Ashtaroth: A Dramatic Lyric Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Adam Lindsay Gordon

Ashtaroth: A Dramatic Lyric Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Dramatis Personae	A
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HUGO a Norman Baron and a Scholar	B
ERIC a friend of Hugo's	C
THURSTON	D
EUSTACE	E
RALPH Followers of Hugo	F
HENRY a Page	G
LUKE	H
HUBERT Monks living in a Norman Chapel	I
BASIL Abbot of a Convent on the Rhine	J
CYRIL a Monk of the same Convent	K
OSRIC a Norwegian Adventurer and formerly a Corsair	L
RUDOLPH an Outlawed Count and the Captain of a Band of Robbers	M
DAGOBERT the Captain of some predatory Soldiers called Free Lances	M
HAROLD a Danish Knight	N
ORION	D
THORA	O
AGATHA	O
ELSPETH a Nurse of Thora's	M
URSULA Abbess of the Convent on the Rhine	J
NUNS etc Women	D
	-
Men at arms Soldiers and Robbers Monks Friars and Churchmen Spirits	M
etc	O
	-
	-
	-
SCENE A Castle in Normandy	P
	-
A Study in a Tower HUGO seated at a table covered with maps and charts	M
of the heavens astronomical instruments books manuscripts	M
	-
Enter HENRY a Page	G
	-
Hugo	F
Well boy what is it	Q
	-
Henry The feast is spread	R
	-
Hugo	F
Why tarry the guests for me	P
Let Eric sit at the table's head	R
Alone I desire to be Henry goes out	S
What share have I at their festive board	T
Their mirth I can only mar	U
To me no pleasure their cups afford	T
Their songs on my silence jar	U
With an aching eye and a throbbing brain	V
And yet with a hopeful heart	W
I must toil and strain with the planets again	X
When the rays of the sun depart	W
He who must needs with the topers tope	Y
And the feasters feast in the hall	Z
How can he hope with a matter to cope	Y
That is immaterial	I
	-
Orion	D
He who his appetite stints and curbs	M
Shut up in the northern wing	A2
With his rye bread flavoured with bitter herbs	M
And his draught from the tasteless spring	A2
Good sooth he is but a sorry clown	B2
There are some good things upon earth	C2
Pleasure and power and fair renown	B2
And wisdom of worldly worth	C2
There is wisdom in follies that charm the sense	M
In follies that light the eyes	M
But the folly to wisdom that makes pretence	M
Is alone by the fool termed wise	M
	-
Hugo	F
Thy speech Orion is somewhat rude	D2
Perchance having jeer'd and scoff'd	E2
To thy fill thou wilt curb thy jeering mood	D2
I wot thou hast served me oft	E2
This plan of the skies seems fairly traced	F2
What errors canst thou detect	G2
	-
Orion	D
Nay the constellations are misplaced	F2
And the satellites incorrect	G2
Leave the plan to me you have time to seek	H2
An hour of needful rest	I2
The night is young and the planets are weak	H2
See the sun still reddens the west	I2
	-
Hugo	F
I fear I shall sleep too long	J2
	-
Orion If you do	K2
It matters not much the sky	L2
Is cloudy the stars will be faint and few	K2
Now list to my lullaby	L2
Hugo reclines on a couch	M2
Sings	M
Still the darkling skies are red	R
Though the day god's course is run	D
Heavenly night lamps overhead	R
Flash and twinkle one by one	D
Idle dreamer earth born elf	N2
Vainly grasping heavenly things	M
Wherefore weariest thou thyself	N2
With thy vain imaginings	M
	-
From the tree of knowledge first	O2
Since his parents pluck'd the fruit	P2
Man with partial knowledge curs'd	O2
Of the tree still seeks the root	P2
Musty volumes crowd thy shelf	N2
Which of these true knowledge brings	M
Wherefore weariest thou thyself	N2
With thy vain imaginings	M
	-
Will the stars from heaven descend	Q2
Can the earth worm soar and rise	M
Can the mortal comprehend	Q2
Heaven's own hallow'd mysteries	M
Greed and glory power and pelf	N2
These are won by clowns and kings	M
Wherefore weariest thou thyself	N2
With thy vain imaginings	M
	-
Sow and reap and toil and spin	R2
Eat and drink and dream and die	L2
Man may strive yet never win	R2
And I laugh the while and cry	L2
Idle dreamer earth born elf	N2
Vainly grasping heavenly things	M
