The Dream Of Man Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEAEFGAGHIJIAAKALMLM NOPOQRCRQQLQSTJTLUCU VWCWPXLX AYZYAA2B2A2NCC NNSNPC2LC2NNLND2NC ANPN NCNLE2LE2NF2LF2QCAC NNNNNNCNLCQ HG2NG2QNANPH2AH2NALI 2 AN NLJ2CJ2QK2LK2CNC ANLNLCQCACLCAQQQ LL2NL2QALANNANNCLC LM2L M2 LM2LNM2 LM2M2 M2 QQM2QN2NA NE2O2E2NM2AM2NANAALN LAANA P2N2QN2AN NLM2AM2NALAALQ AM2CM2LNANACNC NM2AM2LTo the eye and the ear of the Dreamer | A |
This Dream out of darkness flew | B |
Through the horn or the ivory portal | C |
But he wist not which of the two | B |
- | |
It was the Human Spirit | D |
Of all men's souls the Soul | E |
Man the unwearied climber | A |
That climbed to the unknown goal | E |
And up the steps of the ages | F |
The difficult steep ascent | G |
Man the unwearied climber | A |
Pauseless and dauntless went | G |
ons rolled behind him | H |
With thunder of far retreat | I |
And still as he strove he conquered | J |
And laid his foes at his feet | I |
Inimical powers of nature | A |
Tempest and flood and fire | A |
The spleen of fickle seasons | K |
That loved to baulk his desire | A |
The breath of hostile climates | L |
The ravage of blight and dearth | M |
The old unrest that vexes | L |
The heart of the moody earth | M |
The genii swift and radiant | N |
Sabreing heaven with flame | O |
He with a keener weapon | P |
The sword of his wit overcame | O |
Disease and her ravening offspring | Q |
Pain with the thousand teeth | R |
He drave into night primeval | C |
The nethermost worlds beneath | R |
Till the Lord of Death the undying | Q |
Ev'n Asra l the King | Q |
No more with Furies for heralds | L |
Came armed with scourge and sting | Q |
But gentle of voice and of visage | S |
By calm Age ushered and led | T |
A guest serenely featured | J |
Entering woke no dread | T |
And as the rolling ons | L |
Retreated with pomp of sound | U |
Man's spirit grown too lordly | C |
For this mean orb to bound | U |
By arts in his youth undreamed of | V |
His terrene fetters broke | W |
With enterprise ethereal | C |
Spurning the natal yoke | W |
And stung with divine ambition | P |
And fired with a glorious greed | X |
He annexed the stars and the planets | L |
And peopled them with his seed | X |
- | |
Then said he 'The infinite Scripture | A |
I have read and interpreted clear | Y |
And searching all worlds I have found not | Z |
My sovereign or my peer | Y |
In what room of the palace of nature | A |
Resides the invisible God | A2 |
For all her doors I have opened | B2 |
And all her floors I have trod | A2 |
If greater than I be her tenant | N |
Let him answer my challenging call | C |
Till then I admit no rival | C |
But crown myself master of all ' | - |
And forth as that word went bruited | N |
By Man unto Man were raised | N |
Fanes of devout self homage | S |
Where he who praised was the praised | N |
And from vast unto vast of creation | P |
The new evangel ran | C2 |
And an odour of world wide incense | L |
Went up from Man unto Man | C2 |
Until on a solemn feast day | N |
When the world's usurping lord | N |
At a million impious altars | L |
His own proud image adored | N |
God spake as He stept from His ambush | D2 |
'O great in thine own conceit | N |
I will show thee thy source how humble | C |
Thy goal for a god how unmeet ' | - |
- | |
Thereat by the word of the Maker | A |
The Spirit of Man was led | N |
To a mighty peak of vision | P |
Where God to His creature said | N |
'Look eastward toward time's sunrise ' | - |
And age upon age untold | N |
The Spirit of Man saw clearly | C |
The Past as a chart out rolled | N |
Beheld his base beginnings | L |
In the depths of time and his strife | E2 |
With beasts and crawling horrors | L |
For leave to live when life | E2 |
Meant but to slay and to procreate | N |
To feed and to sleep among | F2 |
Mere mouths voracities boundless | L |
Blind lusts desires without tongue | F2 |
And ferocities vast fulfilling | Q |
Their being's malignant law | C |
While nature was one hunger | A |
And one hate all fangs and maw | C |
- | |
With that for a single moment | N |
Abashed at his own descent | N |
In humbleness Man's Spirit | N |
At the feet of the Maker bent | N |
But swifter than light he recovered | N |
The stature and pose of his pride | N |
And 'Think not thus to shame me | C |
With my mean birth ' he cried | N |
'This is my loftiest greatness | L |
To have been born so low | C |
Greater than Thou the ungrowing | Q |
Am I that for ever grow ' | - |
And God forbore to rebuke him | H |
But answered brief and stern | G2 |
Bidding him toward time's sunset | N |
His vision westward turn | G2 |
And the Spirit of Man obeying | Q |
Beheld as a chart out rolled | N |
The likeness and form of the Future | A |
Age upon age untold | N |
Beheld his own meridian | P |
And beheld his dark decline | H2 |
His secular fall to nadir | A |
From summits of light divine | H2 |
Till at last amid worlds exhausted | N |
