Paracelsus: Part Ii: Paracelsus Attains Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AB B CDEBBAAFGHIJBKLMNBBO PBQBB RBSATABUPAB VSVWBV XYABZMAYS AA2 B2BMBC2D2A2E2AA2 BCAF2G2H2BAI2J2K2L2M 2B N2CO2P2E2AI2BQ2N2R2B S2T2ABBAU2FDBBV2AA2B D2W2 X2AX2M2A2Y2Z2BBBA3B3 C3D3E3F3W2N2C3G3 BAW2H3I3M2J3B2P2I3BI 3K3VK3BL3M3BN3J3O3EN 2BV2BI3BBI3I3A2P3F2Q 3I3L3R3S3BA2I3I3T3I3 I3U3I3I3L2I3BI3I3C3V 3 A AO3I3W3P2X3AI3Y3I3I2 AZ3BI3BI3 I3A4B4I3OI3P2I3BC4D4 M OBK3I3I3BN2I3BBI3K2E 4Z3 I3U3I3G2B2I3C3I3AB3I 3AI3BF4I3I2 AG4I3AH4I3I3I3PI3K2A 2O3BBBI3WBI3BF2BI3C3 K3I2I3ABI3I4X3I3O3 X3 I3I3I3I3I3I3AAI3I3I3 I3AAMM N3J4A2K4A2L4BI3I3BI3 I3AAD4D4H4H4BBBBBBI3 I3AAN3BBBBN3N3I3I3O3 MMMM4M4 B F2I3I3Q3Q3 BMMAA2I2N4G2I3BE4 F2AA2B3BI3I3I3J3BM4 BO4P4W3BAO3N2M2A F2I3I3BI3I3BI3I3PA BQ4A F2I3 BI3 F2I3AF4R4BM3I3I3S4P4 T4N2A3U3L3I3I3A2A2 BN2A3I3I3BAX3I3T4AI3 I3BU4V3 F2 I3BI3V4A2AP4BP4R3ABI 3K2S3S3S3I3B2B2P4A2I 3I3I3I3I3I3BL2I3BI3O 3P4BI3U3I3BA3W4BI3F2 I3BAQ3BBL3A2I3BN2AP4 BBT4I3BA3I3A2T4T4 AAI3Q3 BA2 F2 AI3BX4Y4I3O3I3BI3I3O 3P4BBB2BI3Z4BH4P2A2I 3BBAI3H4BT4I3I3P4BF2 BAM3A2YH4I3ABA2I3W4A P4I3H4BI3I3A2I3BBA2I 3H4I3I3BU3BBAT4I3I3C 4AQ3BI3I3I3I3F3 BA2I3A2I3BBI3I3AAI3A I3AI3T4BA2I3ABA2A2BI 3BA2I3ABP4T4BH4A2BI3 BBBI3 A2A2BBABA2 BW4ABA2T4F3P4B A2X3P4BA2 BI3I3AAAAA2 A2 I3 I3OI3 BBB A2I3I3A2 BI3 A2I3B BX3BI3BBI3A2 A2I3O3 B T4 I3

Scene Constantinople the house of a Greek Conjurer	A
Paracelsus	B
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
	-
	-
Over the waters in the vaporous West	C
The sun goes down as in a sphere of gold	D
Behind the arm of the city which between	E
With all that length of domes and minarets	B
Athwart the splendour black and crooked runs	B
Like a Turk verse along a scimitar	A
There lie sullen memorial and no more	A
Possess my aching sight 'T is done at last	F
Strange and the juggles of a sallow cheat	G
Have won me to this act 'T is as yon cloud	H
Should voyage unwrecked o'er many a mountain top	I
And break upon a molehill I have dared	J
Come to a pause with knowledge scan for once	B
The heights already reached without regard	K
To the extent above fairly compute	L
All I have clearly gained for once excluding	M
A brilliant future to supply and perfect	N
All half gains and conjectures and crude hopes	B
And all because a fortune teller wills	B
His credulous seekers should inscribe thus much	O
Their previous life's attainment in his roll	P
Before his promised secret as he vaunts	B
Make up the sum and here amid the scrawled	Q
Uncouth recordings of the dupes of this	B
Old arch genethliac lie my life's results	B
	-
	-
A few blurred characters suffice to note	R
A stranger wandered long through many lands	B
And reaped the fruit he coveted in a few	S
Discoveries as appended here and there	A
The fragmentary produce of much toil	T
In a dim heap fact and surmise together	A
Confusedly massed as when acquired he was	B
Intent on gain to come too much to stay	U
And scrutinize the little gained the whole	P
Slipt in the blank space 'twixt an idiot's gibber	A
And a mad lover's ditty there it lies	B
	-
	-
And yet those blottings chronicle a life	V
A whole life and my life Nothing to do	S
No problem for the fancy but a life	V
Spent and decided wasted past retrieve	W
Or worthy beyond peer Stay what does this	B
Remembrancer set down concerning life	V
'Time fleets youth fades life is an empty dream '	-
It is the echo of time and he whose heart	X
Beat first beneath a human heart whose speech	Y
Was copied from a human tongue can never	A
Recall when he was living yet knew not this	B
Nevertheless long seasons pass o'er him	Z
Till some one hour's experience shows what nothing	M
It seemed could clearer show and ever after	A
An altered brow and eye and gait and speech	Y
Attest that now he knows the adage true	S
'Time fleets youth fades life is an empty dream '	-
	-
	-
Ay my brave chronicler and this same hour	A
As well as any now let my time be	A2
	-
	-
Now I can go no farther well or ill	B2
'T is done I must desist and take my chance	B
I cannot keep on the stretch 't is no back shrinking	M
For let but some assurance beam some close	B
To my toil grow visible and I proceed	C2
