Paracelsus: Part Iv: Paracelsus Aspires Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AB BCDEBBEBFGHEIJGGBGBK ELMBGMEBGNOBPQGDGEBB EEECREGEEBES BSGBB BGTEEBEEEGBE BM BBBUEE BVEWXBMGWY BMBEDBBDEEEZEDCEEEAE OEEEGDEEEMBEEDLGCJMA 2EGBEGEGGEEEB2GEELKC 2D BME BMEBEOBBDGEBD2IGBEBE EA2BM BBM BWGMEGGBBBGMDBBWE2GE F2BVG2DG BEE B BBGLGBBD B BBBBBB2B2B2 EEEEEDDD EBQH2EBBB BMGELBBI2GBE BH2J2BEL BI2DM BBMDBDEBEHEBGBBEB2ME GEQGB BB BGDDHEGME OGTLBEEEEEGEELREBMBB BBK2EBE BBLBEGL2HHBBLLEEBEBB EM2N2ENBBEMEG BE BEERGEHDBMMEO2EBB BMP2LELEEBBEBLEBO2BB BE BDBBE BC2EEGBELEELEEI2I2MX LBGEBQ2BEM2BTM2BMBLL FLGWGLR2BMNBBBK2LEEW GLELGBEMGMEMEMS2 BL2BG BOEMBEH2 BEHBMEEEBEEELRLB B DFBGMEEGBLBEEBEB B ET2T2EBEBBWWBEEGLGLL EEEGHGBGBGHGEEEEEEE DEDEEBEBEDBBB LOLLOLBBBBEDEDEEEEEE EEE BH BEEBDE BFEGBI2M BEBLEBMBBU2B BELV2KGGE BEEM2BEEBBEB BEOLE BB BEBGEEEEEBELBMBGBEBB BEBBE BV2EBBLBMLEW2EBDLLGB E BBOLBEEEBBDEBEBL BX2H2BBEBEEBY2BEBEEH DBB BMBLMBBMHBEBBBBLBBBB EBLE BBBEEE BL BB BBZ2B BE BH BBBEDEP2EE BM BLBBEBE BBD BBBDEBBBT2E

Scene Colmar in Alsatia an Inn	A
Paracelsus Festus	B
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
to Johannes Oporinus his Secretary	C
Sic itur ad astra Dear Von Visenburg	D
Is scandalized and poor Torinus paralysed	E
And every honest soul that Basil holds	B
Aghast and yet we live as one may say	B
Just as though Liechtenfels had never set	E
So true a value on his sorry carcass	B
And learned P tter had not frowned us dumb	F
We live and shall as surely start to morrow	G
For Nuremberg as we drink speedy scathe	H
To Basil in this mantling wine suffused	E
A delicate blush no fainter tinge is born	I
I' the shut heart of a bud Pledge me good John	J
Basil a hot plague ravage it and P tter	G
Oppose the plague Even so Do you too share	G
Their panic the reptiles Ha ha faint through these	B
Desist for these They manage matters so	G
At Basil 't is like but others may find means	B
To bring the stoutest braggart of the tribe	K
Once more to crouch in silence means to breed	E
A stupid wonder in each fool again	L
Now big with admiration at the skill	M
Which stript a vain pretender of his plumes	B
And that done means to brand each slavish brow	G
So deeply surely ineffaceably	M
That henceforth flattery shall not pucker it	E
Out of the furrow there that stamp shall stay	B
To show the next they fawn on what they are	G
This Basil with its magnates fill my cup	N
Whom I curse soul and limb And now despatch	O
Despatch my trusty John and what remains	B
To do whate'er arrangements for our trip	P
Are yet to be completed see you hasten	Q
This night we'll weather the storm at least to morrow	G
For Nuremberg Now leave us this grave clerk	D
Has divers weighty matters for my ear	G
Oporinus goes out	E
And spare my lungs At last my gallant Festus	B
I am rid of this arch knave that dogs my heels	B
As a gaunt crow a gasping sheep at last	E
May give a loose to my delight How kind	E
How very kind my first best only friend	E
Why this looks like fidelity Embrace me	C
Not a hair silvered yet Right you shall live	R
Till I am worth your love you shall be pround	E
And I but let time show Did you not wonder	G
I sent to you because our compact weighed	E
Upon my conscience you recall the night	E
At Basil which the gods confound because	B
Once more I aspire I call you to my side	E
You come You thought my message strange	S
	-
	-
Festus	B
So strange	S
That I must hope indeed your messenger	G
Has mingled his own fancies with the words	B
Purporting to be yours	B
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
He said no more	G
'T is probable than the precious folk I leave	T
Said fiftyfold more roughly Well a day	E
'T is true poor Paracelsus is exposed	E
At last a most egregious quack he proves	B
And those he overreached must spit their hate	E
On one who utterly beneath contempt	E
Could yet deceive their topping wits You heard	E
Bare truth and at my bidding you come here	G
To speed me on my enterprise as once	B
Your lavish wishes sped me my own friend	E
	-
	-
Festus	B
What is your purpose Aureole	M
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Oh for purpose	B
There is no lack of precedents in a case	B
Like mine at least if not precisely mine	U
The case of men cast off by those they sought	E
To benefit	E
	-
	-
Festus	B
