs must seem	J4
Unduly dwelt on prolixly set forth	B2
Nor I myself discern in what is writ	G
Good cause for the peculiar interest	G
And awe indeed this man has touched me with	B2
Perhaps the journey's end the weariness	C3
Had wrought upon me first I met him thus	C3
I crossed a ridge of short sharp broken hills	C3
Like an old lion's cheek teeth Out there came	M3
A moon made like a face with certain spots	C3
Multiform manifold and menacing	X3
Then a wind rose behind me So we met	G
In this old sleepy town at unaware	B2
The man and I I send thee what is writ	G
Regard it as a chance a matter risked	G
To this ambiguous Syrian he may lose	C3
Or steal or give it thee with equal good	G
Jerusalem's repose shall make amends	C3
For time this letter wastes thy time and mine	E4
Till when once more thy pardon and farewell	C3
	-
The very God think Abib dost thou think	K4
So the All Great were the All Loving too	G
So through the thunder comes a human voice	C3
Saying O heart I made a heart beats here	B2
Face my hands fashioned see it in myself	G4
Thou hast no power nor mayst conceive of mine	E4
But love I gave thee with myself to love	L4
And thou must love me who have died for thee	B2
The madman saith He said so it is strange	I4

Robert Browning

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