Ash Wednesday Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDCEEFG HIJHIJKB LMLMNMOBPO QRQGBIBQ ASATT UU A VRRRWRPRXYRZRA2B2C2D 2B2YRRRPP B2RE2RB2PE2B2YRRRRRB 2RRE2RF2IYB2 PIRRRRB2 A SE2ISB2S SE2G2SG2 SRH2H2RI2SRSSS RR R Z RH2H2SB2SRB2 RSB2 PPP RPPJ2J2J2B2 E2RK2R D2J2Y E2 E2 Z RYRRL2RRRR Z RB2RRB2LSB2RB2 SZYH2RSRSB2 Z SSSB2B2RR E2 Z BCD B2B2PB2SPB2 B2B2E2E2SSB2B2M2 M2B2B2SZ RYRSE2B2E2B2SB2R B2I | A |
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Because I do not hope to turn again | B |
Because I do not hope | C |
Because I do not hope to turn | D |
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope | C |
I no longer strive to strive towards such things | E |
Why should the ag egrave d eagle stretch its wings | E |
Why should I mourn | F |
The vanished power of the usual reign | G |
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Because I do not hope to know | H |
The infirm glory of the positive hour | I |
Because I do not think | J |
Because I know I shall not know | H |
The one veritable transitory power | I |
Because I cannot drink | J |
There where trees flower and springs flow for there is | K |
nothing again | B |
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Because I know that time is always time | L |
And place is always and only place | M |
And what is actual is actual only for one time | L |
And only for one place | M |
I rejoice that things are as they are and | N |
I renounce the bless egrave d face | M |
And renounce the voice | O |
Because I cannot hope to turn again | B |
Consequently I rejoice having to construct something | P |
Upon which to rejoice | O |
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And pray to God to have mercy upon us | Q |
And pray that I may forget | R |
These matters that with myself I too much discuss | Q |
Too much explain | G |
Because I do not hope to turn again | B |
Let these words answer | I |
For what is done not to be done again | B |
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us | Q |
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Because these wings are no longer wings to fly | A |
But merely vans to beat the air | S |
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry | A |
Smaller and dryer than the will | T |
Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still | T |
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Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death | U |
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death | U |
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II | A |
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Lady three white leopards sat under a juniper tree | V |
In the cool of the day having fed to sateity | R |
On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained | R |
In the hollow round of my skull And God said | R |
Shall these bones live shall these | W |
Bones live And that which had been contained | R |
In the bones which were already dry said chirping | P |
Because of the goodness of this Lady | R |
And because of her loveliness and because | X |
She honours the Virgin in meditation | Y |
We shine with brightness And I who am here dissembled | R |
Proffer my deeds to oblivion and my love | Z |
To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd | R |
It is this which recovers | A2 |
My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions | B2 |
Which the leopards reject The Lady is withdrawn | C2 |
In a white gown to contemplation in a white gown | D2 |
Let the whiteness of bones atone to forgetfulness | B2 |
There is no life in them As I am forgotten | Y |
And would be forgotten so I would forget | R |
Thus devoted concentrated in purpose And God said | R |
Prophesy to the wind to the wind only for only | R |
The wind will listen And the bones sang chirping | P |
With the burden of the grasshopper saying | P |
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Lady of silences | B2 |
Calm and distressed | R |
Torn and most whole | E2 |
Rose of memory | R |
Rose of forgetfulness | B2 |
Exhausted and life giving | P |
Worried reposeful | E2 |
The single Rose | B2 |
Is now the Garden | Y |
Where all loves end | R |
Terminate torment | R |
Of love unsatisfied | R |
The greater torment | R |
Of love satisfied | R |
End of the endless | B2 |
Journey to no end | R |
Conclusion of all that | R |
Is inconclusible | E2 |
Speech without word and | R |
Word of no speech | F2 |
Grace to the Mother | I |
For the Garden | Y |
Where all love ends | B2 |
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Under a juniper tree the bones sang scattered and shining | P |
We are glad to be scattered we did little good to each other | I |
Under a tree in the cool of day with the blessing of sand | R |
Forgetting themselves and each other united | R |
In the quiet of the desert This is the land which ye | R |
Shall divide by lot And neither division nor unity | R |
Matters This is the land We have our inheritance | B2 |
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III | A |
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At the first turning of the second stair | S |
I turned and saw below | E2 |
The same shape twisted on the banister | I |
Under the vapour in the fetid air | S |
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears | B2 |
The deceitul face of hope and of despair | S |
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At the second turning of the second stair | S |
I left them twisting turning below | E2 |
There were no more faces and the stair was dark | G2 |
Damp jagg egrave d like an old man's mouth drivelling beyond repair | S |
Or the toothed gullet of an ag egrave d shark | G2 |
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At the first turning of the third stair | S |
Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit | R |
And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene | H2 |
The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green | H2 |
Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute | R |
Blown hair is sweet brown hair over the mouth blown | I2 |
Lilac and brown hair | S |
Distraction music of the flute stops and steps of the mind | R |
over the third stair | S |
Fading fading strength beyond hope and despair | S |
Climbing the third stair | S |
