The Bakchesarian Fountain Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCAAAADDEEAFAFF EGEHDAADDIJ KKLL KKLAALAMMAKNKNDMDMOO PPQDQDLRLRALALASSTAT AAALDDL AUAUABBAADVVDLLDDLWA XA DDDDCEYEMMNAANNDDLLL L D B RZZZ B CLCL B CZCZ CCZZCCLL EELLAAZLZL ZZKZZKKK LLZZAAAAAAZLLZZZZAAL ALAEA2EB2AAAAA ZEEZEAAAAZAAZAZZAZ| A TALE OF THE TAURIDE | A |
| Mute sat Giray with downcast eye | B |
| As though some spell in sorrow bound him | C |
| His slavish courtiers thronging nigh | B |
| In sad expectance stood around him | C |
| The lips of all had silence sealed | A |
| Whilst bent on him each look observant | A |
| Saw grief's deep trace and passion fervent | A |
| Upon his gloomy brow revealed | A |
| But the proud Khan his dark eye raising | D |
| And on the courtiers fiercely gazing | D |
| Gave signal to them to begone | E |
| The chief unwitnessed and alone | E |
| Now yields him to his bosom's smart | A |
| Deeper upon his brow severe | F |
| Is traced the anguish of his heart | A |
| As full fraught clouds on mirrors clear | F |
| Reflected terrible appear | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| What fills that haughty soul with pain | E |
| What thoughts such madd'ning tumults cause | G |
| With Russia plots he war again | E |
| Would he to Poland dictate laws | H |
| Say is the sword of vengeance glancing | D |
| Does bold revolt claim nature's right | A |
| Do realms oppressed alarm excite | A |
| Or sabres of fierce foes advancing | D |
| Ah no no more his proud steed prancing | D |
| Beneath him guides the Khan to war | I |
| Such thoughts his mind has banished far | J |
| - | |
| - | |
| Has treason scaled the harem's wall | K |
| Whose height might treason's self appal | K |
| And slavery's daughter fled his power | L |
| To yield her to the daring Giaour | L |
| - | |
| - | |
| No pining in his harem sadly | K |
| No wife of his would act so madly | K |
| To wish or think they scarcely dare | L |
| By wretches cold and heartless guarded | A |
| Hope from each breast so long discarded | A |
| Treason could never enter there | L |
| Their beauties unto none revealed | A |
| They bloom within the harem's towers | M |
| As in a hot house bloom the flowers | M |
| Which erst perfumed Arabia's field | A |
| To them the days in sameness dreary | K |
| And months and years pass slow away | N |
| In solitude of life grown weary | K |
| Well pleased they see their charms decay | N |
| Each day alas the past resembling | D |
| Time loiters through their halls and bowers | M |
| In idleness and fear and trembling | D |
| The captives pass their joyless hours | M |
| The youngest seek indeed reprieve | O |
| Their hearts in striving to deceive | O |
| Into oblivion of distress | P |
| By vain amusements gorgeous dress | P |
| Or by the noise of living streams | Q |
| In soft translucency meand'ring | D |
| To lose their thoughts in fancy's dreams | Q |
| Through shady groves together wand'ring | D |
| But the vile eunuch too is there | L |
| In his base duty ever zealous | R |
| Escape is hopeless to the fair | L |
| From ear so keen and eye so jealous | R |
| He ruled the harem order reigned | A |
| Eternal there the trusted treasure | L |
| He watched with loyalty unfeigned | A |
| His only law his chieftain's pleasure | L |
| Which as the Koran he maintained | A |
| His soul love's gentle flame derides | S |
| And like a statue he abides | S |
| Hatred contempt reproaches jests | T |
| Nor prayers relax his temper rigid | A |
| Nor timid sighs from tender breasts | T |
| To all alike the wretch is frigid | A |
| He knows how woman's sighs can melt | A |
| Freeman and bondman he had felt | A |
| Her art in days when he was younger | L |
| Her silent tear her suppliant look | D |
| Which once his heart confiding shook | D |
| Now move not he believes no longer | L |
| - | |
| - | |
| When to relieve the noontide heat | A |
| The captives go their limbs to lave | U |
| And in sequestered cool retreat | A |
| Yield all their beauties to the wave | U |
| No stranger eye their charms may greet | A |
| But their strict guard is ever nigh | B |
| Viewing with unimpassioned eye | B |
| These beauteous daughters of delight | A |
| He constant even in gloom of night | A |
| Through the still harem cautious stealing | D |
| Silent o'er carpet covered floors | V |
| And gliding through half opened doors | V |
| From couch to couch his pathway feeling | D |
| With envious and unwearied care | L |
| Watching the unsuspecting fair | L |
| And whilst in sleep unguarded lying | D |
| Their slightest movement breathing sighing | D |
| He catches with devouring ear | L |
| O curst that moment inauspicious | W |
| Should some loved name in dreams be sighed | A |
| Or youth her unpermitted wishes | X |
| To friendship venture to confide | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| What pang is Giray's bosom tearing | D |
| Extinguished is his loved chubouk | D |
| Whilst or to move or breathe scarce daring | D |
| The eunuch watches every look | D |
