Easter-day Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIJKK LLMNOOPP QRRAQSSTTQAUUVVWWXXV V QXXXXXXYYZZ QYYA2A2YYB2C2XXXXXXD 2D2XXYYYYXXYYYYVVYYY YX XXXE2E2XXYYXXF2G2H2I 2XXD2D2XXJ2J2QQK2K2X X QXXXXXXXQQQL2L2YYPI2 XXXXXXVVXXXXYYYYXD2Y YM2M2XXXXYYVVN2N2YY QXXXXXXD2D2H2H2YYD2D 2D2D2YYXXXXYYYYYYVVX XXXVVD2D2YYXXXXX

HOW very hard it is to beA
A Christian Hard for you and meA
Not the mere task of making realB
That duty up to its idealB
Effecting thus complete and wholeC
A purpose or the human soulC
For that is always hard to doD
But hard I mean for me and youD
To realise it more or lessE
With even the moderate successE
Which commonly repays our strifeF
To carry out the aims of lifeF
This aim is greater you may sayG
And so more arduous every wayG
But the importance of the fruitsH
Still proves to man in all pursuitsH
Proportional encouragementI
Then what if it be God s intentJ
That labour to this one resultK
Shall seem unduly difficultK
Ah that s a question in the darkL
And the sole thing that I remarkL
Upon the difficulty thisM
We do not see it where it isN
At the beginning of the raceO
As we proceed it shifts its placeO
And where we looked for palms to fallP
We find the tug s to come that s allP
-
IIQ
At first you say The whole or chiefR
Of difficulties is BeliefR
Could I believe once thoroughlyA
The rest were simple What Am IQ
An idiot do you think A beastS
Prove to me only that the leastS
Command of God is God s indeedT
And what injunction shall I needT
To pay obedience Death so nighQ
When time must end eternityA
Begin and cannot I computeU
Weigh loss and gain together suitU
My actions to the balance drawnV
And give my body to be sawnV
Asunder hacked in pieces tiedW
To horses stoned burned crucifiedW
Like any martyr of the listX
How gladly if I made acquistX
Through the brief minutes fierce annoyV
Of God s eternity of joyV
-
IIIQ
And certainly you name the pointX
Whereon all turns for could you jointX
This flexile finite life once tightX
Into the fixed and infiniteX
You safe inside would spurn what s outX
With carelessness enough no doubtX
Would spurn mere life but where time bringsY
To their next stage your reasoningsY
Your eyes late wide begin to winkZ
Nor see the path so well I thinkZ
-
IVQ
You say Faith may be one agreesY
A touchstone for God s purposesY
Even as ourselves conceive of themA2
Could He acquit us or condemnA2
For holding what no hand can looseY
Rejecting when we can t but chooseY
As well award the victor s wreathB2
To whosoever should take breathC2
Duly each minute while he livedX
Grant Heaven because a man contrivedX
To see the sunlight every dayX
He walked forth on the public wayX
You must mix some uncertaintyX
With faith if you would have faith beX
Why what but faith do we abhorD2
And idolize each other forD2
Faith in our evil or our goodX
Which is or is not understoodX
Aright by those we love or thoseY
We hate thence called our friends or foesY
Your mistress saw your spirit s graceY
When turning from the ugly faceY
I found belief in it too hardX
And both of us have our rewardX
Yet here a doubt peeps well for usY
Weak beings to go using thusY
A touchstone for our little endsY
And try with faith the foes and friendsY
But God bethink you I would fainV
Conceive of the Creator s reignV
As based upon exacter lawsY
Than creatures build by with applauseY
In all God s acts as Plato criesY
He doth He should geometriseY
Whence I desiderateX
-
VX
I seeX
You would grow smoothly as a treeX
Soar heavenward straightly up like fireE2
God bless you there s your world entireE2
Needing no faith if you think fitX
Go there walk up and down in itX
The whole creation travails groansY
Contrive your music from its moansY
Without or let or hindrance friendX
That s an old story and its endX
As old you come back be sincereF2
With every question you put hereG2
