Ursula Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEE FFG HHIIJJBBKKLLMMNNBBOO LL PGQQCCRRSSTTUUVVVWWI IXXYYZ ZA2YEEB2B2BBC2C2D2D2 E2E2K KF2F2RRDDG2G2AABBB BH2H2I2I2A2A2RRB J2J2K2K2KKI2I2L2L2M2 M2There is a village in a southern land | A |
By rounded hills closed in on every hand | A |
The streets slope steeply to the market square | B |
Long lines of white washed houses clean and fair | B |
With roofs irregular and steps of stone | C |
Ascending to the front of every one | D |
The people swarthy idle full of mirth | E |
Live mostly by the tillage of the earth | E |
- | |
Upon the northern hill top looking down | F |
Like some sequestered saint upon the town | F |
Stands the great convent | G |
- | |
On a summer night | H |
Ten years ago the moon with rising light | H |
Made all the convent towers as clear as day | I |
While still in deepest shade the village lay | I |
Both light and shadow with repose were filled | J |
The village sounds the convent bells were stilled | J |
No foot in all the streets was now astir | B |
And in the convent none kept watch but her | B |
Whom they called Ursula The moonlight fell | K |
Brightly around her in the lonely cell | K |
Her eyes were dark and full of unshed woe | L |
Like mountain tarns which cannot overflow | L |
Surcharged with rain and round about the eyes | M |
Deep rings recorded sleepless nights and cries | M |
Stifled before their birth Her brow was pale | N |
And like a marble temple in a vale | N |
Of cypress trees shone shadowed by her hair | B |
So still she was that had you seen her there | B |
You might have thought you were beholding death | O |
Her lips were parted but if any breath | O |
Came from between them it were hard to know | L |
By any movement of her breast of snow | L |
- | |
But when the summer night was now far spent | P |
She kneeled upon the floor Her head she leant | G |
Down on the cold stone of the window seat | Q |
God knows if there were any vital heat | Q |
In those pale brows or if they chilled the stone | C |
And as she knelt she made a bitter moan | C |
With words that issued from a bitter soul | R |
O Mary Mother and is this thy goal | R |
Thy peace which waiteth for the world worn heart | S |
Is it for this I live and die apart | S |
From all that once I knew O Holy God | T |
Is this the blessed chastening of Thy rod | T |
Which only wounds to heal Is this the cross | U |
That I must carry counting all for loss | U |
Which once was precious in the world to me | V |
If Thou be God blot out my memory | V |
And let me come forsaking all to Thee | V |
But here though that old world beholds me not | W |
Here though I seek Thee through my lonely lot | W |
Here though I fast do penance day by day | I |
Kneel at Thy feet and ever watch and pray | I |
Beloved forms from that forsaken world | X |
Revisit me The pale blue smoke is curled | X |
Up from the dwellings of the sons of men | Y |
I see it and all my heart turns back again | Y |
From seeking Thee to find the forms I love | Z |
- | |
Thou with Thy saints abiding far above | Z |
What canst Thou know of this my earthly pain | A2 |
They said to me Thou shalt be born again | Y |
And learn that worldly things are nothing worth | E |
In that new state O God is this new birth | E |
Birth of the spirit dying to the flesh | B2 |
Are these the living waters which refresh | B2 |
The thirsty spirit that it thirst no more | B |
Still all my life is thirsting to the core | B |
Thou canst not satisfy if this be Thou | C2 |
And yet I dream or I remember how | C2 |
Before I came here while I tarried yet | D2 |
Among the friends they tell me to forget | D2 |
I never seemed to seek Thee but I found | E2 |
Thou wert in all the loveliness around | E2 |
And most of all in hearts that loved me well | K |
- | |
And then I came to seek Thee in this cell | K |
To crucify my worldliness and pride | F2 |
To lay my heart's affections all aside | F2 |
As carnal hindrances which held my soul | R |
From hasting unencumbered to her goal | R |
And all this have I done or else have striven | D |
To do obeying the behest of Heaven | D |
And my reward is bitterness I seem | G2 |
To wander always in a feverish dream | G2 |
On plains where there is only sun and sand | A |
No rock or tree in all the weary land | A |
My thirst unquenchable my heart burnt dry | B |
And still in my parched throat I faintly cry | B |
Deliver me O Lord bow down Thine ear | B |
- | |
He will not answer me He does not hear | B |
I am alone within the universe | H2 |
Oh for a strength of will to rise and curse | H2 |
God and defy Him here to strike me dead | I2 |
But my heart fails me and I bow my head | I2 |
And cry to Him for mercy still in vain | A2 |
Oh for some sudden agony of pain | A2 |
To make such insurrection in my soul | R |
That I might burst all bondage of control | R |
Be for one moment as the beasts that die | B |
And pour my life in one blaspheming cry ' | - |
- | |
The morning came and all the convent towers | J2 |
Were gilt with glory by the golden hours | J2 |
But where was Ursula The sisters came | K2 |
With quiet footsteps calling her by name | K2 |
But there was none that answered In her cell | K |
The glad illuminating sunshine fell | K |
On form and face and showed that she was dead | I2 |
May Christ receive her soul ' the sisters said | I2 |
And spoke in whispers of her holy life | L2 |
And how God's mercy spared her pain and strife | L2 |
And gave this quiet death The face was still | M2 |
Like a tired child's that lies and sleeps its fill | M2 |
Robert Fuller Murray
(1)
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