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
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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
	-
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Festus	B
Your aims the aims to Know and where is found	E
The early trust	E
	-
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Paracelsus	B
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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
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He sings	B
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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
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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
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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
	-
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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
	-
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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
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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
	-
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Festus	B
Success	B
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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
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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
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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
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Festus	B
He who sneers thus is a god	E
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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
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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
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Paracelsus	B
May you be happy Festus my own friend	E
	-
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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
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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
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Festus	B
It seems then you expect to reap	L2
No unreal joy from this your present course	B
But rather	G
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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
	-
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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
	-
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Paracelsus	B
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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
	-
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He sings	B
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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
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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
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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
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Festus	B
In truth	H
	-
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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
	-
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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

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