Columbus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMJNOPQRS TUDQVWXTYJTZA2QB2C2D 2SE2F2C2XXG2H2CI2J2T HXK2TJL2M2N2JXE2TO2P 2TQ2R2TTB2S2T2U2V2W2 X2W2Y2TZ2A3TEB3TTTY2 B2O2F2TC3D3D3D3E3TTG D3WAF2KB2TD3KD3F2F3K G3F2F2F2KF2H3F2F2F2H 3STH3F2H3H3H3F2B2TTT F2TKKKD3H3H3H3F2TB2S TD3H3F2TMTI3TH3F2B2K F2H3F2FKY2F2KTH3F2TH 3TH3J3TKF2H3TF2KY2K3 F2H3H3MTD3TH3B2F2TH3 TH3B2TTSSTF2F2K3F2MF 2TTM KL3F2TH3H3KF2TTH3M3F 2N3O3TF2K3Y2TH3N3H3F 2KH3TTChains my good lord in your raised brows I read | A |
Some wonder at our chamber ornaments | B |
We brought this iron from our isles of gold | C |
Does the king know you deign to visit him | D |
Whom once he rose from off his throne to greet | E |
Before his people like his brother king | F |
I saw your face that morning in the crowd | G |
At Barcelona tho' you were not then | H |
So bearded Yes The city deck'd herself | I |
To meet me roar'd my name the king the queen | J |
Bad me be seated speak and tell them all | K |
The story of my voyage and while I spoke | L |
The crowd's roar fell as at the 'Peace be still ' | M |
And when I ceased to speak the king the queen | J |
Sank from their thrones and melted into tears | N |
And knelt and lifted hand and heart and voice | O |
In praise to God who led me thro' the waste | P |
And then the great 'Laudamus' rose to heaven | Q |
Chains for the Admiral of the Ocean chains | R |
For him who gave a new heaven a new earth | S |
As holy John had prophesied of me | T |
Gave glory and more empire to the kings | U |
Of Spain than all their battles chains for him | D |
Who push'd his prows into the setting sun | Q |
And made West East and sail'd the Dragon's mouth | V |
And came upon the Mountain of the World | W |
And saw the rivers roll from Paradise | X |
Chains we are Admirals of the Ocean we | T |
We and our sons for ever Ferdinand | Y |
Hath sign'd it and our Holy Catholic queen | J |
Of the Ocean of the Indies Admirals we | T |
Our title which we never mean to yield | Z |
Our guerdon not alone for what we did | A2 |
But our amends for all we might have done | Q |
The vast occasion of our stronger life | B2 |
Eighteen long years of waste seven in your Spain | C2 |
Lost showing courts and kings a truth the babe | D2 |
Will suck in with his milk hereafter earth | S |
A sphere | E2 |
Were you at Salamanca No | F2 |
We fronted there the learning of all Spain | C2 |
All their cosmogonies their astronomies | X |
Guess work they guess'd it but the golden guess | X |
Is morning star to the full round of truth | G2 |
No guesswork I was certain of my goal | H2 |
Some thought it heresy but that would not hold | C |
King David call'd the heavens a hide a tent | I2 |
Spread over earth and so this earth was flat | J2 |
Some cited old Lactantius could it be | T |
That trees grew downward rain fell upward men | H |
Walk'd like the fly on ceilings and besides | X |
The great Augustine wrote that none could breathe | K2 |
Within the zone of heat so might there be | T |
Two Adams two mankinds and that was clean | J |
Against God's word thus was I beaten back | L2 |
And chiefly to my sorrow by the Church | M2 |
And thought to turn my face from Spain appeal | N2 |
Once more to France or England but our Queen | J |
Recall'd me for at last their Highnesses | X |
Were half assured this earth might be a sphere | E2 |
All glory to the all blessed Trinity | T |
All glory to the mother of our Lord | O2 |
And Holy Church from whom I never swerved | P2 |
Not even by one hair's breadth of heresy | T |
I have accomplish'd what I came to do | Q2 |
Not yet not all last night a dream I sail'd | R2 |
On my first voyage harass'd by the frights | T |
