Risus Dei Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCDCDEECFF FGFGHFHFFHG IFIFJIJIIJF FKKLFLFFFLFFMNMNNFFO ONMLL FLLFFPPFFFQQ JLLJRRFRLFFJFF| Methinks in Him there dwells alway | A |
| A sea of laughter very deep | B |
| Where the leviathans leap | B |
| And little children play | C |
| Their white feet twinkling on its crisped edge | D |
| But in the outer bay | C |
| The strong man drives the wedge | D |
| Of polished limbs | E |
| And swims | E |
| Yet there is one will say | C |
| 'It is but shallow neither is it broad' | F |
| And so he frowns but is he nearer God | F |
| - | |
| One saith that God is in the note of bird | F |
| And piping wind and brook | G |
| And all the joyful things that speak no word | F |
| Then if from sunny nook | G |
| Or shade a fair child's laugh | H |
| Is heard | F |
| Is not God half | H |
| And if a strong man gird | F |
| His loins for laughter stirred | F |
| By trick of ape or calf | H |
| Is he no better than a cawing rook | G |
| - | |
| Nay 'tis a Godlike function laugh thy fill | I |
| Mirth comes to thee unsought | F |
| Mirth sweeps before it like a flood the mill | I |
| Of languaged logic thought | F |
| Hath not its source so high | J |
| The will | I |
| Must let it by | J |
| For though the heavens are still | I |
| God sits upon His hill | I |
| And sees the shadows fly | J |
| And if He laughs at fools why should He not | F |
| - | |
| 'Yet hath a fool a laugh' Yea of a sort | F |
| God careth for the fools | K |
| The chemic tools | K |
| Of laughter He hath given them and some toys | L |
| Of sense as 'twere a small retort | F |
| Wherein they may collect the joys | L |
| Of natural giggling as becomes their state | F |
| The fool is not inhuman making sport | F |
| For such as would not gladly be without | F |
| That old familiar noise | L |
| Since though he laugh not he can cachinnate | F |
| This also is of God we may not doubt | F |
| 'Is there an empty laugh ' Best called a shell | M |
| From which a laugh has flown | N |
| A mask a well | M |
| That hath no water of its own | N |
| Part echo of a groan | N |
| Which if it hide a cheat | F |
| Is a base counterfeit | F |
| But if one borrow | O |
| A cloak to wrap a sorrow | O |
| That it may pass unknown | N |
| Then can it not be empty God doth dwell | M |
| Behind the feigned gladness | L |
| Inhabiting a sacred core of sadness | L |
| - | |
| 'Yet is there not an evil laugh ' Content | F |
| What follows | L |
| When Satan fills the hollows | L |
| Of his bolt riven heart | F |
| With spasms of unrest | F |
| And calls it laughter if it give relief | P |
| To his great grief | P |
| Grudge not the dreadful jest | F |
| But if the laugh be aimed | F |
| At any good thing that it be ashamed | F |
| And blush thereafter | Q |
| Then it is evil and it is not laughter | Q |
| - | |
| There are who laugh but know not why | J |
| Whether the force | L |
| Of simple health and vigour seek a course | L |
| Extravagant as when a wave runs high | J |
| And tips with crest of foam the incontinent curve | R |
| Or if it be reserve | R |
| Of power collected for a goal which had | F |
| Behold the man is fresh So when strung nerve | R |
| Stout heart pent breath have brought you to the source | L |
| Of a great river on the topmost stie | F |
| Of cliff then have you bad | F |
| All heaven to laugh with you yet somewhere nigh | J |
| A shepherd lad | F |
| Has wondering looked and deemed that you were mad | F |
Thomas Edward Brown
(1)
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