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Lord I am not worthy | R |
Lord I am not worthy | R |
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but speak the word only | R |
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IV | Z |
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Who walked between the violet and the violet | R |
Whe walked between | H2 |
The various ranks of varied green | H2 |
Going in white and blue in Mary's colour | S |
Talking of trivial things | B2 |
In ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour | S |
Who moved among the others as they walked | R |
Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs | B2 |
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Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand | R |
In blue of larkspur blue of Mary's colour | S |
Sovegna vos | B2 |
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Here are the years that walk between bearing | P |
Away the fiddles and the flutes restoring | P |
One who moves in the time between sleep and waking wearing | P |
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White light folded sheathing about her folded | R |
The new years walk restoring | P |
Through a bright cloud of tears the years restoring | P |
With a new verse the ancient rhyme Redeem | J2 |
The time Redeem | J2 |
The unread vision in the higher dream | J2 |
While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse | B2 |
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The silent sister veiled in white and blue | E2 |
Between the yews behind the garden god | R |
Whose flute is breathless bent her head and signed but spoke | K2 |
no word | R |
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But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down | D2 |
Redeem the time redeem the dream | J2 |
The token of the word unheard unspoken | Y |
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Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew | E2 |
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And after this our exile | E2 |
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V | Z |
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If the lost word is lost if the spent word is spent | R |
If the unheard unspoken | Y |
Word is unspoken unheard | R |
Still is the unspoken word the Word unheard | R |
The Word without a word the Word within | L2 |
The world and for the world | R |
And the light shone in darkness and | R |
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled | R |
About the centre of the silent Word | R |
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O my people what have I done unto thee | Z |
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Where shall the word be found where will the word | R |
Resound Not here there is not enough silence | B2 |
Not on the sea or on the islands not | R |
On the mainland in the desert or the rain land | R |
For those who walk in darkness | B2 |
Both in the day time and in the night time | L |
The right time and the right place are not here | S |
No place of grace for those who avoid the face | B2 |
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and | R |
deny the voice | B2 |
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Will the veiled sister pray for | S |
Those who walk in darkness who chose thee and oppose thee | Z |
Those who are torn on the horn between season and season | Y |
time and time between | H2 |
Hour and hour word and word power and power those who wait | R |
In darkness Will the veiled sister pray | S |
For children at the gate | R |
Who will not go away and cannot pray | S |
Pray for those who chose and oppose | B2 |
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O my people what have I done unto thee | Z |
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Will the veiled sister between the slender | S |
Yew trees pray for those who offend her | S |
And are terrified and cannot surrender | S |
And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks | B2 |
In the last desert before the last blue rocks | B2 |
The desert in the garden the garden in the desert | R |
Of drouth spitting from the mouth the withered apple seed | R |
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O my people | E2 |
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VI | Z |
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Although I do not hope to turn again | B |
Although I do not hope | C |
Although I do not hope to turn | D |
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Wavering between the profit and the loss | B2 |
In this brief transit where the dreams cross | B2 |
The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying | P |
Bless me father though I do not wish to wish these things | B2 |
From the wide window towards the granite shore | S |
The white sails still fly seaward seaward flying | P |
Unbroken wings | B2 |
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And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices | B2 |
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices | B2 |
And the weak spirit quickens to rebel | E2 |
For the bent golden rod and the lost sea smell | E2 |
Quickens to recover | S |
The cry of quail and the whirling plover | S |
And the blind eye creates | B2 |
The empty forms between the ivory gates | B2 |
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth | M2 |
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This is the time of tension between dying and birth | M2 |
The place of solitude where three dreams cross | B2 |
Between blue rocks | B2 |
But when the voices shaken from the yew tree drift away | S |
Let the other yew be shaken and reply | Z |
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Bless egrave d sister holy mother spirit of the fountain spirit | R |
of the garden | Y |
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood | R |
Teach us to care and not to care | S |
Teach us to sit still | E2 |
Even among these rocks | B2 |
Our peace in His will | E2 |
And even among these rocks | B2 |
Sister mother | S |
And spirit of the river spirit of the sea | B2 |
Suffer me not to be separated | R |
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And let my cry come unto Thee | B2 |
T. S. Eliot
(1)
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