They really cast you off	V
I only heard a vague tale of some priest	E
Cured by your skill who wrangled at your claim	W
Knowing his life's worth best and how the judge	X
The matter was referred to saw no cause	B
To interfere nor you to hide your full	M
Contempt of him nor he again to smother	G
His wrath thereat which raised so fierce a flame	W
That Basil soon was made no place for you	Y
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
The affair of Liechtenfels the shallowest fable	M
The last and silliest outrage mere pretence	B
I knew it I foretold it from the first	E
How soon the stupid wonder you mistook	D
For genuine loyalty a cheering promise	B
Of better things to come would pall and pass	B
And every word comes true Saul is among	D
The prophets Just so long as I was pleased	E
To play off the mere antics of my art	E
Fantastic gambols leading to no end	E
I got huge praise but one can ne'er keep down	Z
Our foolish nature's weakness There they flocked	E
Poor devils jostling swearing and perspiring	D
Till the walls rang again and all for me	C
I had a kindness for them which was right	E
But then I stopped not till I tacked to that	E
A trust in them and a respect a sort	E
Of sympathy for them I must needs begin	A
To teach them not amaze them to impart	E
The spirit which should instigate the search	O
Of truth just what you bade me I spoke out	E
Forthwith a mighty squadron in disgust	E
Filed off the sifted chaff of the sack I said	E
Redoubling my endeavours to secure	G
The rest When lo one man had tarried so long	D
Only to ascertain if I supported	E
This tenet of his or that another loved	E
To hear impartially before he judged	E
And having heard now judged this bland disciple	M
Passed for my dupe but all along it seems	B
Spied error where his neighbours marvelled most	E
That fiery doctor who had hailed me friend	E
Did it because my by paths once proved wrong	D
And beaconed properly would commend again	L
The good old ways our sires jogged safely o'er	G
Though not their squeamish sons the other worthy	C
Discovered divers verses of St John	J
Which read successively refreshed the soul	M
But muttered backwards cured the gout the stone	A2
The colic and what not Quid multa The end	E
Was a clear class room and a quiet leer	G
From grave folk and a sour reproachful glance	B
From those in chief who cap in hand installed	E
The new professor scarce a year before	G
And a vast flourish about patient merit	E
Obscured awhile by flashy tricks but sure	G
Sooner or later to emerge in splendour	G
Of which the example was some luckless wight	E
Whom my arrival had discomfited	E
But now it seems the general voice recalled	E
To fill my chair and so efface the stain	B2
Basil had long incurred I sought no better	G
Only a quiet dismissal from my post	E
And from my heart I wished them better suited	E
And better served Good night to Basil then	L
But fast as I proposed to rid the tribe	K
Of my obnoxious back I could not spare them	C2
The pleasure of a parting kick	D
	-
	-
Festus	B
You smile	M
Despise them as they merit	E
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
If I smile	M
'T is with as very contempt as ever turned	E
Flesh into stone This courteous recompense	B
This grateful Festus were your nature fit	E
To be defiled your eyes the eyes to ache	O
At gangrene blotches eating poison blains	B
The ulcerous barky scurf of leprosy	B
Which finds a man and leaves a hideous thing	D
That cannot but be mended by hell fire	G
I would lay bare to you the human heart	E
Which God cursed long ago and devils make since	B
Their pet nest and their never tiring home	D2
Oh sages have discovered we are born	I
For various ends to love to know has ever	G
One stumbled in his search on any signs	B
Of a nature in us formed to hate To hate	E
If that be our true object which evokes	B
Our powers in fullest strength be sure 't is hate	E
Yet men have doubted if the best and bravest	E
Of spirits can nourish him with hate alone	A2
I had not the monopoly of fools	B
It seems at Basil	M
	-
	-
Festus	B
But your plans your plans	B
I have yet to learn your purpose Aureole	M
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Whether to sink beneath such ponderous shame	W
To shrink up like a crushed snail undergo	G
In silence and desist from further toil	M
