The Everlasting Gospel Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDDDCCEE AAFFGGDDFFHHIIFFJJKL FFAAGGFFDDMMNODDDDFF PQDDRREECCSSDDTTU DDVVFFWXDDDDHHYYZZA2 B2DDIIDDDDIDDDC2D2E2 E2DDF2F2G2G2DDH2H2G2 G2I2J2K2K2DDL2M2N2N2 DDDDDDF2F2O2O2E2E2P2 P2DDQQQ2Q2FFR2R2FFDS 2G2G2L2L2T2T2EEG2G2U 2U2DDV2V2W2W2EE DDR2R2 X2X2Y2Y2G2HDDZ2G2A3B 3C3C3D3D3E3The vision of Christ that thou dost see | A |
Is my vision s greatest enemy | A |
Thine has a great hook nose like thine | B |
Mine has a snub nose like to mine | B |
Thine is the Friend of all Mankind | C |
Mine speaks in parables to the blind | C |
Thine loves the same world that mine hates | D |
Thy heaven doors are my hell gates | D |
Socrates taught what Meletus | D |
Loath d as a nation s bitterest curse | D |
And Caiaphas was in his own mind | C |
A benefactor to mankind | C |
Both read the Bible day and night | E |
But thou read st black where I read white | E |
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Was Jesus gentle or did He | A |
Give any marks of gentility | A |
When twelve years old He ran away | F |
And left His parents in dismay | F |
When after three days sorrow found | G |
Loud as Sinai s trumpet sound | G |
No earthly parents I confess | D |
My Heavenly Father s business | D |
Ye understand not what I say | F |
And angry force Me to obey | F |
Obedience is a duty then | H |
And favour gains with God and men | H |
John from the wilderness loud cried | I |
Satan gloried in his pride | I |
Come said Satan come away | F |
I ll soon see if you ll obey | F |
John for disobedience bled | J |
But you can turn the stones to bread | J |
God s high king and God s high priest | K |
Shall plant their glories in your breast | L |
If Caiaphas you will obey | F |
If Herod you with bloody prey | F |
Feed with the sacrifice and be | A |
Obedient fall down worship me | A |
Thunders and lightnings broke around | G |
And Jesus voice in thunders sound | G |
Thus I seize the spiritual prey | F |
Ye smiters with disease make way | F |
I come your King and God to seize | D |
Is God a smiter with disease | D |
The God of this world rag d in vain | M |
He bound old Satan in His chain | M |
And bursting forth His furious ire | N |
Became a chariot of fire | O |
Throughout the land He took His course | D |
And trac d diseases to their source | D |
He curs d the Scribe and Pharisee | D |
Trampling down hypocrisy | D |
Where er His chariot took its way | F |
There Gates of Death let in the Day | F |
Broke down from every chain and bar | P |
And Satan in His spiritual war | Q |
Dragg d at His chariot wheels loud howl d | D |
The God of this world louder roll d | D |
The chariot wheels and louder still | R |
His voice was heard from Zion s Hill | R |
And in His hand the scourge shone bright | E |
He scourg d the merchant Canaanite | E |
From out the Temple of His Mind | C |
And in his body tight does bind | C |
Satan and all his hellish crew | S |
And thus with wrath He did subdue | S |
The serpent bulk of Nature s dross | D |
Till He had nail d it to the Cross | D |
He took on sin in the Virgin s womb | T |
And put it off on the Cross and tomb | T |
To be worshipp d by the Church of Rome | U |
- | |
Was Jesus humble or did He | D |
Give any proofs of humility | D |
Boast of high things with humble tone | V |
And give with charity a stone | V |
When but a child He ran away | F |
And left His parents in dismay | F |
When they had wander d three days long | W |
These were the words upon His tongue | X |
No earthly parents I confess | D |
I am doing My Father s business | D |
When the rich learn d Pharisee | D |
Came to consult Him secretly | D |
Upon his heart with iron pen | H |
He wrote Ye must be born again | H |
He was too proud to take a bribe | Y |
He spoke with authority not like a Scribe | Y |
He says with most consummate art | Z |
Follow Me I am meek and lowly of heart | Z |
As that is the only way to escape | A2 |
The miser s net and the glutton s trap | B2 |
What can be done with such desperate fools | D |
Who follow after the heathen schools | D |
I was standing by when Jesus died | I |
What I call d humility they call d pride | I |
He who loves his enemies betrays his friends | D |
This surely is not what Jesus intends | D |