And bankrupt of force and fire | A |
'Twas his in a torrent of darkness | L |
Like a sputtering lamp to expire | I2 |
- | |
Then a war of shame and anger | A |
Did the realm of his soul divide | N |
''Tis false 'tis a lying vision ' | - |
In the face of his God he cried | N |
'Thou thinkest to daunt me with shadows | L |
Not such as Thou feign'st is my doom | J2 |
From glory to rise unto glory | C |
Is mine who have risen from gloom | J2 |
I doubt if Thou knew'st at my making | Q |
How near to thy throne I should climb | K2 |
O'er the mountainous slopes of the ages | L |
And the conquered peaks of time | K2 |
Nor shall I look backward nor rest me | C |
Till the uttermost heights I have trod | N |
And am equalled with Thee or above Thee | C |
The mate or the master of God ' | - |
- | |
Ev'n thus Man turned from the Maker | A |
With thundered defiance wild | N |
And God with a terrible silence | L |
Reproved the speech of His child | N |
And man returned to his labours | L |
And stiffened the neck of his will | C |
And the ons still went rolling | Q |
And his power was crescent still | C |
But yet there remained to conquer | A |
One foe and the greatest although | C |
Despoiled of his ancient terrors | L |
At heart as of old a foe | C |
Unmaker of all and renewer | A |
Who winnows the world with his wing | Q |
The Lord of Death the undying | Q |
Ev'n Asra l the King | Q |
- | |
And lo Man mustered his forces | L |
The war of wars to wage | L2 |
And with storm and thunder of onset | N |
Did the foe of foes engage | L2 |
And the Lord of Death the undying | Q |
Was beset and harried sore | A |
In his immemorial fastness | L |
At night's aboriginal core | A |
And during years a thousand | N |
Man leaguered his enemy's hold | N |
While nature was one deep tremor | A |
And the heart of the world waxed cold | N |
Till the phantom battlements wavered | N |
And the ghostly fortress fell | C |
And Man with shadowy fetters | L |
Bound fast great Asra l | C |
- | |
So to each star in the heavens | L |
The exultant word was blown | M2 |
The annunciation tremendous | L |
- | |
Death is overthrown | M2 |
- | |
And Space in her ultimate borders | L |
Prolonging the jubilant tone | M2 |
With hollow ingeminations | L |
Sighed | N |
Death is overthrown | M2 |
- | |
And God in His house of silence | L |
Where He dwelleth aloof alone | M2 |
Paused in His tasks to hearken | M2 |
- | |
Death is overthrown | M2 |
- | |
- | |
Then a solemn and high thanksgiving | Q |
By Man unto Man was sung | Q |
In his temples of self adoration | M2 |
With his own multitudinous tongue | Q |
And he said to his Soul 'Rejoice thou | N2 |
For thy last great foe lies bound | N |
Ev'n Asra l the Unmaker | A |
Unmade disarmed discrowned ' | - |
- | |
And behold his Soul rejoiced not | N |
The breath of whose being was strife | E2 |
For life with nothing to vanquish | O2 |
Seemed but the shadow of life | E2 |
No goal invited and promised | N |
And divinely provocative shone | M2 |
And Fear having fled her sister | A |
Blest Hope in her train was gone | M2 |
And the coping and crown of achievement | N |
Was hell than defeat more dire | A |
The torment of all things compassed | N |
The plague of nought to desire | A |
And Man the invincible queller | A |
Man with his foot on his foes | L |
In boundless satiety hungred | N |
Restless from utter repose | L |
Victor of nature victor | A |
Of the prince of the powers of the air | A |
By mighty weariness vanquished | N |
And crowned with august despair | A |
- | |
Then at his dreadful zenith | P2 |
He cried unto God 'O Thou | N2 |
Whom of old in my days of striving | Q |
Methought I needed not now | N2 |
In this my abject glory | A |
My hopeless and helpless might | N |
Hearken and cheer and succour ' | - |
And God from His lonely height | N |
From eternity's passionless summits | L |
On suppliant Man looked down | M2 |
And His brow waxed human with pity | A |
Belying its awful crown | M2 |
'Thy richest possession ' He answered | N |
'Blest Hope will I restore | A |
And the infinite wealth of weakness | L |
Which was thy strength of yore | A |
And I will arouse from slumber | A |
In his hold where bound he lies | L |
Thine enemy most benefic | Q |
O Asra l hear and rise ' | - |
- | |
And a sound like the heart of nature | A |
Riven and cloven and torn | M2 |
Announced to the ear universal | C |
Undying Death new born | M2 |
Sublime he rose in his fetters | L |
And shook the chains aside | N |
Ev'n as some mortal sleeper | A |
'Mid forests in autumntide | N |
Rises and shakes off lightly | A |
The leaves that lightly fell | C |
On his limbs and his hair unheeded | N |
While as yet he slumbered well | C |
- | |
And Deity paused and hearkened | N |
Then turned to the undivine | M2 |
Saying 'O Man My creature | A |
Thy lot was more blest than Mine | M2 |
I taste not delight of se | L |
William Watson
(1)
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