Paracelsus: Part Iii: Paracelsus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Scene Basil a chamber in the house of Paracelsus	A
Paracelsus Festus	A
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Paracelsus	A
Heap logs and let the blaze laugh out	B
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Festus	A
True true	C
'T is very fit all time and chance and change	D
Have wrought since last we sat thus face to face	A
And soul to soul all cares far looking fears	A
Vague apprehensions all vain fancies bred	E
By your long absence should be cast away	F
Forgotten in this glad unhoped renewal	G
Of our affections	A
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Paracelsus	A
Oh omit not aught	E
Which witnesses your own and Michal's own	H
Affection spare not that Only forget	E
The honours and the glories and what not	E
It pleases you to tell profusely out	E
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Festus	A
Nay even your honours in a sense I waive	I
The wondrous Paracelsus life's dispenser	J
Fate's commissary idol of the schools	A
And courts shall be no more than Aureole still	K
Still Aureole and my friend as when we parted	E
Some twenty years ago and I restrained	E
As best I could the promptings of my spirit	E
Which secretly advanced you from the first	E
To the pre eminent rank which since your own	H
Adventurous ardour nobly triumphing	L
Has won for you	C
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Paracelsus	A
Yes yes And Michal's face	A
Still wears that quiet and peculiar light	E
Like the dim circlet floating round a pearl	M
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Festus	A
Just so	A
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Paracelsus	A
And yet her calm sweet countenance	A
Though saintly was not sad for she would sing	L
Alone Does she still sing alone bird like	L
Not dreaming you are near Her carols dropt	E
In flakes through that old leafy bower built under	J
The sunny wall at W rzburg from her lattice	A
Among the trees above while I unseen	N
Sat conning some rare scroll from Tritheim's shelves	A
Much wondering notes so simple could divert	E
My mind from study Those were happy days	A
Respect all such as sing when all alone	H
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Festus	A
Scarcely alone her children you may guess	A
Are wild beside her	J
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Paracelsus	A
Ah those children quite	E
Unsettle the pure picture in my mind	E
A girl she was so perfect so distinct	E
No change no change Not but this added grace	A
May blend and harmonize with its compeers	A
And Michal may become her motherhood	E
But't is a change and I detest all change	D
And most a change in aught I loved long since	A
So Michal you have said she thinks of me	O
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Festus	A
O very proud will Michal be of you	C
Imagine how we sat long winter nights	A
Scheming and wondering shaping your presumed	E
Adventure or devising its reward	E
Shutting out fear with all the strength of hope	P
For it was strange how even when most secure	Q
In our domestic peace a certain dim	R
And flitting shade could sadden all it seemed	E
A restlessness of heart a silent yearning	L
A sense of something wanting incomplete	E
Not to be put in words perhaps avoided	E
By mute consent but said or unsaid felt	E
To point to one so loved and so long lost	E
And then the hopes rose and shut out the fears	A
How you would laugh should I recount them now	S
I still predicted your return at last	E
With gifts beyond the greatest of them all	T
All Tritheim's wondrous troop did one of which	U
Attain renown by any chance I smiled	E
As well aware of who would prove his peer	V
Michal was sure some woman long ere this	A
As beautiful as you were sage had loved	E
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Paracelsus	A
Far seeing truly to discern so much	W
In the fantastic projects and day dreams	A
Of a raw restless boy	X
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Festus	A
Oh no the sunrise	A
Well warranted our faith in this full noon	Y
Can I forget the anxious voice which said	E
Festus have thoughts like these ere shaped themselves	A
In other brains than mine have their possessors	A
Existed in like circumstance were they weak	L
As I or ever constant from the first	E
Despising youth's allurements and rejecting	L
As spider films the shackles I endure	Q
Is there hope for me and I answered gravely	O
As an acknowledged elder calmer wiser	J
More gifted mortal O you must remember	J
For all your glorious	A
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Paracelsus	A
Glorious ay this hair	Z
These hands nay touch them they are mine Recall	T
With all the said recallings times when thus	A
To lay them by your own ne'er turned you pale	A2
As now Most glorious are they not	E
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Festus	A
Why why	B2
Something must be subtracted from success	A
So wide no doubt He would be scrupulous truly	O
Who should object such drawbacks Still still Aureole	C2
You are changed very changed 'T were losing nothing	L
To look well to it you must not be stolen	D2
From the enjoyment of your well won meed	E
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Paracelsus	A
My friend you seek my pleasure past a doubt	E
You will best gain your point by talking not	E
Of me but of yourself	E2
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Festus	A
Have I not said	E
All touching Michal and my children Sure	Q
You know by this full well how Aennchen looks	A
Gravely while one disparts her thick brown hair	Z
And Aureole's glee when some stray gannet builds	A
Amid the birch trees by the lake Small hope	P
Have I that he will honour the wild imp	F2
His namesake Sigh not 't is too much to ask	L
That all we love should reach the same proud fate	E
But you are very kind to humour me	O
By showing interest in my quiet life	G2
You who of old could never tame yourself	E2
To tranquil pleasures must at heart despise	A
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Paracelsus	A
Festus strange secrets are let out by death	H2
Who blabs so oft the follies of this world	E
And I am death's familiar as you know	A
I helped a man to die some few weeks since	A
Warped even from his go cart to one end	E
The living on princes' smiles reflected from	I2
A mighty herd of favourites No mean trick	L
He left untried and truly well nigh wormed	E
All traces of God's finger out of him	R
