The Harps Of Heaven Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACCDDEFCBBBGHICJFK BLMNCKOOPBPQBRBSTUVB JBWBXXYZSZBBWYBA2A2B 2B2BC2YMCCYOOCD2OBBO LOOABOBCC2OCOC2OCCOL LOOBC2OOCOOOOOBBC2CC YCOE2C2OE2YCOYC2On a solemn day | A |
I clomb the shining bulwark of the skies | B |
Not by the beaten way | A |
But climbing by a prayer | C |
That like a golden thread hung by the giddy stair | C |
Fleck'd on the immemorial blue | D |
By the strong step stroke of the brave and few | D |
Who stirr'd by echoes of far harmonies | E |
Must either lay them down and die of love | F |
Or dare | C |
Those empyrean walls that mock their starward eyes | B |
But midway in the dread emprize | B |
The faint and fainter footsteps cease | B |
And all my footing gone | G |
Like one who gathers samphire I hold on | H |
And in the swaying air look up and down | I |
And up and down through answering vasts descry | C |
Nor Earth nor Heaven | J |
Above | F |
The sheer eternal precipice below | K |
The sheer eternal precipice | B |
Then when I | L |
Gigantic with my desperate agony | M |
Felt even | N |
The knotted grasp of bodily despair | C |
Relaxing to let go | K |
A mighty music like a wind of light | O |
Blew from the imminent height | O |
And caught me in its splendour and as flame | P |
That flickers and again aspires | B |
Rose in a moment thither whence it came | P |
And I that thought me lost | Q |
Pass'd to the top of all my dear desires | B |
And stood among the everlasting host | R |
Then turn'd I to a seraph whose swift hands | B |
That lived angelic passion struck his soul | S |
Upon a harp a seraph fair and strong | T |
And faultless for his harp and for his throne | U |
And yet among | V |
The Strength and Beauty of the heavenly bands | B |
No more to be remember'd than some one | J |
Poor warrior when a king of many kings | B |
Stamps on the fields and rears his glittering crop | W |
Of standing steel and the vex'd spirit wings | B |
Above the human harvest and in vain | X |
Begins from morn till eve to sum the embattled plain | X |
Or when | Y |
After a day of peace sudden and late | Z |
The beacon flashes and the war drums roll | S |
And through the torches of the city gate | Z |
All the long winter night a martial race | B |
Streams to the nation's gathering place | B |
And like as water drop to water drop | W |
Pour on in changeless flood the innumerable men | Y |
I turn'd and as from footing in mid seas | B |
Looking o'er lessening waves thou may'st behold | A2 |
The round horizon of unshadow'd gold | A2 |
I standing on an amethyst look'd round | B2 |
The moving Heaven of Harpers throned and crown'd | B2 |
And said 'Was it from these | B |
I heard the great sound ' And he said 'What sound ' | C2 |
Then I grown bolder seeing I had thriven | Y |
To win reply 'This that I hear from thee | M |
This that everywhere I hear | C |
Rolling a sea of choristry | C |
Up and down the jewel of Heaven | Y |
A sea which from thy seat of light | O |
That seems more loud and bright | O |
Because more near | C |
To the white twinkle of yon furthest portal | D2 |
Swells up those circling shores of chrysolite | O |
And like an odorous luminous mist doth leap the eternal walls | B |
And falls | B |
In wreaths of melody | O |
Adown the azure mountain of the sky | L |
And round its lower slopes bedew'd | O |
Breathes lost beatitude | O |
And far away | A |
Low low below the last of all its lucent scarps | B |
Sprinkles bewildering drops of immortality | O |
O angel fair thou know'st what I would say | B |
This sound of harpers that I hear | C |
This sound of harpers harping on their harps ' | C2 |
Then he bent his head | O |
And shed a tear | C |
And said | O |
'I perceive thou art a mortal ' | C2 |
Then I to him 'Not only O thou bright | O |
Seraphic Pity to a mortal ear | C |
These sacred sounds are dear | C |
Or why withholdest not thy ceaseless hand | O |
And why | L |
Far as my dazzled eye | L |
Can pierce the lustre of the radiant land | O |
See I the rapt celestial auditory | O |
Each while he blessed hears gives back his bliss | B |
With never tiring touch from golden harps like this ' | C2 |
Then he to me 'Oh wherefore hast thou trod | O |
Beyond the limit of thine earthly lot | O |
These that we bear | C |
Within our hands are instruments of glory | O |
Wherewith day without night | O |
We make the glory of immortal light | O |
In the eyes of God | O |
As for the sound we hear it not | O |
Yet speaking to thee child of ignorance | B |
I do remember that I loved it once | B |
In the sweet lower air ' | C2 |
Yet he spake once more | C |
'But thou return to the remember'd shore | C |
Why shouldst thou leave thy nation | Y |
Thy city and the house of all most dear | C |
Do we not all dwell in eternity | O |
For we have been as thou and thou | E2 |
Shalt be as we ' | C2 |
And he lean'd and kiss d me | O |
Saying 'But now | E2 |
Rejoice O child in other joys than mine | Y |
Hear the dear music of thy mortal ear | C |
While yet it is the time with thee | O |
Nor make haste to thine exaltation | Y |
Though our state be better than thine ' | C2 |
Sydney Thompson Dobell
(1)
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