But the sneaking pride of heroic schools | D |
And the Scribes and Pharisees virtuous rules | D |
For He acts with honest triumphant pride | I |
And this is the cause that Jesus dies | D |
He did not die with Christian ease | D |
Asking pardon of His enemies | D |
If He had Caiaphas would forgive | C2 |
Sneaking submission can always live | D2 |
He had only to say that God was the Devil | E2 |
And the Devil was God like a Christian civil | E2 |
Mild Christian regrets to the Devil confess | D |
For affronting him thrice in the wilderness | D |
He had soon been bloody Caesar s elf | F2 |
And at last he would have been Caesar himself | F2 |
Like Dr Priestly and Bacon and Newton | G2 |
Poor spiritual knowledge is not worth a button | G2 |
For thus the Gospel Sir Isaac confutes | D |
God can only be known by His attributes | D |
And as for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost | H2 |
Or of Christ and His Father it s all a boast | H2 |
And pride and vanity of the imagination | G2 |
That disdains to follow this world s fashion | G2 |
To teach doubt and experiment | I2 |
Certainly was not what Christ meant | J2 |
What was He doing all that time | K2 |
From twelve years old to manly prime | K2 |
Was He then idle or the less | D |
About His Father s business | D |
Or was His wisdom held in scorn | L2 |
Before His wrath began to burn | M2 |
In miracles throughout the land | N2 |
That quite unnerv d the Seraph band | N2 |
If He had been Antichrist Creeping Jesus | D |
He d have done anything to please us | D |
Gone sneaking into synagogues | D |
And not us d the Elders and Priests like dogs | D |
But humble as a lamb or ass | D |
Obey d Himself to Caiaphas | D |
God wants not man to humble himself | F2 |
That is the trick of the Ancient Elf | F2 |
This is the race that Jesus ran | O2 |
Humble to God haughty to man | O2 |
Cursing the Rulers before the people | E2 |
Even to the Temple s highest steeple | E2 |
And when He humbled Himself to God | P2 |
Then descended the cruel rod | P2 |
If Thou Humblest Thyself Thou humblest Me | D |
Thou also dwell st in Eternity | D |
Thou art a Man God is no more | Q |
Thy own Humanity learn to adore | Q |
For that is My spirit of life | Q2 |
Awake arise to spiritual strife | Q2 |
And Thy revenge abroad display | F |
In terrors at the last Judgement Day | F |
God s mercy and long suffering | R2 |
Is but the sinner to judgement to bring | R2 |
Thou on the Cross for them shalt pray | F |
And take revenge at the Last Day | F |
Jesus replied and thunders hurl d | D |
I never will pray for the world | S2 |
Once I did so when I pray d in the Garden | G2 |
I wish d to take with Me a bodily pardon | G2 |
Can that which was of woman born | L2 |
In the absence of the morn | L2 |
When the Soul fell into sleep | T2 |
And Archangels round it weep | T2 |
Shooting out against the light | E |
Fibres of a deadly night | E |
Reasoning upon its own dark fiction | G2 |
In doubt which is self contradiction | G2 |
Humility is only doubt | U2 |
And does the sun and moon blot out | U2 |
Rooting over with thorns and stems | D |
The buried soul and all its gems | D |
This life s five windows of the soul | V2 |
Distorts the Heavens from pole to pole | V2 |
And leads you to believe a lie | W2 |
When you see with not thro the eye | W2 |
That was born in a night to perish in a night | E |
When the soul slept in the beams of light | E |
- | |
Did Jesus teach doubt or did He | D |
Give any lessons of philosophy | D |
Charge Visionaries with deceiving | R2 |
Or call men wise for not believing | R2 |
- | |
Was Jesus born of a Virgin pure | X2 |
With narrow soul and looks demure | X2 |
If He intended to take on sin | Y2 |
The Mother should an harlot been | Y2 |
Just such a one as Magdalen | G2 |
With seven devils in her pen | H |
Or were Jew virgins still more curs d | D |
And more sucking devils nurs d | D |
Or what was it which He took on | Z2 |
That He might bring salvation | G2 |
A body subject to be tempted | A3 |
From neither pain nor grief exempted | B3 |
Or such a body as might not feel | C3 |
The passions that with sinners deal | C3 |
Yes but they say He never fell | D3 |
Ask Caiaphas for he can tell | D3 |
He mock d the Sabbath | E3 |
William Blake
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