At any price though closing it I die	D2
Else here I pause The old Greek's prophecy	A2
Is like to turn out true I shall not quit	E2
His chamber till I know what I desire	A
Was it the light wind sang it o'er the sea	A2
	-
	-
An end a rest strange how the notion once	B
Encountered gathers strength by moments Rest	C
Where has it kept so long this throbbing brow	A
To cease this beating heart to cease all cruel	F2
And gnawing thoughts to cease To dare let down	G2
My strung so high strung brain to dare unnerve	H2
My harassed o'ertasked frame to know my place	B
My portion my reward even my failure	A
Assigned made sure for ever To lose myself	I2
Among the common creatures of the world	J2
To draw some gain from having been a man	K2
Neither to hope nor fear to live at length	L2
Even in failure rest But rest in truth	M2
And power and recompense I hoped that once	B
	-
	-
What sunk insensibly so deep Has all	N2
Been undergone for this This the request	C
My labour qualified me to present	O2
With no fear of refusal Had I gone	P2
Slightingly through my task and so judged fit	E2
To moderate my hopes nay were it now	A
My sole concern to exculpate myself	I2
End things or mend them why I could not choose	B
A humbler mood to wait for the event	Q2
No no there needs not this no after all	N2
At worst I have performed my share of the task	R2
The rest is God's concern mine merely this	B
To know that I have obstinately held	S2
By my own work The mortal whose brave foot	T2
Has trod unscathed the temple court so far	A
That he descries at length the shrine of shrines	B
Must let no sneering of the demons' eyes	B
Whom he could pass unquailing fasten now	A
Upon him fairly past their power no no	U2
He must not stagger faint fall down at last	F
Having a charm to baffle them behold	D
He bares his front a mortal ventures thus	B
Serene amid the echoes beams and glooms	B
If he be priest henceforth if he wake up	V2
The god of the place to ban and blast him there	A
Both well What's failure or success to me	A2
I have subdued my life to the one purpose	B
Whereto I ordained it there alone I spy	D2
No doubt that way I may be satisfied	W2
	-
	-
Yes well have I subdued my life beyond	X2
The obligation of my strictest vow	A
The contemplation of my wildest bond	X2
Which gave my nature freely up in truth	M2
But in its actual state consenting fully	A2
All passionate impulses its soil was formed	Y2
To rear should wither but foreseeing not	Z2
The tract doomed to perpetual barrenness	B
Would seem one day remembered as it was	B
Beside the parched sand waste which now it is	B
Already strewn with faint blooms viewless then	A3
I ne'er engaged to root up loves so frail	B3
I felt them not yet now 't is very plain	C3
Some soft spots had their birth in me at first	D3
If not love say like love there was a time	E3
When yet this wolfish hunger after knowledge	F3
Set not remorselessly love's claims aside	W2
This heart was human once or why recall	N2
Einsiedeln now and W rzburg which the Mayne	C3
Forsakes her course to fold as with an arm	G3
	-
	-
And Festus my poor Festus with his praise	B
And counsel and grave fears where is he now	A
With the sweet maiden long ago his bride	W2
I surely loved them that last night at least	H3
When we gone gone the better I am saved	I3
The sad review of an ambitious youth	M2
Choked by vile lusts unnoticed in their birth	J3
But let grow up and wind around a will	B2
Till action was destroyed No I have gone	P2
Purging my path successively of aught	I3
Wearing the distant likeness of such lusts	B
I have made life consist of one idea	I3
Ere that was master up till that was born	K3
I bear a memory of a pleasant life	V
Whose small events I treasure till one morn	K3
I ran o'er the seven little grassy fields	B
Startling the flocks of nameless birds to tell	L3
Poor Festus leaping all the while for joy	M3
To leave all trouble for my future plans	B
Since I had just determined to become	N3
The greatest and most glorious man on earth	J3
And since that morn all life has been forgotten	O3
All is one day one only step between	E