Then died grown old And just an hour before	J2
Having lain long with blank and soulless eyes	A
He sat up suddenly and with natural voice	A
Said that in spite of thick air and closed doors	A
God told him it was June and he knew well	K2
Without such telling harebells grew in June	Y
And all that kings could ever give or take	L
Would not be precious as those blooms to him	R
Just so allowing I am passing sage	L2
It seems to me much worthier argument	E
Why pansies eyes that laugh bear beauty's prize	A
From violets eyes that dream your Michal's choice	A
Than all fools find to wonder at in me	O
Or in my fortunes And be very sure	Q
I say this from no prurient restlessness	A
No self complacency itching to turn	M2
Vary and view its pleasure from all points	A
And in this instance willing other men	N2
May be at pains demonstrate to itself	E2
The realness of the very joy it tastes	A
What should delight me like the news of friends	A
Whose memories were a solace to me oft	E
As mountain baths to wild fowls in their flight	E
Ofter than you had wasted thought on me	O
Had you been wise and rightly valued bliss	A
But there's no taming nor repressing hearts	A
God knows I need such So you heard me speak	L
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Festus	A
Speak when	N2
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Paracelsus	A
When but this morning at my class	A
There was noise and crowd enough I saw you not	E
Surely you know I am engaged to fill	K
The chair here that't is part of my proud fate	E
To lecture to as many thick skulled youths	A
As please each day to throng the theatre	J
To my great reputation and no small	T
Danger of Basil's benches long unused	E
To crack beneath such honour	J
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Festus	A
I was there	J
I mingled with the throng shall I avow	S
Small care was mine to listen too intent	E
On gathering from the murmurs of the crowd	E
A full corroboration of my hopes	A
What can I learn about your powers but they	F
Know care for nought beyond your actual state	E
Your actual value yet they worship you	C
Those various natures whom you sway as one	D2
But ere I go be sure I shall attend	E
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Paracelsus	A
Stop o' God's name the thing's by no means yet	E
Past remedy Shall I read this morning's labour	J
At least in substance Nought so worth the gaining	L
As an apt scholar Thus then with all due	C
Precision and emphasis you beside are clearly	O
Guiltless of understanding more a whit	E
The subject than your stool allowed to be	O
A notable advantage	O2
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Festus	A
Surely Aureole	C2
You laugh at me	O
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Paracelsus	A
I laugh Ha ha thank heaven	D2
I charge you if't be so for I forget	E
Much and what laughter should be like No less	A
However I forego that luxury	O
Since it alarms the friend who brings it back	L
True laughter like my own must echo strangely	O
To thinking men a smile were better far	J
So make me smile If the exulting look	L
You wore but now be smiling 't is so long	L
Since I have smiled Alas such smiles are born	P2
Alone of hearts like yours or herdsmen's souls	A
Of ancient time whose eyes calm as their flocks	A
Saw in the stars mere garnishry of heaven	D2
And in the earth a stage for altars only	O
Never change Festus I say never change	D
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Festus	A
My God if he be wretched after all	T
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Paracelsus	A
When last we parted Festus you declared	E
Or Michal yes her soft lips whispered words	A
I have preserved She told me she believed	E
I should succeed meaning that in the search	Q2
I then engaged in I should meet success	A
And yet be wretched now she augured false	A
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Festus	A
Thank heaven but you spoke strangely could I venture	J
To think bare apprehension lest your friend	E
Dazzled by your resplendent course might find	E
Henceforth less sweetness in his own could move	R2
Such earnest mood in you Fear not dear friend	E
That I shall leave you inwardly repining	L
Your lot was not my own	H
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Paracelsus	A
And this for ever	J
For ever gull who may they will be gulled	E
They will not look nor think 't is nothing new	C
In them but surely he is not of them	S2
My Festus do you know I reckoned you	C
Though all beside were sand blind you my friend	E
Would look at me once close with piercing eye	B2
Untroubled by the false glare that confounds	A
A weaker vision would remain serene	N
Though singular amid a gaping throng	L
I feared you or I had come sure long ere this	A
To Einsiedeln Well error has no end	E
And Rhasis is a sage and Basil boasts	A
A tribe of wits and I am wise and blest	E
Past all dispute 'T is vain to fret at it	E
I have vowed long ago my worshippers	A
Shall owe to their own deep sagacity	E
All further information good or bad	E
Small risk indeed my reputation runs	A
Unless perchance the glance now searching me	O
Be fixed much longer for it seems to spell	K2
Dimly the characters a simpler man	T2
Might read distinct enough Old Eastern books	A
Say the fallen prince of morning some short space	A
Remained unchanged in semblance nay his brow	S
Was hued with triumph every spirit then	N2
Praising his heart on flame the while a tale	A2
Well Festus what discover you I pray	F
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Festus	A
Some foul deed sullies then a life which else	A
Were raised supreme	U2
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Paracelsus	A
Good I do well most well	K2
Why strive to make men hear feel fret themselves	A
With what is past their power to comprehend	E
I should not strive now only having nursed	E
The faint surmise that one yet walked the earth	V2
One at least not the utter fool of show	A
Not absolutely formed to be the dupe	W2
Of shallow plausibilities alone	H
One who in youth found wise enough to choose	A
The happiness his riper years approve	R2
Was yet so anxious for another's sake	L
That ere his friend could rush upon a mad	E
And ruinous course the converse of his own	H
His gentle spirit essayed prejudged for him	R
The perilous path foresaw its destiny	O
And warned the weak one in such tender words	A
Such accents his whole heart in every tone	H
That oft their memory comforted that friend	E
When it by right should have increased despair	J