Wherefore weariest thou thyself	N2
With thy vain imaginings	M
	-
He sleeps and his sleep appears serene	S2
Whatever dreams it has brought him	T2
Looks at the plans	M
If he knows what those hieroglyphics mean	S2
He's wiser than one who taught him	T2
Why does he number the Pole star thus	M
Or the Pleiades why combine	J
And what is he doing with Sirius	M
In the devil's name or in mine	J
Man thinks discarding the beaten track	U2
That the sins of his youth are slain	V
When he seeks fresh sins but he soon comes back	U2
To his old pet sins again	X
	-
	-
SCENE The Same	V2
	-
HUGO waking ORION seated near him Daybreak	W2
	-
	-
Hugo	F
Oh weary spirit oh cloudy eyes	M
Oh heavy and misty brain	V
Yon riddle that lies 'twixt earth and skies	M
Ye seek to explore in vain	V
See the east is grey put those scrolls away	A
And hide them far from my sight	N
I will toil and study no more by day	A
I will watch no longer by night	N
I have labour'd and long'd and now I seem	X2
No nearer the mystic goal	Y2
Orion I fain would devise some scheme	X2
To quiet this restless soul	Y2
To distant climes I would fain depart	W
I would travel by sea or land	Z2
	-
Orion	D
Nay I warn'd you of this Short life long art	W
The proverb though stale will stand	Z2
Full many a sage from youth to age	G
Has toil'd to obtain what you	K2
Would master at once In a pilgrimage	A3
Forsooth there is nothing new	K2
Though virtue I ween in change of scene	S2
And vigour in change of air	L
Will always be and has always been	R2
And travel is a tonic rare	L
Still the restless discontented mood	D2
For the time alone is eased	B3
It will soon return with hunger renew'd	D2
And appetite unappeased	D2
Nathless I could teach a shorter plan	C3
To win that wisdom you crave	N2
That lore that is seldom attain'd by man	C3
From the cradle down to the grave	N2
	-
Hugo	F
Such lore I had rather do without	D2
It hath nothing mystic nor awful	I
In my eye Nay I despise and doubt	D2
The arts that are term'd unlawful	I
'Twixt science and magic the line lies plain	V
I shall never wittingly pass it	D2
There is now no compact between us twain	V
	-
Orion But an understanding tacit	D2
You have prospered much since the day we met	D2
You were then a landless knight	D2
You now have honour and wealth and yet	D2
I never can serve you right	D2
	-
Hugo	F
Enough we will start this very day	D2
Thurston Eric and I	L2
And the baffled visions will pass away	D2
And the restless fires will die	L2
	-
Orion	D
Till the fuel expires that feeds those fires	M
They smoulder and live unspent	D2
Give a mortal all that his heart desires	M
He is less than ever content	D2
	-
	-
SCENE A Cliff on the Breton Coast Overhanging the Sea	M
	-
HUGO	F
	-
	-
Hugo	F
Down drops the red sun through the gloaming	A2
They burst raging waves of the sea	M
Foaming out their own shame ever foaming	A2
Their leprosy up with fierce glee	M
Flung back from the stone snowy fountains	M
Of feathery flakes scarcely flag	D3
Where shock after shock the green mountains	M
Explode on the iron grey crag	D3
	-
The salt spray with ceaseless commotion	D
Leaps round me I sit on the verge	E3
Of the cliff 'twixt the earth and the ocean	D
With feet overhanging the surge	E3
In thy grandeur oh sea we acknowledge	F3
In thy fairness oh earth we confess	M
Hidden truths that are taught in no college	F3
Hidden songs that no parchments express	M
	-
Were they wise in their own generations	M
Those sages and sagas of old	D2
They have pass'd o'er their names and their nations	M
Time's billows have silently roll'd	D2
They have pass'd leaving little to their children	D
Save histories of a truth far from strict	D2
Or theories more vague and bewildering	D3
Since three out of four contradict	D2
	-
Lost labour vain bookworms have sat in	R2
The halls of dull pedants who teach	G3
Strange tongues the dead lore of the Latin	D
The scroll that is god like and Greek	D3
Have wasted life's springtide in learning	D3
Things long ago learnt all in vain	V