The outset and the end one tyrant all	N2
Absorbing aim fills up the interspace	B
One vast unbroken chain of thought kept up	V2
Through a career apparently adverse	B
To its existence life death light and shadow	I3
The shows of the world were bare receptacles	B
Or indices of truth to be wrung thence	B
Not ministers of sorrow or delight	I3
A wondrous natural robe in which she went	I3
For some one truth would dimly beacon me	A2
From mountains rough with pines and flit and wink	P3
O'er dazzling wastes of frozen snow and tremble	F2
Into assured light in some branching mine	Q3
Where ripens swathed in fire the liquid gold	I3
And all the beauty all the wonder fell	L3
On either side the truth as its mere robe	R3
I see the robe now then I saw the form	S3
So far then I have voyaged with success	B
So much is good then in this working sea	A2
Which parts me from that happy strip of land	I3
But o'er that happy strip a sun shone too	I3
And fainter gleams it as the waves grow rough	T3
And still more faint as the sea widens last	I3
I sicken on a dead gulf streaked with light	I3
From its own putrefying depths alone	U3
Then God was pledged to take me by the hand	I3
Now any miserable juggle can bid	I3
My pride depart All is alike at length	L2
God may take pleasure in confounding pride	I3
By hiding secrets with the scorned and base	B
I am here in short so little have I paused	I3
Throughout I never glanced behind to know	I3
If I had kept my primal light from wane	C3
And thus insensibly am what I am	V3
	-
	-
Oh bitter very bitter	A
	-
	-
And more bitter	A
To fear a deeper curse an inner ruin	O3
Plague beneath plague the last turning the first	I3
To light beside its darkness Let me weep	W3
My youth and its brave hopes all dead and gone	P2
In tears which burn Would I were sure to win	X3
Some startling secret in their stead a tincture	A
Of force to flush old age with youth or breed	I3
Gold or imprison moonbeams till they change	Y3
To opal shafts only that hurling it	I3
Indignant back I might convince myself	I2
My aims remained supreme and pure as ever	A
Even now why not desire for mankind's sake	Z3
That if I fail some fault may be the cause	B
That though I sink another may succeed	I3
O God the despicable heart of us	B
Shut out this hideous mockery from my heart	I3
	-
	-
'T was politic in you Aureole to reject	I3
Single rewards and ask them in the lump	A4
At all events once launched to hold straight on	B4
For now' t is all or nothing Mighty profit	I3
Your gains will bring if they stop short of such	O
Full consummation As a man you had	I3
A certain share of strength and that is gone	P2
Already in the getting these you boast	I3
Do not they seem to laugh as who should say	B
Great master we are here indeed dragged forth	C4
To light this hast thou done be glad Now seek	D4
The strength to use which thou hast spent in getting	M
	-
	-
And yet't is much surely't is very much	O
Thus to have emptied youth of all its gifts	B
To feed a fire meant to hold out till morn	K3
Arrived with inexhaustible light and lo	I3
I have heaped up my last and day dawns not	I3
And I am left with grey hair faded hands	B
And furrowed brow Ha have I after all	N2
Mistaken the wild nursling of my breast	I3
Knowledge it seemed and power and recompense	B
Was she who glided through my room of nights	B
Who laid my head on her soft knees and smoothed	I3
The damp locks whose sly soothings just began	K2
When my sick spirit craved repose awhile	E4
God was I fighting sleep off for death's sake	Z3
	-
	-
God Thou art mind Unto the master mind	I3
Mind should be precious Spare my mind alone	U3
All else I will endure if as I stand	I3
Here with my gains thy thunder smite me down	G2
I bow me 't is thy will thy righteous will	B2
I o'erpass life's restrictions and I die	I3
And if no trace of my career remain	C3
Save a thin corpse at pleasure of the wind	I3
In these bright chambers level with the air	A
See thou to it But if my spirit fail	B3
My once proud spirit forsake me at the last	I3
Hast thou done well by me So do not thou	A
Crush not my mind dear God though I be crushed	I3