Having believed I say that this one man	T2
Could never lose the light thus from the first	E
His portion how should I refuse to grieve	X2
At even my gain if it disturb our old	E
Relation if it make me out more wise	A
Therefore once more reminding him how well	K2
He prophesied I note the single flaw	Y2
That spoils his prophet's title In plain words	A
You were deceived and thus were you deceived	E
I have not been successful and yet am	Z2
Most miserable 't is said at last nor you	C
Give credit lest you force me to concede	E
That common sense yet lives upon the world	E
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Festus	A
You surely do not mean to banter me	O
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Paracelsus	A
You know or if you have been wise enough	A3
To cleanse your memory of such matters knew	C
As far as words of mine could make it clear	J
That't was my purpose to find joy or grief	B3
Solely in the fulfilment of my plan	T2
Or plot or whatsoe'er it was rejoicing	L
Alone as it proceeded prosperously	Y2
Sorrowing then only when mischance retarded	E
Its progress That was in those W rzburg days	A
Not to prolong a theme I thoroughly hate	E
I have pursued this plan with all my strength	C3
And having failed therein most signally	Y2
Cannot object to ruin utter and drear	J
As all excelling would have been the prize	A
Had fortune favoured me I scarce have right	E
To vex your frank good spirit late so glad	E
In my supposed prosperity I know	A
And were I lucky in a glut of friends	A
Would well agree to let your error live	D3
Nay strengthen it with fables of success	A
But mine is no condition to refuse	A
The transient solace of so rare a godsend	E
My solitary luxury my one friend	E
Accordingly I venture to put off	E3
The wearisome vest of falsehood galling me	O
Secure when he is by I lay me bare	J
Prone at his mercy but he is my friend	E
Not that he needs retain his aspect grave	I
That answers not my purpose for't is like	L
Some sunny morning Basil being drained	E
Of its wise population every corner	J
Of the amphitheatre crammed with learned clerks	A
Here OEcolampadius looking worlds of wit	E
Here Castellanus as profound as he	O
Munsterus here Frobenius there all squeezed	E
And staring that the zany of the show	A
Even Paracelsus shall put off before them	S2
His trappings with a grace but seldom judged	E
Expedient in such cases the grim smile	Y2
That will go round Is it not therefore best	E
To venture a rehearsal like the present	E
In a small way Where are the signs I seek	L
The first fruits and fair sample of the scorn	P2
Due to all quacks Why this will never do	C
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Festus	A
These are foul vapours Aureole nought beside	E
The effect of watching study weariness	A
Were there a spark of truth in the confusion	D2
Of these wild words you would not outrage thus	A
Your youth's companion I shall ne'er regard	E
These wanderings bred of faintness and much study	O
'T is not thus you would trust a trouble to me	O
To Michal's friend	E
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Paracelsus	A
I have said it dearest Festus	A
For the manner 't is ungracious probably	O
You may have it told in broken sobs one day	F
And scalding tears ere long but I thought best	E
To keep that off as long as possible	Y2
Do you wonder still	Y2
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Festus	A
No it must oft fall out	E
That one whose labour perfects any work	L
Shall rise from it with eye so worn that he	O
Of all men least can measure the extent	E
Of what he has accomplished He alone	H
Who nothing tasked is nothing weary too	C
May clearly scan the little he effects	A
But we the bystanders untouched by toil	Y2
Estimate each aright	C
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Paracelsus	A
This worthy Festus	A
Is one of them at last 'T is so with all	Y2
First they set down all progress as a dream	U2
And next when he whose quick discomfiture	J
Was counted on accomplishes some few	C
And doubtful steps in his career behold	C
They look for every inch of ground to vanish	F3
Beneath his tread so sure they spy success	A
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Festus	A
Few doubtful steps when death retires before	J
Your presence when the noblest of mankind	C
Broken in body or subdued in soul	Y2
May through your skill renew their vigour raise	A
The shattered frame to pristine stateliness	A
When men in racking pain may purchase dreams	A
Of what delights them most swooning at once	A
Into a sea of bliss or rapt along	L
As in a flying sphere of turbulent light	C
When we may look to you as one ordained	C
To free the flesh from fell disease as frees	A
Our Luther's burning tongue the fettered soul	Y2
When	N2
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Paracelsus	A
When and where the devil did you get	C
This notable news	A
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Festus	A
Even from the common voice	A
From those whose envy daring not dispute	C
The wonders it decries attributes them	S2
To magic and such folly	O
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Paracelsus	A
Folly Why not	C
To magic pray You find a comfort doubtless	A
In holding God ne'er troubles him about	C
Us or our doings once we were judged worth	V2
The devil's tempting I offend forgive me	O
And rest content Your prophecy on the whole	Y2
Was fair enough as prophesyings go	A
At fault a little in detail but quite	C
Precise enough in the main and hereupon	N2
I pay due homage you guessed long ago	A
The prophet I should fail and I have failed	C
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Festus	A
You mean to tell me then the hopes which fed	C
Your youth have not been realized as yet	C
Some obstacle has barred them hitherto	C
Or that their innate	C
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Paracelsus	A
As I said but now	N2
You have a very decent prophet's fame	G3
So you but shun details here Little matter	J
Whether those hopes were mad the aims they sought	C
Safe and secure from all ambitious fools	A
Or whether my weak wits are overcome	I2
By what a better spirit would scorn I fail	Y2
And now methinks't were best to change a theme	U2
I am a sad fool to have stumbled on	N2
I say confusedly what comes uppermost	C
But there are times when patience proves at fault	C
As now this morning's strange encounter you	C
Beside me once again you whom I guessed	C
Alive since hitherto with Luther's leave	X2
No friend have I among the saints at peace	A