and so subside into a monument	E
Of one their censure blasted or to bow	G
Cheerfully as submissively to lower	G
My old pretensions even as Basil dictates	B
To drop into the rank her wits assign me	B
And live as they prescribe and make that use	B
Of my poor knowledge which their rules allow	G
Proud to be patted now and then and careful	M
To practise the true posture for receiving	D
The amplest benefit from their hoofs' appliance	B
When they shall condescend to tutor me	B
Then one may feel resentment like a flame	W
Within and deck false systems in truth's garb	E2
And tangle and entwine mankind with error	G
And give them darkness for a dower and falsehood	E
For a possession ages or one may mope	F2
Into a shade through thinking or else drowse	B
Into a dreamless sleep and so die off	V
But I now Festus shall divine but I	G2
Am merely setting out once more embracing	D
My earliest aims again What thinks he now	G
	-
	-
Festus	B
Your aims the aims to Know and where is found	E
The early trust	E
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
	-
	-
Nay not so fast I say	B
The aims not the old means You know they made me	B
A laughing stock I was a fool you know	G
The when and the how hardly those means again	L
Not but they had their beauty who should know	G
Their passing beauty if not I Still dreams	B
They were so let them vanish yet in beauty	B
If that may be Stay thus they pass in song	D
	-
	-
He sings	B
	-
	-
Heap cassia sandal buds and stripes	B
Of labdanum and aloe balls	B
Smeared with dull nard an Indian wipes	B
From out her hair such balsam falls	B
Down sea side mountain pedestals	B
From tree tops where tired winds are fain	B2
Spent with the vast and howling main	B2
To treasure half their island gain	B2
	-
	-
And strew faint sweetness from some old	E
Egyptian's fine worm eaten shroud	E
Which breaks to dust when once unrolled	E
Or shredded perfume like a cloud	E
From closet long to quiet vowed	E
With mothed and dropping arras hung	D
Mouldering her lute and books among	D
As when a queen long dead was young	D
	-
	-
Mine every word And on such pile shall die	E
My lovely fancies with fair perished things	B
Themselves fair and forgotten yes forgotten	Q
Or why abjure them So I made this rhyme	H2
That fitting dignity might be preserved	E
No little proud was I though the list of drugs	B
Smacks of my old vocation and the verse	B
Halts like the best of Luther's psalms	B
	-
	-
Festus	B
But Aureole	M
Talk not thus wildly and madly I am here	G
Did you know all I have travelled far indeed	E
To learn your wishes Be yourself again	L
For in this mood I recognize you less	B
Than in the horrible despondency	B
I witnessed last You may account this joy	I2
But rather let me gaze on that despair	G
Than hear these incoherent words and see	B
This flushed cheek and intensely sparkling eye	E
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Why man I was light hearted in my prime	H2
I am light hearted now what would you have	J2
Aprile was a poet I make songs	B
'T is the very augury of success I want	E
Why should I not be joyous now as then	L
	-
	-
Festus	B
Joyous and how and what remains for joy	I2
You have declared the ends which I am sick	D
Of naming are impracticable	M
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Ay	B
Pursued as I pursued them the arch fool	M
Listen my plan will please you not 't is like	D
But you are little versed in the world's ways	B
This is my plan first drinking its good luck	D
I will accept all helps all I despised	E
So rashly at the outset equally	B
With early impulses late years have quenched	E
I have tried each way singly now for both	H
All helps no one sort shall exclude the rest	E
I seek to know and to enjoy at once	B
Not one without the other as before	G
Suppose my labour should seem God's own cause	B
Once more as first I dreamed it shall not baulk me	B
Of the meanest earthliest sensualest delight	E
That may be snatched for every joy is gain	B2
And gain is gain however small My soul	M
Can die then nor be taunted what was gained	E
Nor on the other hand should pleasure follow	G
As though I had not spurned her hitherto	E
Shall she o'ercloud my spirit's rapt communion	Q
With the tumultuous past the teeming future	G
Glorious with visions of a full success	B
	-
	-
