The Cathedral Porch Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBABACDDC EFFEFEGFFG FHHFHFIJJI FBBFBFFFFF KBBKBKCBBC LMMLNLOBBO PFFPFPBQQR| Towering towering up to the noon blaze | A |
| Up to the hot blue up to blinding gold | B |
| Pillar and pinnacle arch and corbel scrolled | B |
| Flowered and tendrilled soar aspire and raise | A |
| The giant porch with kings and prophets old | B |
| High in their niches like one shout of praise | A |
| From earth to heaven In shadow of the door | C |
| Cringeing a beggar stands | D |
| He holds out abject hands | D |
| His lips for pity and alms mechanically implore | C |
| - | |
| Splendour of air and the bright splintered beam | E |
| Carve all afresh in strong reverberate glow | F |
| As if even now the passionate master blow | F |
| Struck from the stone the shapes of beauty's dream | E |
| Can a mere hand ever have fashioned so | F |
| Desire's adventure god like force supreme | E |
| Sky scaling joy The beggar's toneless drone | G |
| Comes from his laughterless | F |
| Accepted wretchedness | F |
| As from a long dried well where off cast clutter's thrown | G |
| - | |
| Prophet and saint and kingly king whose eyes | F |
| Flashing authority gaze and awe you came | H |
| From wombs of flesh though now enthroned in fame | H |
| A mother heard the helpless wailing cries | F |
| Of voices that have won the world's acclaim | H |
| By wisdom suffering truth August you rise | F |
| Above this wreck by whom the children run | I |
| Careless with dancing limb | J |
| And laugh and mock at him | J |
| And beggar children towering porch are equal in the sun | I |
| - | |
| From the opened door bursts upon glorious wings | F |
| Music the shadowy silence moves with sound | B |
| That overflows and rolls returning round | B |
| As if to itself the pillared grandeur sings | F |
| Of deeper than all thought has ever found | B |
| Of richer than the heart's imaginings | F |
| Of higher than all hope has dared to see | F |
| Like comment of a crow | F |
| Dulled reiterate slow | F |
| The human plaint croaks answer Vanity look on me | F |
| - | |
| Who made the stark unfeatured quarry block | K |
| Live in those song like pillars And who smote | B |
| The ancient silence into note on note | B |
| Melodious as the river from the rock | K |
| Out of the heart of man such splendours float | B |
| As make his vileness and his misery mock | K |
| The prisoned soul which shall bespeak him more | C |
| Grandeur of stone and sound | B |
| Or fawning abject bound | B |
| To his abasement close as to a dungeon floor | C |
| - | |
| Sunken eyes craving hands defeated shape | L |
| Whom to look on so humbles you appear | M |
| But as the avoided husk shrivelled and sere | M |
| Cast by the spirit that springs up to escape | L |
| To its own reality and radiance there | N |
| For ever fresh as young bloom on a grape | L |
| Triumphing to be human yet to win | O |
| An amplitude beyond | B |
| Dull care and fancy fond | B |
| And breathe the light that man was born to glory in | O |
| - | |
| Yet littleness and envy and obscure pain | P |
| Were mortised into that magnificence | F |
| Trading his wretchedness for pity's pence | F |
| Though this poor ruin from the depth complain | P |
| Slave to his self lamenting impotence | F |
| Nor can his proud humanity regain | P |
| O Wonder of Man in his indignity | B |
| Forfeit disgrace and rue | Q |
| Shares he not still in you | Q |
| Did not man sink so low could he aspire so high | R |
Robert Laurence Binyon
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About The Cathedral Porch
The Cathedral Porch is a poem by Robert Laurence Binyon. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The Cathedral Porch poem by Robert Laurence Binyon
Best Poems of Robert Laurence Binyon