To judge by any good their prayers effect	C
I knew you would have helped me why not he	O
My strange competitor in enterprise	A
Bound for the same end by another path	H3
Arrived or ill or well before the time	I3
At our disastrous journey's doubtful close	A
How goes it with Aprile Ah they miss	A
Your lone sad sunny idleness of heaven	N2
Our martyrs for the world's sake heaven shuts fast	C
The poor mad poet is howling by this time	I3
Since you are my sole friend then here or there	J
I could not quite repress the varied feelings	A
This meeting wakens they have had their vent	C
And now forget them Do the rear mice still	Y2
Hang like a fretwork on the gate or what	C
In my time was a gate fronting the road	C
From Einsiedeln to Lachen	N2
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Festus	A
Trifle not	C
Answer me for my sake alone You smiled	C
Just now when I supposed some deed unworthy	O
Yourself might blot the else so bright result	C
Yet if your motives have continued pure	J
Your will unfaltering and in spite of this	A
You have experienced a defeat why then	N2
I say not you would cheerfully withdraw	J
From contest mortal hearts are not so fashioned	C
But surely you would ne'ertheless withdraw	J
You sought not fame nor gain nor even love	J3
No end distinct from knowledge I repeat	C
Your very words once satisfied that knowledge	K3
Is a mere dream you would announce as much	W
Yourself the first But how is the event	C
You are defeated and I find you here	J
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Paracelsus	A
As though here did not signify defeat	C
I spoke not of my little labours here	J
But of the break down of my general aims	A
For you aware of their extent and scope	P
To look on these sage lecturings approved	C
By beardless boys and bearded dotards worse	A
As a fit consummation of such aims	A
Is worthy notice A professorship	L3
At Basil Since you see so much in it	C
And think my life was reasonably drained	C
Of life's delights to render me a match	M3
For duties arduous as such post demands	A
Be it far from me to deny my power	J
To fill the petty circle lotted out	C
Of infinite space or justify the host	C
Of honours thence accruing So take notice	A
This jewel dangling from my neck preserves	A
The features of a prince my skill restored	C
To plague his people some few years to come	I2
And all through a pure whim He had eased the earth	V2
For me but that the droll despair which seized	C
The vermin of his household tickled me	O
I came to see Here drivelled the physician	N2
Whose most infallible nostrum was at fault	C
There quaked the astrologer whose horoscope	P
Had promised him interminable years	A
Here a monk fumbled at the sick man's mouth	N3
With some undoubted relic a sudary	J
Of the Virgin while another piebald knave	I
Of the same brotherhood he loved them ever	J
Was actively preparing 'neath his nose	A
Such a suffumigation as once fired	C
Had stunk the patient dead ere he could groan	N2
I cursed the doctor and upset the brother	J
Brushed past the conjurer vowed that the first gust	C
Of stench from the ingredients just alight	C
Would raise a cross grained devil in my sword	C
Not easily laid and ere an hour the prince	A
Slept as he never slept since prince he was	A
A day and I was posting for my life	G2
Placarded through the town as one whose spite	C
Had near availed to stop the blessed effects	A
Of the doctor's nostrum which well seconded	C
By the sudary and most by the costly smoke	L
Not leaving out the strenuous prayers sent up	O3
Hard by in the abbey raised the prince to life	G2
To the great reputation of the seer	J
Who confident expected all along	L
The glad event the doctor's recompense	A
Much largess from his highness to the monks	A
And the vast solace of his loving people	Y2
Whose general satisfaction to increase	A
The prince was pleased no longer to defer	J
The burning of some dozen heretics	A
Remanded till God's mercy should be shown	N2
Touching his sickness last of all were joined	C
Ample directions to all loyal folk	L
To swell the complement by seizing me	O
Who doubtless some rank sorcerer endeavoured	C
To thwart these pious offices obstruct	C
The prince's cure and frustrate heaven by help	P3
Of certain devils dwelling in his sword	C
By luck the prince in his first fit of thanks	A
Had forced this bauble on me as an earnest	C
Of further favours This one case may serve	Q3
To give sufficient taste of many such	W
So let them pass Those shelves support a pile	Y2
Of patents licences diplomas titles	A
From Germany France Spain and Italy	O
They authorize some honour ne'ertheless	A
I set more store by this Erasmus sent	C
He trusts me our Frobenius is his friend	C
And him I raised nay read it from the dead	C
I weary you I see I merely sought	C
To show there's no great wonder after all	Y2
That while I fill the class room and attract	C
A crowd to Basil I get leave to stay	C
And therefore need not scruple to accept	C
The utmost they can offer if I please	A
For't is but right the world should be prepared	C
To treat with favour e'en fantastic wants	A
Of one like me used up in serving her	J
Just as the mortal whom the gods in part	C
Devoured received in place of his lost limb	R
Some virtue or other cured disease I think	L
You mind the fables we have read together	J
	-
	-
Festus	A
You do not think I comprehend a word	C
The time was Aureole you were apt enough	A3
To clothe the airiest thoughts in specious breath	H2
But surely you must feel how vague and strange	D
These speeches sound	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	A
Well then you know my hopes	A
I am assured at length those hopes were vain	N2
That truth is just as far from me as ever	J
That I have thrown my life away that sorrow	J
On that account is idle and further effort	C
To mend and patch what's marred beyond repairing	L
As useless and all this was taught your friend	C
By the convincing good old fashioned method	C
Of force by sheer compulsion Is that plain	N2
	-
	-
Festus	A
Dear Aureole can it be my fears were just	C
God wills not	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	A
Now 't is this I most admire	J
The constant talk men of your stamp keep up	O3
Of God's will as they style it one would swear	J
Man had but merely to uplift his eye	B2
And see the will in question charactered	C
On the heaven's vault 'T is hardly wise to moot	C
Such topics doubts are many and faith is weak	L
I know as much of any will of God	C
As knows some dumb and tortured brute what Man	N2
