Leszko The Bastard Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCCDEEFGGHHFIIJ AAJ KLKMKKKKKNFNFOPOOPKQ KQRRRS TKTTKUUKKKKKKKKKK IIIVVIIWXXWYGGYZA2ZF B2B2FKKC2D2E2C2F2G2F 2F2G2KKKKKKK IIKH2KKH2KVVVI2VI2VH 2J2J2H2K2IK2KL2L2KKL 2VKVVKM2M2KKKXZXXN2N 2A2XA2A2A2KKKA2VKVO2 KO2VVO2KYKKY L2L2L2A2A2L2A2A2VVVK A2KA2P2P2P2A2A2VVKVK L2KL2KA2KA2A2KA2 KKKKKKA2KA2A2KL2KWhy do I bid the rising gale | A |
To waft me from your shore | B |
Why hail I as the vultures hail | A |
The scent of far off gore | B |
Why wear I with defiant pride | C |
The Paynim's badge and gear | D |
Though I am vowed to Christ that died | C |
And fain would staunch the gaping side | C |
That felt the sceptic spear | D |
And why doth one in whom there runs | E |
The blood of Sclavic sires and sons | E |
In those but find a foe | F |
That onward march with sword and flame | G |
To vindicate the Sclavic name | G |
From the fringe of Arctic snows | H |
To the cradle of the rose | H |
Where the Sweet Waters flow | F |
Strange But 'twere stranger yet if I | I |
When Turk and Tartar splinters fly | I |
Lagged far behind the van | J |
While the wind dallies with my sail | A |
Listen and you shall hear my tale | A |
Then marvel if you can | J |
- | |
Nothing but snow A white waste world | K |
Far as eye reached or voice could call | L |
Motion within itself slept furled | K |
The earth was dead and Heaven its pall | M |
Now nothing lived except the wind | K |
That moaning round with restless mind | K |
Seemed like uncoffined ghost to flit | K |
O'er vacant tracts that it might find | K |
Some kindred thing to speak with it | K |
Nothing to break the white expanse | N |
No far no near no high no low | F |
Nothing to stop the wandering glance | N |
One smooth monotony of snow | F |
I lifted the latch and I shivered in | O |
My mother stood by the larch log blaze | P |
My mother stately and tall and thin | O |
With the shapely head and the soft white skin | O |
And the sweetly sorrowing gaze | P |
She was younger than you aye you who stand | K |
In matron prime by your household fire | Q |
A happy wife in a happy land | K |
And with all your heart's desire | Q |
But though bred like you from the proud and brave | R |
Her hair was blanched and her voice was grave | R |
If you knew what it is to be born a slave | R |
And to feel a despot's ire | S |
- | |
She turned her round from the hearth like one | T |
That hath waited long and said | K |
Come hither and sit by me my son | T |
For somehow to night doth remembrance run | T |
Back to the days that are dead | K |
And you are tall and stalwart now | U |
And coming manhood o'er your brow | U |
Its shadow 'gins to shed | K |
Sit by me close ' and as I sate | K |
Close close as I could sit | K |
She took my hand and placed it flat | K |
On hers and fondled it | K |
Then with the same soft palm she brushed | K |
My wind tossed locks apart | K |
And kissing my bared temples hushed | K |
The flow of love that else had gushed | K |
Love loosened from my heart | K |
- | |
Listen you often have questioned why | I |
Here 'neath this pale Siberian sky | I |
You scarcely live I slowly die | I |
That we dwell on but exiles here | V |
In regions barren sunless drear | V |
And have no more the power to fly | I |
To brighter lands and bluer sky | I |
Than some poor bird whom man's caprice | W |
Hath tethered by a clanking chain | X |
And leaves upon its perch in pain | X |
To pine for ne'er to find release | W |
This do you know and still have known | Y |
Since first I taught your mouth to frame | G |
The syllables of Poland's name | G |
Even before my own | Y |
But how could I to childhood's ears | Z |
Or boyhood's tell the tale of tears | A2 |
That links me with the bygone years | Z |
Tale steeped in rapture drenched with woe | F |
A tale of wrong and loss and love | B2 |
That opens in the heavens above | B2 |
And ends in worse than hell below | F |
A tale I only could impart | K |
To mind mature and full grown heart | K |
A tale to fill your larger life | C2 |
With hissing waters of distress | D2 |
And overflowing bitterness | E2 |
And set you with yourself at strife | C2 |
But you must hear it now The down | F2 |
Of manhood fringes lip and cheek | G2 |
Your temples take a richer brown | F2 |
And on your forehead buds the crown | F2 |
Of kingly thought that yet will speak | G2 |
Listen and let no faintest word | K |
Of all I utter fall unheard | K |
Upon your ear or heart | K |
'Twill wring your youth but nerve it too | K |
And what have I now left to do | K |
But unveil tyranny to view | K |
And wing the avenging dart | K |
- | |
So like to you The same blue eye | I |
Same lavish locks same forehead high | I |
