Three Songs From Paracelsus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDDEFGGHHIIJJ KLMNMOPQQPQQRRSSTTUV UVUVQQIIKWXWXKKQQYJJ JZ A A2B2A2B2C2D2D2D2 QQQQQE2E2E2 A QZZQMF2G2G2H2H2MF2QC I2CI2I2QQQRJ2RMRMK2J 2K2F2QQF2QQQ L2AA QQAQQAM2M2M2 N2O2YYO2YP2VP2VQAQAQ QQQQQQQQI | A |
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I hear a voice perchance I heard | B |
Long ago but all too low | C |
So that scarce a care it stirred | B |
If the voice was real or no | C |
I heard it in my youth when first | D |
The waters of my life outburst | D |
But now their stream ebbs faint I hear | E |
That voice still low but fatal clear | F |
As if all Poets God ever meant | G |
Should save the world and therefore lent | G |
Great gifts to but who proud refused | H |
To do His work or lightly used | H |
Those gifts or failed through weak endeavour | I |
So mourn cast off by Him for ever | I |
As if these leaned in airy ring | J |
To take me this the song they sing | J |
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'Lost lost yet come | K |
With our wan troop make thy home | L |
Come come for we | M |
Will not breathe so much as breathe | N |
Reproach to thee | M |
Knowing what thou sink'st beneath | O |
So sank we in those old years | P |
We who bid thee come thou last | Q |
Who living yet hast life o'erpast | Q |
And altogether we thy peers | P |
Will pardon ask for thee the last | Q |
Whose trial is done whose lot is cast | Q |
With those who watch but work no more | R |
Who gaze on life but live no more | R |
Yet we trusted thou shouldst speak | S |
The message which our lips too weak | S |
Refused to utter shouldst redeem | T |
Our fault such trust and all a dream | T |
Yet we chose thee a birthplace | U |
Where the richness ran to flowers | V |
Couldst not sing one song for grace | U |
Not make one blossom man's and ours | V |
Must one more recreant to his race | U |
Die with unexerted powers | V |
And join us leaving as he found | Q |
The world he was to loosen bound | Q |
Anguish ever and for ever | I |
Still beginning ending never | I |
Yet lost and last one come | K |
How couldst understand alas | W |
What our pale ghosts strove to say | X |
As their shades did glance and pass | W |
Before thee night and day | X |
Thou wast blind as we were dumb | K |
Once more therefore come O come | K |
How shall we clothe how arm the spirit | Q |
Who next shall thy post of life inherit | Q |
How guard him from thy speedy ruin | Y |
Tell us of thy sad undoing | J |
Here where we sit ever pursuing | J |
Our weary task ever renewing | J |
Sharp sorrow far from God who gave | Z |
Our powers and man they could not save ' | - |
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II | A |
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Heap cassia sandal buds and stripes | A2 |
Of labdanum and aloe balls | B2 |
Smeared with dull nard an Indian wipes | A2 |
From out her hair such balsam falls | B2 |
Down seaside mountain pedestals | C2 |
From tree tops where tired winds are fain | D2 |
Spent with the vast and howling main | D2 |
To treasure half their island gain | D2 |
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And strew faint sweetness from some old | Q |
Egyptian's fine worm eaten shroud | Q |
Which breaks to dust when once unrolled | Q |
Or shredded perfume like a cloud | Q |
From closet long to quiet vowed | Q |
With mothed and dropping arras hung | E2 |
Mouldering her lute and books among | E2 |
As when a queen long dead was young | E2 |
- | |
III | A |
- | |
Over the sea our galleys went | Q |
With cleaving prows in order brave | Z |
To a speeding wind and a bounding wave | Z |
A gallant armament | Q |
Each bark built out of a forest tree | M |
Left leafy and rough as first it grew | F2 |
And nailed all over the gaping sides | G2 |
Within and without with black bull hides | G2 |
Seethed in fat and suppled in flame | H2 |
To bear the playful billows' game | H2 |
So each good ship was rude to see | M |
Rude and bare to the outward view | F2 |
But each upbore a stately tent | Q |
Where cedar pales in scented row | C |
Kept out the flakes of the dancing brine | I2 |
And an awning drooped the mast below | C |
In fold on fold of the purple fine | I2 |
That neither noontide nor star shine | I2 |
Nor moonlight cold which maketh mad | Q |
Might pierce the regal tenement | Q |
When the sun dawned oh gay and glad | Q |
We set the sail and plied the oar | R |
But when the night wind blew like breath | J2 |
For joy of one day's voyage more | R |
We sang together on the wide sea | M |
Like men at peace on a peaceful shore | R |
Each sail was loosed to the wind so free | M |
Each helm made sure by the twilight star | K2 |
And in a sleep as calm as death | J2 |
We the voyagers from afar | K2 |
Lay stretched along each weary crew | F2 |
In a circle round its wondrous tent | Q |
Whence gleamed soft light and curled rich scent | Q |
And with light and perfume music too | F2 |
So the stars wheeled round and the darkness past | Q |
And at morn we started beside the mast | Q |
And still each ship was sailing fast | Q |
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Now one morn land appeared a speck | L2 |
Dim trembling betwixt sea and sky | A |
'Avoid it ' cried our pilot 'check | A |
The shout restrain the eager eye ' | - |
But the heaving sea was black behind | Q |
For many a night and many a day | Q |
And land though but a rock drew nigh | A |
So we broke the cedar pales away | Q |
Let the purple awning flap in the wind | Q |
And a statue bright was on every deck | A |
We shouted every man of us | M2 |
And steered right into the harbour thus | M2 |
With pomp and paean glorious | M2 |
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A hundred shapes of lucid stone | N2 |
All day we built its shrine for each | O2 |
A shrine of rock for every one | Y |
Nor paused we till in the westering sun | Y |
We sat together on the beach | O2 |
To sing because our task was done | Y |
When lo what shouts and merry songs | P2 |
What laughter all the distance stirs | V |
A loaded raft with happy throngs | P2 |
Of gentle islanders | V |
'Our isles are just at hand ' they cried | Q |
'Like cloudlets faint in even sleeping | A |
Our temple gates are opened wide | Q |
Our olive groves thick shade are keeping | A |
For these majestic forms' they cried | Q |
Oh then we awoke with sudden start | Q |
From our deep dream and knew too late | Q |
How bare the rock how desolate | Q |
Which had received our precious freight | Q |
Yet we called out 'Depart | Q |
Our gifts once given must here abide | Q |
Our work is done we have no heart | Q |
To mar our work ' we cried | Q |
Robert Browning
(1)
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