Hold me before the frequence of thy seraphs	B
And say I crushed him lest he should disturb	F4
My law Men must not know their strength behold	I3
Weak and alone how he had raised himself	I2
	-
	-
But if delusions trouble me and thou	A
Not seldom felt with rapture in thy help	G4
Throughout my toils and wanderings dost intend	I3
To work man's welfare through my weak endeavour	A
To crown my mortal forehead with a beam	H4
From thine own blinding crown to smile and guide	I3
This puny hand and let the work so wrought	I3
Be styled my work hear me I covet not	I3
An influx of new power an angel's soul	P
It were no marvel then but I have reached	I3
Thus far a man let me conclude a man	K2
Give but one hour of my first energy	A2
Of that invincible faith but only one	O3
That I may cover with an eagle glance	B
The truths I have and spy some certain way	B
To mould them and completing them possess	B
Yet God is good I started sure of that	I3
And why dispute it now I'll not believe	W
But some undoubted warning long ere this	B
Had reached me a fire labarum was not deemed	I3
Too much for the old founder of these walls	B
Then if my life has not been natural	F2
It has been monstrous yet till late my course	B
So ardently engrossed me that delight	I3
A pausing and reflecting joy 't is plain	C3
Could find no place in it True I am worn	K3
But who clothes summer who is life itself	I2
God that created all things can renew	I3
And then though after life to please me now	A
Must have no likeness to the past what hinders	B
Reward from springing out of toil as changed	I3
As bursts the flower from earth and root and stalk	I4
What use were punishment unless some sin	X3
Be first detected let me know that first	I3
No man could ever offend as I have done	O3
	-
	-
A voice from within	X3
	-
	-
I hear a voice perchance I heard	I3
Long ago but all too low	I3
So that scarce a care it stirred	I3
If the voice were real or no	I3
I heard it in my youth when first	I3
The waters of my life outburst	I3
But now their stream ebbs faint I hear	A
That voice still low but fatal clear	A
As if all poets God ever meant	I3
Should save the world and therefore lent	I3
Great gifts to but who proud refused	I3
To do his work or lightly used	I3
Those gifts or failed through weak endeavour	A
So mourn cast off by him for ever	A
As if these leaned in airy ring	M
To take me this the song they sing	M
	-
	-
Lost lost yet come	N3
With our wan troop make thy home	J4
Come come for we	A2
Will not breathe so much as breathe	K4
Reproach to thee	A2
Knowing what thou sink'st beneath	L4
So sank we in those old years	B
We who bid thee come thou last	I3
Who living yet hast life o'erpast	I3
And altogether we thy peers	B
Will pardon crave for thee the last	I3
Whose trial is done whose lot is cast	I3
With those who watch but work no more	A
Who gaze on life but live no more	A
Yet we trusted thou shouldst speak	D4
The message which our lips too weak	D4
Refused to utter shouldst redeem	H4
Our fault such trust and all a dream	H4
Yet we chose thee a birthplace	B
Where the richness ran to flowers	B
Couldst not sing one song for grace	B
Not make one blossom man's and ours	B
Must one more recreant to his race	B
Die with unexerted powers	B
And join us leaving as he found	I3
The world he was to loosen bound	I3
Anguish ever and for ever	A
Still beginning ending never	A
Yet lost and last one come	N3
How couldst understand alas	B
What our pale ghosts strove to say	B
As their shades did glance and pass	B
Before thee night and day	B
Thou wast blind as we were dumb	N3
Once more therefore come O come	N3
How should we clothe how arm the spirit	I3
Shall next thy post of life inherit	I3
How guard him from thy speedy ruin	O3
Tell us of thy sad undoing	M
Here where we sit ever pursuing	M
Our weary task ever renewing	M
Sharp sorrow far from God who gave	M4
Our powers and man they could not save	M4
	-
	-
Aprile enters	B
	-
	-
Aprile	F2
Ha ha our king that wouldst be here at last	I3
Art thou the poet who shall save the world	I3
Thy hand to mine Stay fix thine eyes on mine	Q3
Thou wouldst be king Still fix thine eyes on mine	Q3