But of a manlier majesty | K |
His limbs like yours were straight and strong | H2 |
Yet supple as the bough in bud | K |
For tyrants cannot tame the blood | K |
Or noble lineage lose through wrong | H2 |
Its heritage of hardihood | K |
And maybe since his years were more | V |
And partly that you needs must bear | V |
In every filial vein and pore | V |
With his pure strain the base alloy | I2 |
Of that in you which is my share | V |
Though you are tall and comely boy | I2 |
Yet he was taller comelier | V |
In days that now but live in song | H2 |
When Rurik's hinds felt Poland's heel | J2 |
And Poland's horsemen cased in steel | J2 |
To Volo's plain were wont to throng | H2 |
A hundred thousand manes in strength | K2 |
And vowed if Heaven let fall the sky | I |
To uphold it on their lance's length | K2 |
As 'twere a silken canopy | K |
His sires were there in gallant trim | L2 |
Haught of mien and hard of limb | L2 |
Visors up and foreheads gashed | K |
Swords that poised and swooped and flashed | K |
Like the wings of the flaming Cherubim | L2 |
And when Imperial vultures tore | V |
With banded beaks Sarmatia's breast | K |
And wallowed in Sarmatia's gore | V |
His fathers by their fathers swore | V |
Ne'er to recede nor rest | K |
Till they had pushed the watchful points | M2 |
Of vengeance in between the joints | M2 |
Of armour dear to tyrants pricked | K |
Of conscience never hushed nor tricked | K |
And made them feel what they inflict | K |
Vow sternly kept but kept in vain | X |
For ninety hoping hopeless years | Z |
Poland hath known no couch save pain | X |
No mate except the dull cold chain | X |
Hath felt the lash and fed on jeers | N2 |
While Heaven it seems no longer hears | N2 |
The wail of prayers the drip of tears | A2 |
Or the voices of the slain | X |
Thrice have her sons despite their gyves | A2 |
Essayed to sell their worthless lives | A2 |
At least against the price | A2 |
Of ruin on their gaolers brought | K |
But each brave stroke hath come to nought | K |
And blood and wounds and death have brought | K |
Only fresh bootless sacrifice | A2 |
No blow was struck they did not share | V |
No banner raised but straight they flew | K |
For one more tussle with despair | V |
And ever as they fought they fell | O2 |
Waxing still fewer and more few | K |
Till only one remained to tell | O2 |
How they had passed away and dare | V |
With front erect and unquelled stare | V |
Those earthly ministers of hell | O2 |
One only of that kindred band | K |
Like some last column gazing lone | Y |
Across the bare and brackish sand | K |
In a depopulated land | K |
Telling of times and temples flown | Y |
- | |
He loved me Love in every clime | L2 |
Through all vicissitudes of time | L2 |
Is life's climacteric and prime | L2 |
Matched against it all boons that bless | A2 |
All joys we chase all good we prize | A2 |
All that of tender and sublime | L2 |
Expands the heart and fills the eyes | A2 |
Tastes pitiful and savourless | A2 |
It glorifies the common air | V |
It clothes with light the mountains bare | V |
And shows the heavens all shining there | V |
It lifts our feet from off the ground | K |
It lets us walk along the skies | A2 |
It makes the daily silence sound | K |
With transcendental harmonies | A2 |
It rules the seasons Linnets sing | P2 |
As loud in winter as in spring | P2 |
When hearts are leal and love is king | P2 |
Bathed in its light the distance glows | A2 |
With all the colours of the rose | A2 |
Its vivid gaze blends far and near | V |
In one delicious atmosphere | V |
Projects the future from the past | K |
And hugs the faith without a fear | V |
Since love is all that all will last | K |
The peevish voice of doubt grows dumb | L2 |
The demons of dejection flee | K |
And even sordid cares become | L2 |
But a divine anxiety | K |
Hope sails no more in far off skies | A2 |
But makes its nest upon the ground | K |
And happiness coy wing that flies | A2 |
Too oft when mortal yearning woos | A2 |
At love's sweet summons circling round | K |
Sits on the nearest bough and coos | A2 |
- | |
Yes such is love in every land | K |
If blest or curst enslaved or free | K |
But how can they whose chainless hand | K |
May stretch towards all they dream or see | K |
Whose lungs exult whose lives expand | K |
In air of bracing liberty | K |
Feel love's delirium like to those | A2 |
Who of all other bliss bereft | K |
And cooped from each hale wind that blows | A2 |
Fondle amid a world of foes | A2 |
The solitary friend that's left | K |
Through whatso regions freemen roam | L2 |
They find a hearth t | K |
Alfred Austin
(1)
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