Festus	B
Success	B
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
And wherefore not Why not prefer	G
Results obtained in my best state of being	D
To those derived alone from seasons dark	D
As the thoughts they bred When I was best my youth	H
Unwasted seemed success not surest too	E
It is the nature of darkness to obscure	G
I am a wanderer I remember well	M
One journey how I feared the track was missed	E
	-
So long the city I desired to reach	O
Lay hid when suddenly its spires afar	G
Flashed through the circling clouds you may conceive	T
My transport Soon the vapours closed again	L
But I had seen the city and one such glance	B
No darkness could obscure nor shall the present	E
A few dull hours a passing shame or two	E
Destroy the vivid memories of the past	E
I will fight the battle out a little spent	E
Perhaps but still an able combatant	E
You look at my grey hair and furrowed brow	G
But I can turn even weakness to account	E
Of many tricks I know 't is not the least	E
To push the ruins of my frame whereon	L
The fire of vigour trembles scarce alive	R
Into a heap and send the flame aloft	E
What should I do with age So sickness lends	B
An aid it being I fear the source of all	M
We boast of mind is nothing but disease	B
And natural health is ignorance	B
	-
	-
Festus	B
I see	B
But one good symptom in this notable scheme	K2
I feared your sudden journey had in view	E
To wreak immediate vengeance on your foes	B
'T is not so I am glad	E
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
And if I please	B
To spit on them to trample them what then	L
'T is sorry warfare truly but the fools	B
Provoke it I would spare their self conceit	E
But if they must provoke me cannot suffer	G
Forbearance on my part if I may keep	L2
No quality in the shade must needs put forth	H
Power to match power my strength against their strength	H
And teach them their own game with their own arms	B
Why be it so and let them take their chance	B
I am above them like a god there's no	L
Hiding the fact what idle scruples then	L
Were those that ever bade me soften it	E
Communicate it gently to the world	E
Instead of proving my supremacy	B
Taking my natural station o'er their head	E
Then owning all the glory was a man's	B
And in my elevation man's would be	B
But live and learn though life's short learning hard	E
And therefore though the wreck of my past self	M2
I fear dear P tter that your lecture room	N2
Must wait awhile for its best ornament	E
The penitent empiric who set up	N
For somebody but soon was taught his place	B
Now but too happy to be let confess	B
His error snuff the candles and illustrate	E
Fiat experientia corpore vili	M
Your medicine's soundness in his person Wait	E
Good P tter	G
	-
	-
Festus	B
He who sneers thus is a god	E
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Ay ay laugh at me I am very glad	E
You are not gulled by all this swaggering you	E
Can see the root of the matter how I strive	R
To put a good face on the overthrow	G
I have experienced and to bury and hide	E
My degradation in its length and breadth	H
How the mean motives I would make you think	D
Just mingle as is due with nobler aims	B
The appetites I modestly allow	M
May influence me as being mortal still	M
Do goad me drive me on and fast supplant	E
My youth's desires You are no stupid dupe	O2
You find me out Yes I had sent for you	E
To palm these childish lies upon you Festus	B
Laugh you shall laugh at me	B
	-
	-
Festus	B
The past then Aureole	M
Proves nothing Is our interchange of love	P2
Yet to begin Have I to swear I mean	L
No flattery in this speech or that For you	E
Whate'er you say there is no degradation	L
These low thoughts are no inmates of your mind	E
Or wherefore this disorder You are vexed	E
As much by the intrusion of base views	B
Familiar to your adversaries as they	B
Were troubled should your qualities alight	E
Amid their murky souls not otherwise	B
A stray wolf which the winter forces down	L
From our bleak hills suffices to affright	E
A village in the vales while foresters	B
Sleep calm though all night long the famished troop	O2
Snuff round and scratch against their crazy huts	B
These evil thoughts are monsters and will flee	B
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
May you be happy Festus my own friend	E