Here where there once was and is stillH2
We think a living oracleI2
Whose answers you stood carping atX
This time flung back unanswered flatX
Besides perhaps as many moreD2
As those that drove you out beforeD2
Now added where was little needX
Questions impossible indeedX
To us who sate still all and eachJ2
Persuaded that our earth had speechJ2
Of God s writ down no matter ifQ
In cursive type or hieroglyphQ
Which one fact frees us from the yokeK2
Of guessing why He never spokeK2
You come back in no better plightX
Than when you left us am I rightX
-
VIQ
So the old process I concludeX
Goes on the reasoning s pursuedX
Further You own Tis well averredX
A scientific faith s absurdX
Frustrates the very end twas meantX
To serve so I would rest contentX
With a mere probabilityX
But probable the chance must lieQ
Clear on one side lie all in roughQ
So long as there is just enoughQ
To pin my faith to though it hapL2
Only at points from gap to gapL2
One hangs up a huge curtain soY
Grandly nor seeks to have it goY
Foldless and flat along the wallP
What care I that some intervalI2
Of life less plainly might dependX
On God I d hang there to the endX
And thus I should not find it hardX
To be a Christian and debarredX
From trailing on the earth till furledX
Away by death Renounce the worldX
Were that a mighty hardship PlanV
A pleasant life and straight some manV
Beside you with if he thought fitX
Abundant means to compass itX
Shall turn deliberate asideX
To try and live as if you triedX
You clearly might yet most despiseY
One friend of mine wears out his eyesY
Slighting the stupid joys of senseY
In patient hope that ten years henceY
Somewhat completer he may seeX
His list of lepidopterD2
While just the other who most laughsY
At him above all epitaphsY
Aspires to have his tomb describeM2
Himself as Sole among the tribeM2
Of snuffbox fanciers who possessedX
A Grignon with the Regent s crestX
So that subduing as you wantX
Whatever stands predominantX
Among my earthly appetitesY
For tastes and smells and sounds and sightsY
I shall be doing that aloneV
To gain a palm branch and a throneV
Which fifty people undertakeN2
To do and gladly for the sakeN2
Of giving a Semitic guessY
Or playing pawns at blindfold chessY
-
VIIQ
Good and the next thing is look roundX
For evidence enough Tis foundX
No doubt as is your sort of mindX
So is your sort of search you ll findX
What you desire and that s to beX
A Christian what says HistoryX
How comforting a point it wereD2
To find some mummy scrap declareD2
There lived a Moses Better stillH2
Prove Jonah s whale translatableH2
Into some quicksand of the seasY
Isle cavern rock or what you pleaseY
That Faith might clap her wings and crowD2
From such an eminence Or noD2
The Human Heart s best you preferD2
Making that prove the ministerD2
To truth you probe its wants and needsY
And hopes and fears then try what creedsY
Meet these most aptly resoluteX
That Faith plucks such substantial fruitX
Wherever these two correspondX
She little needs to look beyondX
To puzzle out what Orpheus wasY
Or Dionysius ZagriasY
You ll find sufficient as I sayY
To satisfy you either wayY
You wanted to believe your painsY
Are crowned you do and what remainsY
Renounce the world Ah were it doneV
By merely cutting one by oneV
Your limbs off with your wise head lastX
How easy were it how soon pastX
If once in the believing moodX
Such is man s usual gratitudeX
Such thanks to God do we returnV
For not exacting that we spurnV
A single gift of life foregoD2
One real gain only taste them soD2
With gravity and temperanceY
That those mild virtues may enhanceY
Such pleasures rather than abstractX
Last spice of which will be the factX
Of love discerned in every giftX
While when the scene of life shall shiftX
And the gay heart be taught toX

Robert Browning



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