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Ha ha why crouchest not Am I not king	M
So torture is not wholly unavailing	M
Have my fierce spasms compelled thee from thy lair	A
Art thou the sage I only seemed to be	A2
Myself of after time my very self	I2
With sight a little clearer strength more firm	N4
Who robes him in my robe and grasps my crown	G2
For just a fault a weakness a neglect	I3
I scarcely trusted God with the surmise	B
That such might come and thou didst hear the while	E4
	-
	-
Aprile	F2
Thine eyes are lustreless to mine my hair	A
Is soft nay silken soft to talk with thee	A2
Flushes my cheek and thou art ashy pale	B3
Truly thou hast laboured hast withstood her lips	B
The siren's Yes 't is like thou hast attained	I3
Tell me dear master wherefore now thou comest	I3
I thought thy solemn songs would have their meed	I3
In after time that I should hear the earth	J3
Exult in thee and echo with thy praise	B
While I was laid forgotten in my grave	M4
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Ah fiend I know thee I am not thy dupe	O4
Thou art ordained to follow in my track	P4
Reaping my sowing as I scorned to reap	W3
The harvest sown by sages passed away	B
Thou art the sober searcher cautious striver	A
As if except through me thou hast searched or striven	O3
Ay tell the world Degrade me after all	N2
To an aspirant after fame not truth	M2
To all but envy of thy fate be sure	A
	-
	-
Aprile	F2
Nay sing them to me I shall envy not	I3
Thou shalt be king Sing thou and I will sit	I3
Beside and call deep silence for thy songs	B
And worship thee as I had ne'er been meant	I3
To fill thy throne but none shall ever know	I3
Sing to me for already thy wild eyes	B
Unlock my heart strings as some crystal shaft	I3
Reveals by some chance blaze its parent fount	I3
After long time so thou reveal'st my soul	P
All will flash forth at last with thee to hear	A
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
His secret I shall get his secret fool	Q4
I am he that aspired to know and thou	A
	-
	-
Aprile	F2
I would love infinitely and be loved	I3
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Poor slave I am thy king indeed	I3
	-
	-
Aprile	F2
Thou deem'st	I3
That born a spirit dowered even as thou	A
Born for thy fate because I could not curb	F4
My yearnings to possess at once the full	R4
Enjoyment but neglected all the means	B
Of realizing even the frailest joy	M3
Gathering no fragments to appease my want	I3
Yet nursing up that want till thus I die	I3
Thou deem'st I cannot trace thy safe sure march	S4
O'er perils that o'erwhelm me triumphing	P4
Neglecting nought below for aught above	T4
Despising nothing and ensuring all	N2
Nor that I could my time to come again	A3
Lead thus my spirit securely as thine own	U3
Listen and thou shalt see I know thee well	L3
I would love infinitely Ah lost lost	I3
Oh ye who armed me at such cost	I3
How shall I look on all of ye	A2
With your gifts even yet on me	A2
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Ah 't is some moonstruck creature after all	N2
Such fond fools as are like to haunt this den	A3
They spread contagion doubtless yet he seemed	I3
To echo one foreboding of my heart	I3
So truly that no matter How he stands	B
With eve's last sunbeam staying on his hair	A
Which turns to it as if they were akin	X3
And those clear smiling eyes of saddest blue	I3
Nearly set free so far they rise above	T4
The painful fruitless striving of the brow	A
And enforced knowledge of the lips firm set	I3
In slow despondency's eternal sigh	I3
Has he too missed life's end and learned the cause	B
I charge thee by thy fealty be calm	U4
Tell me what thou wouldst be and what I am	V3
	-
	-
Aprile	F2
	-
	-
I would love infinitely and be loved	I3
First I would carve in stone or cast in brass	B
The forms of earth No ancient hunter lifted	I3
Up to the gods by his renown no nymph	V4
Supposed the sweet soul of a woodland tree	A2
Or sapphirine spirit of a twilight star	A
Should be too hard for me no shepherd king	P4
Regal for his white locks no youth who stands	B