	-
	-
Festus	B
Nay further the delights you fain would think	D
The superseders of your nobler aims	B
Though ordinary and harmless stimulants	B
Will ne'er content you	E
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Hush I once despised them	C2
But that soon passes We are high at first	E
In our demand nor will abate a jot	E
Of toil's strict value but time passes o'er	G
And humbler spirits accept what we refuse	B
In short when some such comfort is doled out	E
As these delights we cannot long retain	L
Bitter contempt which urges us at first	E
To hurl it back but hug it to our breast	E
And thankfully retire This life of mine	L
Must be lived out and a grave thoroughly earned	E
I am just fit for that and nought beside	E
I told you once I cannot now enjoy	I2
Unless I deem my knowledge gains through joy	I2
Nor can I know but straight warm tears reveal	M
My need of linking also joy to knowledge	X
So on I drive enjoying all I can	L
And knowing all I can I speak of course	B
Confusedly this will better explain feel here	G
Quick beating is it not a fire of the heart	E
To work off some way this as well as any	B
So Festus sees me fairly launched his calm	Q2
Compassionate look might have disturbed me once	B
But now far from rejecting I invite	E
What bids me press the closer lay myself	M2
Open before him and be soothed with pity	B
I hope if he command hope and believe	T
As he directs me satiating myself	M2
With his enduring love And Festus quits me	B
To give place to some credulous disciple	M
Who holds that God is wise but Paracelsus	B
Has his peculiar merits I suck in	L
That homage chuckle o'er that admiration	L
And then dismiss the fool for night is come	F
And I betake myself to study again	L
Till patient searchings after hidden lore	G
Half wring some bright truth from its prison my frame	W
Trembles my forehead's veins swell out my hair	G
Tingles for triumph Slow and sure the morn	L
Shall break on my pent room and dwindling lamp	R2
And furnace dead and scattered earths and ores	B
When with a failing heart and throbbing brow	M
I must review my captured truth sum up	N
Its value trace what ends to what begins	B
Its present power with its eventual bearings	B
Latent affinities the views it opens	B
And its full length in perfecting my scheme	K2
I view it sternly circumscribed cast down	L
From the high place my fond hopes yielded it	E
Proved worthless which in getting yet had cost	E
Another wrench to this fast falling frame	W
Then quick the cup to quaff that chases sorrow	G
I lapse back into youth and take again	L
My fluttering pulse for evidence that God	E
Means good to me will make my cause his own	L
See I have cast off this remorseless care	G
Which clogged a spirit born to soar so free	B
And my dim chamber has become a tent	E
Festus is sitting by me and his Michal	M
Why do you start I say she listening here	G
For yonder W rzburg through the orchard bough	M
Motions as though such ardent words should find	E
No echo in a maiden's quiet soul	M
But her pure bosom heaves her eyes fill fast	E
With tears her sweet lips tremble all the while	M
Ha ha	S2
	-
	-
Festus	B
It seems then you expect to reap	L2
No unreal joy from this your present course	B
But rather	G
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Death To die I owe that much	O
To what at least I was I should be sad	E
To live contented after such a fall	M
To thrive and fatten after such reverse	B
The whole plan is a makeshift but will last	E
My time	H2
	-
	-
Festus	B
And you have never mused and said	E
I had a noble purpose and the strength	H
To compass it but I have stopped half way	B
And wrongly given the first fruits of my toil	M
To objects little worthy of the gift	E
Why linger round them still why clench my fault	E
Why seek for consolation in defeat	E
In vain endeavours to derive a beauty	B
From ugliness why seek to make the most	E
Of what no power can change nor strive instead	E
With mighty effort to redeem the past	E
And gathering up the treasures thus cast down	L
To hold a steadfast course till I arrive	R
At their fit destination and my own	L
You have never pondered thus	B
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
	-
	-
Have I you ask	D
Often at midnight when most fancies come	F
Would some such airy project visit me	B