His stern lord wills from the perplexing blows	A
That plague him every way but there of course	A
Where least he suffers longest he remains	A
My case and for such reasons I plod on	N2
Subdued but not convinced I know as little	Y2
Why I deserve to fail as why I hoped	C
Better things in my youth I simply know	J
I am no master here but trained and beaten	N2
Into the path I tread and here I stay	C
Until some further intimation reach me	O
Like an obedient drudge Though I prefer	J
To view the whole thing as a task imposed	C
Which whether dull or pleasant must be done	N2
Yet I deny not there is made provision	N2
Of joys which tastes less jaded might affect	C
Nay some which please me too for all my pride	C
Pleasures that once were pains the iron ring	L
Festering about a slave's neck grows at length	C3
Into the flesh it eats I hate no longer	J
A host of petty vile delights undreamed of	J3
Or spurned before such now supply the place	A
Of my dead aims as in the autumn woods	A
Where tall trees used to flourish from their roots	A
Springs up a fungous brood sickly and pale	Y2
Chill mushrooms coloured like a corpse's cheek	L
	-
	-
Festus	A
If I interpret well your words I own	N2
It troubles me but little that your aims	A
Vast in their dawning and most likely grown	N2
Extravagantly since have baffled you	C
Perchance I am glad you merit greater praise	A
Because they are too glorious to be gained	C
You do not blindly cling to them and die	C
You fell but have not sullenly refused	C
To rise because an angel worsted you	C
In wrestling though the world holds not your peer	J
And though too harsh and sudden is the change	D
To yield content as yet still you pursue	C
The ungracious path as though't were rosv strewn	N2
'T is well and your reward or soon or late	C
Will come from him whom no man serves in vain	N2
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
Ah very fine For my part I conceive	X2
The very pausing from all further toil	Y2
Which you find heinous would become a seal	Y2
To the sincerity of all my deeds	C
To be consistent I should die at once	C
I calculated on no after life	G2
Yet how crept in how fostered I know not	C
Here am I with as passionate regret	C
For youth and health and love so vainly lavished	C
As if their preservation had been first	C
And foremost in my thoughts and this strange fact	C
Humbled me wondrously and had due force	C
In rendering me the less averse to follow	J
A certain counsel a mysterious warning	L
You will not understand but't was a man	N2
With aims not mine and yet pursued like mine	N2
With the same fervour and no more success	C
Perishing in my sight who summoned me	O
As I would shun the ghastly fate I saw	C
To serve my race at once to wait no longer	J
That God should interfere in my behalf	R3
But to distrust myself put pride away	C
And give my gains imperfect as they were	J
To men I have not leisure to explain	N2
How since a singular series of events	C
Has raised me to the station you behold	C
Wherein I seem to turn to most account	C
The mere wreck of the past perhaps receive	X2
Some feeble glimmering token that God views	C
And may approve my penance therefore here	J
You find me doing most good or least harm	S3
And if folks wonder much and profit little	Y2
'T is not my fault only I shall rejoice	C
When my part in the farce is shuffled through	C
And the curtain falls I must hold out till then	N2
	-
	-
Festus	C
Till when dear Aureole	Y2
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
Till I'm fairly thrust	C
From my proud eminence Fortune is fickle	Y2
And even professors fall should that arrive	D3
I see no sin in ceding to my bent	C
You little fancy what rude shocks apprise us	C
We sin God's intimations rather fail	Y2
In clearness than in energy 't were well	Y2
Did they but indicate the course to take	L
Like that to be forsaken I would fain	N2
Be spared a further sample Here I stand	C
And here I stay be sure till forced to flit	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
Be you but firm on that head long ere then	N2
All I expect will come to pass I trust	C
The cloud that wraps you will have disappeared	C
Meantime I see small chance of such event	C
They praise you here as one whose lore already	O
Divulged eclipses all the past can show	J
But whose achievements marvellous as they be	O
Are faint anticipations of a glory	O
About to be revealed When Basil's crowds	C
Dismiss their teacher I shall be content	C
That he depart	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
This favour at their hands	C
I look for earlier than your view of things	C
Would warrant Of the crowd you saw to day	C
Remove the full half sheer amazement draws	C
Mere novelty nought else and next the tribe	T3
Whose innate blockish dulness just perceives	C
That unless miracles as seem my works	C
Be wrought in their behalf their chance is slight	C
To puzzle the devil next the numerous set	C
Who bitterly hate established schools and help	P3
The teacher that oppugns them till he once	C
Have planted his own doctrine when the teacher	J
May reckon on their rancour in his turn	N2
Take too the sprinkling of sagacious knaves	C
Whose cunning runs not counter to the vogue	L
But seeks by flattery and crafty nursing	L
To force my system to a premature	J
Short lived development Why swell the list	C
Each has his end to serve and his best way	C
Of serving it remove all these remains	C
A scantling a poor dozen at the best	C
Worthy to look for sympathy and service	C
And likely to draw profit from my pains	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
'T is no encouraging picture still these few	C
Redeem their fellows Once the germ implanted	C
Its growth if slow is sure	J
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
God grant it so	C
I would make some amends but if I fail	Y2
The luckless rogues have this excuse to urge	U3
That much is in my method and my manner	J
My uncouth habits my impatient spirit	C
Which hinders of reception and result	C
My doctrine much to say small skill to speak	L
These old aims suffered not a looking off	E3
Though for an instant therefore only when	N2
I thus renounced them and resolved to reap	V3
Some present fruit to teach mankind some truth	W3
So dearly purchased only then I found	C
Such teaching was an art requiring cares	C
And qualities peculiar to itself	E2
That to possess was one thing to display	C
Another With renown first in my thoughts	C
Or popular praise I had soon discovered it	C