Silent and very calm amid the throng	P4
His right hand ever hid beneath his robe	R3
Until the tyrant pass no lawgiver	A
No swan soft woman rubbed with lucid oils	B
Given by a god for love of her too hard	I3
Every passion sprung from man conceived by man	K2
Would I express and clothe it in its right form	S3
Or blend with others struggling in one form	S3
Or show repressed by an ungainly form	S3
Oh if you marvelled at some mighty spirit	I3
With a fit frame to execute its will	B2
Even unconsciously to work its will	B2
You should be moved no less beside some strong	P4
Rare spirit fettered to a stubborn body	A2
Endeavouring to subdue it and inform it	I3
With its own splendour All this I would do	I3
And I would say this done His sprites created	I3
God grants to each a sphere to be its world	I3
Appointed with the various objects needed	I3
To satisfy its own peculiar want	I3
So I create a world for these my shapes	B
Fit to sustain their beauty and their strength	L2
And at the word I would contrive and paint	I3
Woods valleys rocks and plains dells sands and wastes	B
Lakes which when morn breaks on their quivering bed	I3
Blaze like a wyvern flying round the sun	O3
And ocean isles so small the dog fish tracking	P4
A dead whale who should find them would swim thrice	B
Around them and fare onward all to hold	I3
The offspring of my brain Nor these alone	U3
Bronze labyrinth palace pyramid and crypt	I3
Baths galleries courts temples and terraces	B
Marts theatres and wharfs all filled with men	A3
Men everywhere And this performed in turn	W4
When those who looked on pined to hear the hopes	B
And fears and hates and loves which moved the crowd	I3
I would throw down the pencil as the chisel	F2
And I would speak no thought which ever stirred	I3
A human breast should be untold all passions	B
All soft emotions from the turbulent stir	A
Within a heart fed with desires like mine	Q3
To the last comfort shutting the tired lids	B
Of him who sleeps the sultry noon away	B
Beneath the tent tree by the wayside well	L3
And this in language as the need should be	A2
Now poured at once forth in a burning flow	I3
Now piled up in a grand array of words	B
This done to perfect and consummate all	N2
Even as a luminous haze links star to star	A
I would supply all chasms with music breathing	P4
Mysterious motions of the soul no way	B
To be defined save in strange melodies	B
Last having thus revealed all I could love	T4
Having received all love bestowed on it	I3
I would die preserving so throughout my course	B
God full on me as I was full on men	A3
He would approve my prayer I have gone through	I3
The loveliness of life create for me	A2
If not for men or take me to thyself	T4
Eternal infinite love	T4
	-
	-
If thou hast ne'er	A
Conceived this mighty aim this full desire	A
Thou hast not passed my trial and thou art	I3
No king of mine	Q3
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Ah me	A2
	-
	-
Aprile	F2
	-
But thou art here	A
Thou didst not gaze like me upon that end	I3
Till thine own powers for compassing the bliss	B
Were blind with glory nor grow mad to grasp	X4
At once the prize long patient toil should claim	Y4
Nor spurn all granted short of that And I	I3
Would do as thou a second time nay listen	O3
Knowing ourselves our world our task so great	I3
Our time so brief 't is clear if we refuse	B
The means so limited the tools so rude	I3
To execute our purpose life will fleet	I3
And we shall fade and leave our task undone	O3
We will be wise in time what though our work	P4
Be fashioned in despite of their ill service	B
Be crippled every way 'T were little praise	B
Did full resources wait on our goodwill	B2
At every turn Let all be as it is	B
Some say the earth is even so contrived	I3
That tree and flower a vesture gay conceal	Z4
A bare and skeleton framework Had we means	B
Answering to our mind But now I seem	H4
Wrecked on a savage isle how rear thereon	P2
My palace Branching palms the props shall be	A2
Fruit glossy mingling gems are for the East	I3
Who heeds them I can pass them Serpents' scales	B
And painted birds' down furs and fishes' skins	B