But ever at the end or will you hear	G
The same thing in a tale a parable	M
You and I wandering over the world wide	E
Chance to set foot upon a desert coast	E
Just as we cry No human voice before	G
Broke the inveterate silence of these rocks	B
Their querulous echo startles us we turn	L
What ravaged structure still looks o'er the sea	B
Some characters remain too While we read	E
The sharp salt wind impatient for the last	E
Of even this record wistfully comes and goes	B
Or sings what we recover mocking it	E
This is the record and my voice the wind's	B
	-
	-
He sings	B
	-
	-
Over the sea our galleys went	E
With cleaving prows in order brave	T2
To a speeding wind and a bounding wave	T2
A gallant armament	E
Each bark built out of a forest tree	B
Left leafy and rough as first it grew	E
And nailed all over the gaping sides	B
Within and without with black bull hides	B
Seethed in fat and suppled in flame	W
To bear the playful billows' game	W
So each good ship was rude to see	B
Rude and bare to the outward view	E
But each upbore a stately tent	E
Where cedar pales in scented row	G
Kept out the flakes of the dancing brine	L
And an awning drooped the mast below	G
In fold on fold of the purple fine	L
That neither noontide nor starshine	L
Nor moonlight cold which maketh mad	E
Might pierce the regal tenement	E
When the sun dawned oh gay and glad	E
We set the sail and plied the oar	G
But when the night wind blew like breath	H
For joy of one day's voyage more	G
We sang together on the wide sea	B
Like men at peace on a peaceful shore	G
Each sail was loosed to the wind so free	B
Each helm made sure by the twilight star	G
And in a sleep as calm as death	H
We the voyagers from afar	G
Lay stretched along each weary crew	E
In a circle round its wondrous tent	E
Whence gleamed soft light and curled rich scent	E
And with light and perfume music too	E
So the stars wheeled round and the darkness past	E
And at morn we started beside the mast	E
And still each ship was sailing fast	E
	-
	-
Now one morn land appeared a speck	D
Dim trembling betwixt sea and sky	E
Avoid it cried our pilot check	D
The shout restrain the eager eye	E
But the heaving sea was black behind	E
For many a night and many a day	B
And land though but a rock drew nigh	E
So we broke the cedar pales away	B
Let the purple awning flap in the wind	E
And a statute bright was on every deck	D
We shouted every man of us	B
And steered right into the harbour thus	B
With pomp and p an glorious	B
	-
	-
A hundred shapes of lucid stone	L
All day we built its shrine for each	O
A shrine of rock for every one	L
Nor paused till in the westering sun	L
We sat together on the beach	O
To sing because our task was done	L
When lo what shouts and merry songs	B
What laughter all the distance stirs	B
A loaded raft with happy throngs	B
Of gentle islanders	B
Our isles are just at hand they cried	E
Like cloudlets faint in even sleeping	D
Our temple gates are opened wide	E
Our olive groves thick shade are keeping	D
For these majestic forms they cried	E
Oh then we awoke with sudden start	E
From our deep dream and knew too late	E
How bare the rock how desolate	E
Which had received our precious freight	E
Yet we called out Depart	E
Our gifts once given must here abide	E
Our work is done we have no heart	E
To mar our work we cried	E
	-
	-
Festus	B
In truth	H
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Nay wait all this in tracings faint	E
On rugged stones strewn here and there but piled	E
In order once then follows mark what follows	B
The sad rhyme of the men who proudly clung	D
To their first fault and withered in their pride	E
	-
	-
Festus	B
Come back then Aureole as you fear God come	F
This is foul sin come back Renounce the past	E
Forswear the future look for joy no more	G
But wait death's summons amid holy sights	B
And trust me for the event peace if not joy	I2
Return with me to Einsiedeln dear Aureole	M
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
No way no way it would not turn to good	E
A spotless child sleeps on the flowering moss	B
'T is well for him but when a sinful man	L
Envying such slumber may desire to put	E
His guilt away shall he return at once	B
To rest by lying there Our sires knew well	M
Spite of the grave discoveries of their sons	B