One grows but little apt to learn these things	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
If it be so which nowise I believe	X2
There needs no waiting fuller dispensation	N2
To leave a labour of so little use	C
Why not throw up the irksome charge at once	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
	-
	-
A task a task	L
	-
But wherefore hide the whole	Y2
Extent of degradation once engaged	C
In the confessing vein Despite of all	Y2
My fine talk of obedience and repugnance	C
Docility and what not 't is yet to learn	N2
If when the task shall really be performed	C
My inclination free to choose once more	J
I shall do aught but slightly modify	C
The nature of the hated task I quit	C
In plain words I am spoiled my life still tends	C
As first it tended I am broken and trained	C
To my old habits they are part of me	O
I know and none so well my darling ends	C
Are proved impossible no less no less	C
Even now what humours me fond fool as when	N2
Their faint ghosts sit with me and flatter me	O
And send me back content to my dull round	C
How can I change this soul this apparatus	C
Constructed solely for their purposes	C
So well adapted to their every want	C
To search out and discover prove and perfect	C
This intricate machine whose most minute	C
And meanest motions have their charm to me	O
Though to none else an aptitude I seize	C
An object I perceive a use a meaning	L
A property a fitness I explain	N2
And I alone how can I change my soul	Y2
And this wronged body worthless save when tasked	C
Under that soul's dominion used to care	J
For its bright master's cares and quite subdue	C
Its proper cravings not to ail nor pine	N2
So he but prosper whither drag this poor	J
Tried patient body God how I essayed	C
To live like that mad poet for a while	Y2
To love alone and how I felt too warped	C
And twisted and deformed What should I do	C
Even tho'released from drudgery but return	N2
Faint as you see and halting blind and sore	J
To my old life and die as I began	N2
I cannot feed on beauty for the sake	L
Of beauty only nor can drink in balm	X3
From lovely objects for their loveliness	C
My nature cannot lose her first imprint	C
I still must hoard and heap and class all truths	C
With one ulterior purpose I must know	C
Would God translate me to his throne believe	X2
That I should only listen to his word	C
To further my own aim For other men	N2
Beauty is prodigally strewn around	C
And I were happy could I quench as they	C
This mad and thriveless longing and content me	O
With beauty for itself alone alas	C
I have addressed a frock of heavy mail	Y2
Yet may not join the troop of sacred knights	C
And now the forest creatures fly from me	O
The grass banks cool the sunbeams warm no more	J
Best follow dreaming that ere night arrive	D3
I shall o'ertake the company and ride	C
Glittering as they	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
I think I apprehend	C
What you would say if you in truth design	N2
To enter once more on the life thus left	C
Seek not to hide that all this consciousness	C
Of failure is assumed	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
My friend my friend	C
I toil you listen I explain perhaps	C
You understand there our communion ends	C
Have you learnt nothing from to day's discourse	C
When we would thoroughly know the sick man's state	C
We feel awhile the fluttering pulse press soft	C
The hot brow look upon the languid eye	C
And thence divine the rest Must I lay bare	J
My heart hideous and beating or tear up	O3
My vitals for your gaze ere you will deem	U2
Enough made known You who are you forsooth	C
That is the crowning operation claimed	C
By the arch demonstrator heaven the hall	Y2
And earth the audience Let Aprile and you	C
Secure good places 't will be worth the while	Y2
	-
	-
Festus	C
Are you mad Aureole What can I have said	C
To call for this I judged from your own words	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
Oh doubtless A sick wretch describes the ape	Y3
That mocks him from the bed foot and all gravely	O
You thither turn at once or he recounts	C
The perilous journey he has late performed	C
And you are puzzled much how that could be	O
You find me here half stupid and half mad	C
It makes no part of my delight to search	Q2
Into these matters much less undergo	C
Another's scrutiny but so it chances	C
That I am led to trust my state to you	C
And the event is you combine contrast	C
And ponder on my foolish words as though	C
They thoroughly conveyed all hidden here	J
Here loathsome with despair and hate and rage	L2
Is there no fear no shrinking and no shame	G3
Will you guess nothing will you spare me nothing	L
Must I go deeper Ay or no	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
Dear friend	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
True I am brutal 't is a part of it	C
The plague's sign you are not a lazar haunter	J
How should you know Well then you think it strange	D
I should profess to have failed utterly	O
And yet propose an ultimate return	N2
To courses void of hope and this because	C
You know not what temptation is nor how	N2
'T is like to ply men in the sickliest part	C
You are to understand that we who make	L
Sport for the gods are hunted to the end	C
There is not one sharp volley shot at us	C
Which 'scaped with life though hurt we slacken pace	C
And gather by the wayside herbs and roots	C
To staunch our wounds secure from further harm	S3
We are assailed to life's extremest verge	U3
It will be well indeed if I return	N2
A harmless busy fool to my old ways	C
I would forget hints of another fate	C
Significant enough which silent hours	C
Have lately scared me with	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
Another and what	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
After all Festus you say well I am	Z2
A man yet I need never humble me	O
I would have been something I know not what	C
But though I cannot soar I do not crawl	Y2
There are worse portions than this one of mine	N2
You say well	Y2
	-
	-
Festus	C
Ah	Z3
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
	-
And deeper degradation	N2
If the mean stimulants of vulgar praise	C
If vanity should become the chosen food	C
Of a sunk mind should stifle even the wish	F3
To find its early aspirations true	J
Should teach it to breathe falsehood like life breath	C
An atmosphere of craft and trick and lies	C
Should make it proud to emulate surpass	C
Base natures in the practices which woke	L
Its most indignant loathing once No no	C
Utter damnation is reserved for hell	Y2