Must help me and a little here and there	A
Is all I can aspire to still my art	I3
Shall show its birth was in a gentler clime	H4
Had I green jars of malachite this way	B
I'd range them where those sea shells glisten above	T4
Cressets should hang by right this way we set	I3
The purple carpets as these mats are laid	I3
Woven of fern and rush and blossoming flag	P4
Or if by fortune some completer grace	B
Be spared to me some fragment some slight sample	F2
Of the prouder workmanship my own home boasts	B
Some trifle little heeded there but here	A
The place's one perfection with what joy	M3
Would I enshrine the relic cheerfully	A2
Foregoing all the marvels out of reach	Y
Could I retain one strain of all the psalm	H4
Of the angels one word of the fiat of God	I3
To let my followers know what such things are	A
I would adventure nobly for their sakes	B
When nights were still and still the moaning sea	A2
And far away I could descry the land	I3
Whence I departed whither I return	W4
I would dispart the waves and stand once more	A
At home and load my bark and hasten back	P4
And fling my gains to them worthless or true	I3
Friends I would say I went far far for them	H4
Past the high rocks the haunt of doves the mounds	B
Of red earth from whose sides strange trees grow out	I3
Past tracts of milk white minute blinding sand	I3
Till by a mighty moon I tremblingly	A2
Gathered these magic herbs berry and bud	I3
In haste not pausing to reject the weeds	B
But happy plucking them at any price	B
To me who have seen them bloom in their own soil	A2
They are scarce lovely plait and wear them you	I3
And guess from what they are the springs that fed them	H4
The stars that sparkled o'er them night by night	I3
The snakes that travelled far to sip their dew	I3
Thus for my higher loves and thus even weakness	B
Would win me honour But not these alone	U3
Should claim my care for common life its wants	B
And ways would I set forth in beauteous hues	B
The lowest hind should not possess a hope
A fear but I'd be by him saying better	A
Than he his own heart's language I would live	T4
For ever in the thoughts I thus explored	I3
As a discoverer's memory is attached	I3
To all he finds they should be mine henceforth	C4
Imbued with me though free to all before	A
For clay once cast into my soul's rich mine	Q3
Should come up crusted o'er with gems Nor this	B
Would need a meaner spirit than the first	I3
Nay 't would be but the selfsame spirit clothed	I3
In humbler guise but still the selfsame spirit	I3
As one spring wind unbinds the mountain snow	I3
And comforts violets in their hermitage	F3
	-
	-
But master poet who hast done all this	B
How didst thou'scape the ruin whelming me	A2
Didst thou when nerving thee to this attempt	I3
Ne'er range thy mind's extent as some wide hall	A2
Dazzled by shapes that filled its length with light	I3
Shapes clustered there to rule thee not obey	B
That will not wait thy summons will not rise	B
Singly nor when thy practised eye and hand	I3
Can well transfer their loveliness but crowd	I3
By thee for ever bright to thy despair	A
Didst thou ne'er gaze on each by turns and ne'er	A
Resolve to single out one though the rest	I3
Should vanish and to give that one entire	A
In beauty to the world forgetting so	I3
Its peers whose number baffles mortal power	A
And this determined wast thou ne'er seduced	I3
By memories and regrets and passionate love	T4
To glance once more farewell and did their eyes	B
Fasten thee brighter and more bright until	A2
Thou couldst but stagger back unto their feet	I3
And laugh that man's applause or welfare ever	A
Could tempt thee to forsake them Or when years	B
Had passed and still their love possessed thee wholly	A2
When from without some murmur startled thee	A2
Of darkling mortals famished for one ray	B
Of thy so hoarded luxury of light	I3
Didst thou ne'er strive even yet to break those spells	B
And prove thou couldst recover and fulfil	A2
Thy early mission long ago renounced	I3
And to that end select some shape once more	A
And did not mist like influences thick films	B
Faint memories of the rest that charmed so long	P4