The fitting course for such dark cells dim lamps	B
A stone floor one may writhe on like a worm	U2
No mossy pillow blue with violets	B
	-
	-
Festus	B
I see no symptom of these absolute	E
And tyrannous passions You are calmer now	L
This verse making can purge you well enough	V2
Without the terrible penance you describe	K
You love me still the lusts you fear will never	G
Outrage your friend To Einsiedeln once more	G
Say but the word	E
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
No no those lusts forbid	E
They crouch I know cowering with half shut eye	E
Beside you 't is their nature Thrust yourself	M2
Between them and their prey let some fool style me	B
Or king or quack it matters not then try	E
Your wisdom urge them to forego their treat	E
No no learn better and look deeper Festus	B
If you knew how a devil sneers within me	B
While you are talking now of this now that	E
As though we differed scarcely save in trifles	B
	-
	-
Festus	B
Do we so differ True change must proceed	E
Whether for good or ill keep from me which	O
Do not confide all secrets I was born	L
To hope and you	E
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
To trust you know the fruits	B
	-
	-
Festus	B
Listen I do believe what you call trust	E
Was self delusion at the best for see	B
So long as God would kindly pioneer	G
A path for you and screen you from the world	E
Procure you full exemption from man's lot	E
Man's common hopes and fears on the mere pretext	E
Of your engagement in his service yield you	E
A limitless licence make you God in fact	E
And turn your slave you were content to say	B
Most courtly praises What is it at last	E
But selfishness without example None	L
Could trace God's will so plain as you while yours	B
Remained implied in it but now you fail	M
And we who prate about that will are fools	B
In short God's service is established here	G
As he determines fit and not your way	B
And this you cannot brook Such discontent	E
Is weak Renounce all creatureship at once	B
Affirm an absolute right to have and use	B
Your energies as though the rivers should say	B
We rush to the ocean what have we to do	E
With feeding streamlets lingering in the vales	B
Sleeping in lazy pools Set up that plea	B
That will be bold at least	E
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
'T is like enough	V2
The serviceable spirits are those no doubt	E
The East produces lo the master bids	B
They wake raise terraces and garden grounds	B
In one night's space and this done straight begin	L
Another century's sleep to the great praise	B
Of him that framed them wise and beautiful	M
Till a lamp's rubbing or some chance akin	L
Wake them again I am of different mould	E
I would have soothed my lord and slaved for him	W2
And done him service past my narrow bond	E
And thus I get rewarded for my pains	B
Beside 't is vain to talk of forwarding	D
God's glory otherwise this is alone	L
The sphere of its increase as far as men	L
Increase it why then look beyond this sphere	G
We are his glory and if we be glorious	B
Is not the thing achieved	E
	-
	-
Festus	B
Shall one like me	B
Judge hearts like yours Though years have changed you much	O
And you have left your first love and retain	L
Its empty shade to veil your crooked ways	B
Yet I still hold that you have honoured God	E
And who shall call your course without reward	E
For wherefore this repining at defeat	E
Had triumph ne'er inured you to high hopes	B
I urge you to forsake the life you curse	B
And what success attends me simply talk	D
Of passion weakness and remorse in short	E
Anything but the naked truth you choose	B
This so despised career and cheaply hold	E
My happiness or rather other men's	B
Once more return	L
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
And quickly John the thief	X2
Has pilfered half my secrets by this time	H2
And we depart by daybreak I am weary	B
I know not how not even the wine cup soothes	B
My brain to night	E
Do you not thoroughly despise me Festus	B
No flattery One like you needs not be told	E
We live and breathe deceiving and deceived	E
Do you not scorn me from your heart of hearts	B
Me and my cant each petty subterfuge	Y2
My rhymes and all this frothy shower of words	B
My glozing self deceit my outward crust	E
Of lies which wrap as tetter morphew furfair	B