I had immortal feelings such shall never	J
Be wholly quenched no no	C
	-
	-
My friend you wear	J
A melancholy face and certain't is	C
There's little cheer in all this dismal work	L
But was it my desire to set abroach	F3
Such memories and forebodings I foresaw	C
Where they would drive 'T were better we discuss	C
News from Lucerne or Zurich ask and tell	Y2
Of Egypt's flaring sky or Spain's cork groves	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
I have thought trust me this mood will pass away	C
I know you and the lofty spirit you bear	J
And easily ravel out a clue to all	Y2
These are the trials meet for such as you	J
Nor must you hope exemption to be mortal	Y2
Is to be plied with trials manifold	C
Look round The obstacles which kept the rest	C
From your ambition have been spurned by you	J
Their fears their doubts the chains that bind themall	Y2
Were flax before your resolute soul which nought	C
Avails to awe save these delusions bred	C
From its own strength its selfsame strength disguised	C
Mocking itself Be brave dear Aureole Since	C
The rabbit has his shade to frighten him	R
The fawn a rustling bough mortals their cares	C
And higher natures yet would slight and laugh	R3
At these entangling fantasies as you	J
At trammels of a weaker intellect	C
Measure your mind's height by the shade it casts	C
I know you	J
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
And I know you dearest Festus	C
And how you love unworthily and how	N2
All admiration renders blind	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
You hold	C
That admiration blinds	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
Ay and alas	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
Nought blinds you less than admiration friend	C
Whether it be that all love renders wise	C
In its degree from love which blends with love	J3
Heart answering heart to love which spends itself	E2
In silent mad idolatry of some	I2
Pre eminent mortal some great soul of souls	C
Which ne'er will know how well it is adored	C
I say such love is never blind but rather	J
Alive to every the minutest spot	C
Which mars its object and which hate supposed	C
So vigilant and searching dreams not of	J3
Love broods on such what then When first perceived	C
Is there no sweet strife to forget to change	D
To overflush those blemishes with all	Y2
The glow of general goodness they disturb	A4
To make those very defects an endless source	C
Of new affection grown from hopes and fears	C
And when all fails is there no gallant stand	C
Made even for much proved weak no shrinking back	L
Lest since all love assimilates the soul	Y2
To what it loves it should at length become	I2
Almost a rival of its idol Trust me	O
If there be fiends who seek to work our hurt	C
To ruin and drag down earth's mightiest spirits	C
Even at God's foot 't will be from such as love	J3
Their zeal will gather most to serve their cause	C
And least from those who hate who most essay	C
By contumely and scorn to blot the light	C
Which forces entrance even to their hearts	C
For thence will our defender tear the veil	Y2
And show within each heart as in a shrine	N2
The giant image of perfection grown	N2
In hate's despite whose calumnies were spawned	C
In the untroubled presence of its eyes	C
True admiration blinds not nor am I	C
So blind I call your sin exceptional	Y2
It springs from one whose life has passed the bounds	C
Prescribed to life Compound that fault with God	C
I speak of men to common men like me	O
The weakness you reveal endears you more	J
Like the far traces of decay in suns	C
I bid you have good cheer	J
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
Proeclare Optime	O
Think of a quiet mountain cloistered priest	C
Instructing Paracelsus yet't is so	C
Come I will show you where my merit lies	C
'T is in the advance of individual minds	C
That the slow crowd should ground their expectation	N2
Eventually to follow as the sea	C
Waits ages in its bed till some one wave	I
Out of the multitudinous mass extends	C
The empire of the whole some feet perhaps	C
Over the strip of sand which could confine	N2
Its fellows so long time thenceforth the rest	C
Even to the meanest hurry in at once	C
And so much is clear gained I shall be glad	C
If all my labours failing of aught else	C
Suffice to make such inroad and procure	J
A wider range for thought nay they do this	C
For whatsoe'er my notions of true knowledge	K3
And a legitimate success may be	C
I am not blind to my undoubted rank	L
When classed with others I precede my age	L2
And whoso wills is very free to mount	C
These labours as a platform whence his own	N2
May have a prosperous outset But alas	C
My followers they are noisy as you heard	C
But for intelligence the best of them	O
So clumsily wield the weapons I supply	C
And they extol that I begin to doubt	C
Whether their own rude clubs and pebble stones	C
Would not do better service than my arms	C
Thus vilely swayed if error will not fall	Y2
Sooner before the old awkward batterings	C
Than my more subtle warfare not half learned	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
I would supply that art then or withhold	C
New arms until you teach their mystery	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
Content you 't is my wish I have recourse	C
To the simplest training Day by day I seek	L
To wake the mood the spirit which alone	N2
Can make those arms of any use to men	N2
Of course they are for swaggering forth at once	C
Graced with Ulysses' bow Achilles' shield	C
Flash on us all in armour thou Achilles	C
Make our hearts dance to thy resounding step	B4
A proper sight to scare the crows away	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
Pity you choose not then some other method	C
Of coming at your point The marvellous art	C
At length established in the world bids fair	J
To remedy all hindrances like these	C
Trust to Frobenius' press the precious lore	J
Obscured by uncouth manner or unfit	C
For raw beginners let his types secure	J
A deathless monument to after time	O
Meanwhile wait confidently and enjoy	X
The ultimate effect sooner or later	J
You shall be all revealed	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
The old dull question	N2
In a new form no more Thus I possess	C
Two sorts of knowledge one vast shadowy	C
Hints of the unbounded aim I once pursued	C
The other consists of many secrets caught	C
While bent on nobler prize perhaps a few	J
Prime principles which may conduct to much	F3
These last I offer to my followers here	J