Thine eyes float fast confuse thee bear thee off	T4
As whirling snow drifts blind a man who treads	B
A mountain ridge with guiding spear through storm	H4
Say though I fell I had excuse to fall	A2
Say I was tempted sorely say but this	B
Dear lord Aprile's lord	I3
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Clasp me not thus	B
Aprile That the truth should reach me thus	B
We are weak dust Nay clasp not or I faint	I3
	-
	-
Aprile	A2
My king and envious thoughts could outrage thee	A2
Lo I forget my ruin and rejoice	B
In thy success as thou Let our God's praise	B
Go bravely through the world at last What care	A
Through me or thee I feel thy breath Why tears	B
Tears in the darkness and from thee to me	A2
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Love me henceforth Aprile while I learn	W4
To love and merciful God forgive us both
We wake at length from weary dreams but both
Have slept in fairy land though dark and drear	A
Appears the world before us we no less	B
Wake with our wrists and ankles jewelled still	A2
I too have sought to know as thou to love	T4
Excluding love as thou refusedst knowledge	F3
Still thou hast beauty and I power We wake	P4
What penance canst devise for both of us	B
	-
	-
Aprile	A2
I hear thee faintly The thick darkness Even	X3
Thine eyes are hid 'T is as I knew I speak	P4
And now I die But I have seen thy face	B
O poet think of me and sing of me	A2
But to have seen thee and to die so soon
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Die not Aprile We must never part	I3
Are we not halves of one dissevered world	I3
Whom this strange chance unites once more Part never	A
Till thou the lover know and I the knower	A
Love until both are saved Aprile hear	A
We will accept our gains and use them now	A
God he will die upon my breast Aprile	A2
	-
	-
Aprile	A2
	-
	-
To speak but once and die yet by his side	I3
Hush hush
	-
	-
Ha go you ever girt about	I3
With phantoms powers I have created such	O
But these seem real as I	I3
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Whom can you see	B
Through the accursed darkness	B
	-
	-
Aprile	A2
Stay I know	I3
I know them who should know them well as I	I3
White brows lit up with glory poets all	A2
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Let him but live and I have my reward	I3
	-
	-
Aprile	A2
Yes I see now God is the perfect poet	I3
Who in his person acts his own creations	B
Had you but told me this at first Hush hush
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Live for my sake because of my great sin	X3
To help my brain oppressed by these wild words	B
And their deep import Live 't is not too late	I3
I have a quiet home for us and friends	B
Michal shall smile on you Hear you Lean thus	B
And breathe my breath I shall not lose one word	I3
Of all your speech one little word Aprile	A2
	-
	-
Aprile	A2
No no Crown me I am not one of you	I3
'T is he the king you seek I am not one	O3
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
	-
	-
Thy spirit at least Aprile Let me love	T4
	-
	-
I have attained and now I may depart	I3

Robert Browning

Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation

<< Asolando - Epilogue Poem Pippa Passes: Part I: Morning Poem>>

Write your comment about Paracelsus: Part Ii: Paracelsus Attains poem by Robert Browning

Best Poems of Robert Browning

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 58 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Wonderful Women
by Umaru Kanneh Boima
Freedom To Scratch In Peace
by Olute Aete
Happy New Year
by Felix Menda
Human Beings
by Dana Graslie
Lust
by Wisdom Greatness
An Isolated Tree's Song
by Sayeed Abubakar
A Strange Boy
by Sayeed Abubakar
O Soil
by Sayeed Abubakar
No War, No War-monger
by Sayeed Abubakar
Night's Town
by Sayeed Abubakar

Popular Poets

1. Emily Dickinson(2414 poems)
2. Madison Julius Cawein(1231 poems)
3. Ella Wheeler Wilcox(1136 poems)
4. William Wordsworth(1016 poems)
5. Robert Burns(986 poems)
6. Edgar Albert Guest(945 poems)
7. Thomas Moore(849 poems)
8. Robert Service(831 poems)