Wrapt the sound flesh so see you flatter not	E
Even God flatters but my friend at least	E
Is true I would depart secure henceforth	H
Against all further insult hate and wrong	D
From puny foes my one friend's scorn shall brand me	B
No fear of sinking deeper	B
	-
	-
Festus	B
No dear Aureole	M
No no I came to counsel faithfully	B
There are old rules made long ere we were born	L
By which I judge you I so fallible	M
So infinitely low beside your mighty	B
Majestic spirit even I can see	B
You own some higher law than ours which call	M
Sin what is no sin weakness what is strength	H
But I have only these such as they are	B
To guide me and I blame you where they bid	E
Only so long as blaming promises	B
To win peace for your soul the more that sorrow	B
Has fallen on me of late and they have helped me	B
So that I faint not under my distress	B
But wherefore should I scruple to avow	L
In spite of all as brother judging brother	B
Your fate is most inexplicable to me	B
And should you perish without recompense	B
And satisfaction yet too hastily	B
I have relied on love you may have sinned	E
But you have loved As a mere human matter	B
As I would have God deal with fragile men	L
In the end I say that you will triumph yet	E
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Have you felt sorrow Festus 't is because	B
You love me Sorrow and sweet Michal yours	B
Well thought on never let her know this last	E
Dull winding up of all these miscreants dared	E
Insult me me she loved so grieve her not	E
	-
	-
Festus	B
Your ill success can little grieve her now	L
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Michal is dead pray Christ we do not craze	B
	-
	-
Festus	B
Aureole dear Aureole look not on me thus	B
Fool fool this is the heart grown sorrow proof	Z2
I cannot bear those eyes	B
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Nay really dead	E
	-
	-
Festus	B
'T is scarce a month	H
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Stone dead then you have laid her	B
Among the flowers ere this Now do you know	B
I can reveal a secret which shall comfort	E
Even you I have no julep as men think	D
To cheat the grave but a far better secret	E
Know then you did not ill to trust your love	P2
To the cold earth I have thought much of it	E
For I believe we do not wholly die	E
	-
	-
Festus	B
Aureole	M
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
Nay do not laugh there is a reason	L
For what I say I think the soul can never	B
Taste death I am just now as you may see	B
Very unfit to put so strange a thought	E
In an intelligible dress of words	B
But take it as my trust she is not dead	E
	-
	-
Festus	B
But not on this account alone you surely	B
Aureole you have believed this all along	D
	-
	-
Paracelsus	B
And Michal sleeps among the roots and dews	B
While I am moved at Basil and full of schemes	B
For Nuremberg and hoping and despairing	D
As though it mattered how the farce plays out	E
So it be quickly played Away away	B
Have your will rabble while we fight the prize	B
Troop you in safety to the snug back seats	B
And leave a clear arena for the brave	T2
About to perish for your sport Behold	E

Robert Browning

Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation

<< Rhyme For A Child Viewing A Naked Venus In A Painting Of 'the Judgement Of Paris' Poem Paracelsus: Part V: Paracelsus Attains Poem>>

About Paracelsus: Part Iv: Paracelsus Aspires

Paracelsus: Part Iv: Paracelsus Aspires is a poem by Robert Browning. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.

Write your comment about Paracelsus: Part Iv: Paracelsus Aspires poem by Robert Browning

Best Poems of Robert Browning

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 49 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

A Simple Gift Of Clarity
by Michael Mcguire
Ring Of Fire
by N. Khanyile
A Disturbing Dream
by Marlon Pitter
Crab Lice
by Marlon Pitter
Biography Of The Anonymous
by Gilbert Sordebabari
Lost In Search Of A Saved Child
by Michael Mcguire
Dark Lens
by Gilbert Sordebabari
The Ship
by Pieter Sanders
Rose Bush
by Aubrie J Chellman
Between Condemning Bad Acts And Doing Bad Things, Which One Is Worse?
by Marlon Pitter

Popular Poets

1. Emily Dickinson(2415 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)