| Quick as the chief approaching near him | C |
| Beckons the door is open thrown | E |
| And Giray wanders through his harem | Y |
| Where joy to him no more is known | E |
| Near to a fountain's lucid waters | M |
| Captivity's unhappy daughters | M |
| The Khan await in fair array | N |
| Around on silken carpets crowded | A |
| Viewing beneath a heaven unclouded | A |
| With childish joy the fishes play | N |
| And o'er the marble cleave their way | N |
| Whose golden scales are brightly glancing | D |
| And on the mimic billows dancing | D |
| Now female slaves in rich attire | L |
| Serve sherbet to the beauteous fair | L |
| Whilst plaintive strains from viewless choir | L |
| Float sudden on the ambient air | L |
| - | |
| - | |
| TARTAR SONG | D |
| - | |
| I | B |
| - | |
| Heaven visits man with days of sadness | R |
| Embitters oft his nights with tears | Z |
| Blest is the Fakir who with gladness | Z |
| Views Mecca in declining years | Z |
| - | |
| - | |
| II | B |
| - | |
| Blest he who sees pale Death await him | C |
| On Danube's ever glorious shore | L |
| The girls of Paradise shall greet him | C |
| And sorrows ne'er afflict him more | L |
| - | |
| - | |
| III | B |
| - | |
| But he more blest O beauteous Zarem | C |
| Who quits the world and all its woes | Z |
| To clasp thy charms within the harem | C |
| Thou lovelier than the unplucked rose | Z |
| - | |
| - | |
| They sing but where alas is Zarem | C |
| Love's star the glory of the harem | C |
| Pallid and sad no praise she hears | Z |
| Deaf to all sounds of joy her ears | Z |
| Downcast with grief her youthful form | C |
| Yields like the palm tree to the storm | C |
| Fair Zarem's dreams of bliss are o'er | L |
| Her loved Giray loves her no more | L |
| - | |
| - | |
| He leaves thee yet whose charms divine | E |
| Can equal fair Grusinian thine | E |
| Shading thy brow thy raven hair | L |
| Its lily fairness makes more fair | L |
| Thine eyes of love appear more bright | A |
| Than noonday's beam more dark than night | A |
| Whose voice like thine can breathe of blisses | Z |
| Filling the heart with soft desire | L |
| Like thine ah whose inflaming kisses | Z |
| Can kindle passion's wildest fire | L |
| - | |
| - | |
| Who that has felt thy twining arms | Z |
| Could quit them for another's charms | Z |
| Yet cold and passionless and cruel | K |
| Giray can thy vast love despise | Z |
| Passing the lonesome night in sighs | Z |
| Heaved for another fiercer fuel | K |
| Burns in his heart since the fair Pole | K |
| Is placed within the chief's control | K |
| - | |
| - | |
| The young Maria recent war | L |
| Had borne in conquest from afar | L |
| Not long her love enkindling eyes | Z |
| Had gazed upon these foreign skies | Z |
| Her aged father's boast and pride | A |
| She bloomed in beauty by his side | A |
| Each wish was granted ere expressed | A |
| She to his heart the object dearest | A |
| His sole desire to see her blessed | A |
| As when the skies from clouds are clearest | A |
| Still from her youthful heart to chase | Z |
| Her childish sorrows his endeavour | L |
| Hoping in after life that never | L |
| Her woman's duties might efface | Z |
| Remembrance of her earlier hours | Z |
| But oft that fancy would retrace | Z |
| Life's blissful spring time decked in flowers | Z |
| Her form a thousand charms unfolded | A |
| Her face by beauty's self was moulded | A |
| Her dark blue eyes were full of fire | L |
| All nature's stores on her were lavished | A |
| The magic harp with soft desire | L |
| When touched by her the senses ravished | A |
| Warriors and knights had sought in vain | E |
| Maria's virgin heart to move | A2 |
| And many a youth in secret pain | E |
| Pined for her in despairing love | B2 |
| But love she knew not in her breast | A |
| Tranquil it had not yet intruded | A |
| Her days in mirth her nights in rest | A |
| In her paternal halls secluded | A |
| Passed heedless peace her bosom's guest | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| That time is past The Tartar's force | Z |
| Rushed like a torrent o'er her nation | E |
| Rages less fierce the conflagration | E |
| Devouring harvests in its course | Z |
| Poland it swept with devastation | E |
| Involving all in equal fate | A |
| The villages once mirthful vanished | A |
| From their red ruins joy was banished | A |
| The gorgeous palace desolate | A |
| Maria is the victor's prize | Z |
| Within the palace chapel laid | A |
| Slumb'ring among th'illustrious dead | A |
| In recent tomb her father lies | Z |
| His ancestors repose around | A |
| Long freed from life and its alarms | Z |
| With coronets and princely arms | Z |
| Bedecked their monuments abound | A |
| A base successor now holds s | Z |
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin
(1)
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About The Bakchesarian Fountain
The Bakchesarian Fountain is a poem by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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