Now bid me chronicle the first of these	C
My ancient study and in effect you bid	C
Revert to the wild courses just abjured	C
I must go find them scattered through the world	C
Then for the principles they are so simple	Y2
Being chiefly of the overturning sort	C
That one time is as proper to propound them	O
As any other to morrow at my class	C
Or half a century hence embalmed in print	C
For if mankind intend to learn at all	Y2
They must begin by giving faith to them	O
And acting on them and I do not see	C
But that my lectures serve indifferent well	Y2
No doubt these dogmas fall not to the earth	C
For all their novelty and rugged setting	L
I think my class will not forget the day	C
I let them know the gods of Israel	Y2
A tius Oribasius Galen Rhasis	C
Serapion Avicenna Averr es	C
Were blocks	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
And that reminds me I heard something	L
About your waywardness you burned their books	C
It seems instead of answering those sages	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
And who said that	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
Some I met yesternight	C
With OEcolampadius As you know the purpose	C
Of this short stay at Basil was to learn	N2
His pleasure touching certain missives sent	C
For our Zuinglius and himself 'T was he	C
Apprised me that the famous teacher here	J
Was my old friend	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
Ah I forgot you went	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
From Zurich with advices for the ear	J
Of Luther now at Wittenberg you know	C
I make no doubt the differences of late	C
With Carolostadius and returning sought	C
Basil and	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
I remember Here's a case now	N2
Will teach you why I answer not but burn	N2
The books you mention Pray does Luther dream	O
His arguments convince by their own force	C
The crowds that own his doctrine No indeed	C
His plain denial of established points	C
Ages had sanctified and men supposed	C
Could never be oppugned while earth was under	J
And heaven above them points which chance or time	O
Affected not did more than the array	C
Of argument which followed Boldly deny	C
There is much breath stopping hair stiffening	L
Awhile then amazed glances mute awaiting	L
The thunderbolt which does not come and next	C
Reproachful wonder and inquiry those	C
Who else had never stirred are able now	N2
To find the rest out for themselves perhaps	C
To outstrip him who set the whole at work	L
As never will my wise class its instructor	J
And you saw Luther	J
	-
	-
Festus	C
'T is a wondrous soul	Y2
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
True the so heavy chain which galled mankind	C
Is shattered and the noblest of us all	Y2
Must bow to the deliverer nay the worker	J
Of our own project we who long before	J
Had burst our trammels but forgot the crowd	C
We should have taught still groaned beneath the load	C
This he has done and nobly Speed that may	C
Whatever be my chance or my mischance	C
What benefits mankind must glad me too	C
And men seem made though not as I believed	C
For something better than the times produce	C
Witness these gangs of peasants your new lights	C
From Suabia have possessed whom M nzer leads	C
And whom the duke the landgrave and the elector	J
Will calm in blood Well well 't is not my world	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
Hark	L
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
'T is the melancholy wind astir	J
Within the trees the embers too are grey	J
Morn must be near	J
	-
	-
Festus	C
Best ope the casement see	C
The night late strewn with clouds and flying stars	C
Is blank and motionless how peaceful sleep	V3
The tree tops altogether Like an asp	C4
The wind slips whispering from bough to bough	N2
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
Ay you would gaze on a wind shaken tree	C
By the hour nor count time lost	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
So you shall gaze	C
Those happy times will come again	N2
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
Gone gone	N2
Those pleasant times Does not the moaning wind	C
Seem to bewail that we have gained such gains	C
And bartered sleep for them	O
	-
	-
Festus	C
It is our trust	C
That there is yet another world to mend	C
All error and mischance	C
	-
	-
Paracelsus	C
Another world	C
And why this world this common world to be	C
A make shift a mere foil how fair soever	C
To some fine life to come Man must be fed	C
With angels' food forsooth and some few traces	C
Of a diviner nature which look out	C
Through his corporeal baseness warrant him	O
In a supreme contempt of all provision	N2
For his inferior tastes some straggling marks	C
Which constitute his essence just as truly	C
As here and there a gem would constitute	C
The rock their barren bed one diamond	C
But were it so were man all mind he gains	C
A station little enviable From God	C
Down to the lowest spirit ministrant	C
Intelligence exists which casts our mind	C
Into immeasurable shade No no	C
Love hope fear faith these make humanity	C
These are its sign and note and character	C
And these I have lost gone shut from me for ever	C
Like a dead friend safe from unkindness more	C
See morn at length The heavy darkness seems	C
Diluted grey and clear without the stars	C
The shrubs bestir and rouse themselves as if	D4
Some snake that weighed them down all night let go	C
His hold and from the East fuller and fuller	C
Day like a mighty river flowing in	N2
But clouded wintry desolate and cold	C
Yet see how that broad prickly star shaped plant	C
Half down in the crevice spreads its woolly leaves	C
All thick and glistering with diamond dew	C
And you depart for Einsiedeln this day	C
And we have spent all night in talk like this	C
If you would have me better for your love	J3
Revert no more to these sad themes	C
	-
	-
Festus	C
One favour	C
And I have done I leave you deeply moved	C
Unwilling to have fared so well the while	Y2
My friend has changed so sorely If this mood	C
Shall pass away if light once more arise	C
Where all is darkness now if you see fit	C
To hope and trust again and strive again	N2
You will remember not our love alone	N2
But that my faith in God's desire that man	N2
Should trust on his support as I must think	L
You trusted is obscured and dim through you	C
For you are thus and this is no reward	C
Will you not call me to your side dear Aureole	Y2

Robert Browning

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