Proem. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEAFGHIJKIFLDMNOG PQRSDTUVKCWLXIYZIA2U B2C2UD2IUE2F2ID2F2UI F2FF2IG2ILH2YUI2IJ2F 2UIK2L2M2F2IUG2IUIII IN2IIO2F2P2Q2R2UE2F2 UF2IUDF2I only knew one poet in my life | A |
BROWNING | B |
I have not known a poet but myself | C |
If I'm indeed one as I ought to be | D |
Considering how these many years I've made | E |
The Muse now such a woman in my life | A |
No flesh and blood could put to proof the art | F |
With which I wooed her ay and woo her still | G |
Though as I deem ere this she has been won | H |
I have not known another as I say | I |
Who could be called a poet or has been | J |
Acclaimed such by the not too wise in wit | K |
Who label literature's itinerants | I |
Professed discerners as in every art | F |
With sheer cock surety there be those who | L |
Deem their diploma Fame's own warranty | D |
Who in this journal or in that take stock | M |
O' the issue of thought's making song at best | N |
A poor result not to much tending or if | O |
Esteemed good e'en though flawed in some way still | G |
So these crumb gatherers for the multitude | P |
Still dole their wit or wisdom week by week | Q |
Piece out our imperfections choose elect | R |
In this or that craft him or her as first | S |
Second or third whatever the degree | D |
Arrived at in the inkling of a whim | T |
And so with their diploma set the seal | U |
To the rank world's preferment failing which | V |
Mere poets must have a bad time of it | K |
Or haply some one in song's craft himself | C |
Elects himself the chief musician and | W |
The other nine and ninety jugglers who | L |
Jig ape like in the halo of his vogue | X |
'Tis then song does become ridiculous | I |
And the proud name of poet poor indeed | Y |
Proud name Alas the power of pride is gone | Z |
And the dull world's humility is theirs | I |
The new bards who unlike the old gauge not | A2 |
The grandeur of the office they fulfil | U |
The old knight errantry of Song who rode | B2 |
Triumphant with God's targe in the world's eye | C2 |
Emblazoned with the heraldry of soul | U |
In this wise or in that the squires of Truth | D2 |
Love's worshippers or Beauty's votaries | I |
Whose mere life was the melody of all | U |
It may in fact be song at best is but | E2 |
The rind of this life's apple not its core | F2 |
And the chief singers still but mendicants | I |
Of the world's love and yet it is in sooth | D2 |
The one thing sweet to its own votary | F2 |
As to the painter his art too is all | U |
And to the sculptor his Ay though but rinds | I |
At best allowed of our life's apples here | F2 |
Yet the rind no less than the core is part | F |
O' the perfect fruit more toothsome than the core | F2 |
So the white flesh is eaten with it so | I |
Song includes life as life including song | G2 |
Retains the sweetness of its strength and yields | I |
To all sustainment and fruition too | L |
Though as within the earthy fruit thought's pulp | H2 |
Is th' first thing still and failing which indeed | Y |
The eater then deems his enjoyment null | U |
Song without life is such a withered fruit | I2 |
Ah but thou sayest that song's subserviency | I |
To life the mere foot on the daily fact | J2 |
Treading not the imaginary air | F2 |
But the mire of the actual breeds alloy | U |
Too gross for beauty that 'tis not in these | I |
The soilure of the animal the slag | K2 |
Of the material or custom's pack | L2 |
Ay not in these the effluent wings dilate | M2 |
The breath diviner has its issue nor | F2 |
Spirit to heaven finds the nearest way | I |
And rightly sayest Life in these is all | U |
And has with these its ending too but song | G2 |
That more than life of which the poet sings | I |
With power authentic in each syllable | U |
As the moon sends a gleam down watery glooms | I |
To hint of heaven song as it were unwraps | I |
All the dense folds of life one by one so | I |
To find a spark of the divine or tears | I |
The bodily vesture from the breathing man | N2 |
And on the soul's escape pursuing sings | I |
Of th' more than life which 'neath the earthy rags | I |
For years it may be blind and deaf and dumb | O2 |
Was so uncognisant that God was near | F2 |
That heaven was possible and the escape | P2 |
So easy when His sesame was said | Q2 |
As thou I then on song this value set | R2 |
That it can leaven life a yeast of soul | U |
So quickening us we are not mere dough but | E2 |
Dough with a resurrection in it here | F2 |
And capable of any miracle | U |
At that we'll let it stand sometime elsewhere | F2 |
With other eyes and other ears we may | I |
Perceive a higher meaning in it all | U |
Song perfect then or so life perfect we | D |
Shall be the song not make it any more | F2 |
Robert Crawford
(1)
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