Of my first crew their curses and their groans | T |
The great flame banner borne by Teneriffe | B2 |
The compass like an old friend false at last | S2 |
In our most need appall'd them and the wind | T2 |
Still westward and the weedy seas at length | U2 |
The landbird and the branch with berries on it | V2 |
The carven staff and last the light the light | W2 |
On Guanahani but I changed the name | X2 |
San Salvador I call'd it and the light | W2 |
Grew as I gazed and brought out a broad sky | Y2 |
Of dawning over not those alien palms | T |
The marvel of that fair new nature not | Z2 |
That Indian isle but our most ancient East | A3 |
Moriah with Jerusalem and I saw | T |
The glory of the Lord flash up and beat | E |
Thro' all the homely town from jasper sapphire | B3 |
Chalcedony emerald sardonyx sardius | T |
Chrysolite beryl topaz chrysoprase | T |
Jacynth and amethyst and those twelve gates | T |
Pearl and I woke and thought death I shall die | Y2 |
I am written in the Lamb's own Book of Life | B2 |
To walk within the glory of the Lord | O2 |
Sunless and moonless utter light but no | F2 |
The Lord had sent this bright strange dream to me | T |
To mind me of the secret vow I made | C3 |
When Spain was waging war against the Moor | D3 |
I strove myself with Spain against the Moor | D3 |
There came two voices from the Sepulchre | D3 |
Two friars crying that if Spain should oust | E3 |
The Moslem from her limit he the fierce | T |
Soldan of Egypt would break down and raze | T |
The blessed tomb of Christ whereon I vow'd | G |
That if our Princes harken'd to my prayer | D3 |
Whatever wealth I brought from that new world | W |
Should in this old be consecrate to lead | A |
A new crusade against the Saracen | F2 |
And free the Holy Sepulchre from thrall | K |
Gold I had brought your Princes gold enough | B2 |
If left alone Being but a Genovese | T |
I am handled worse than had I been a Moor | D3 |
And breach'd the belting wall of Cambalu | K |
And given the Great Khan's palaces to the Moor | D3 |
Or clutch'd the sacred crown of Prester John | F2 |
And cast it to the Moor but had I brought | F3 |
From Solomon's now recover'd Ophir all | K |
The gold that Solomon's navies carried home | G3 |
Would that have gilded me Blue blood of Spain | F2 |
Tho' quartering your own royal arms of Spain | F2 |
I have not blue blood and black blood of Spain | F2 |
The noble and the convict of Castile | K |
Howl'd me from Hispaniola for you know | F2 |
The flies at home that ever swarm about | H3 |
And cloud the highest heads and murmur down | F2 |
Truth in the distance these outbuzz'd me so | F2 |
That even our prudent king our righteous queen | F2 |
I pray'd them being so calumniated | H3 |
They would commission one of weight and worth | S |
To judge between my slander'd self and me | T |
Fonseca my main enemy at their court | H3 |
They sent me out his tool Bovadilla one | F2 |
As ignorant and impolitic as a beast | H3 |
Blockish irreverence brainless greed who sack'd | H3 |
My dwelling seized upon my papers loosed | H3 |
My captives feed the rebels of the crown | F2 |
Sold the crown farms for all but nothing gave | B2 |
All but free leave for all to work the mines | T |
Drove me and my good brothers home in chains | T |
And gathering ruthless gold a single piece | T |
Weigh'd nigh four thousand Castillanos so | F2 |
They tell me weigh'd him down into the abysm | T |
The hurricane of the latitude on him fell | K |
The seas of our discovering over roll | K |
Him and his gold the frailer caravel | K |
With what was mine came happily to the shore | D3 |
There was a glimmering of God's hand | H3 |
And God | H3 |
Hath more than glimmer'd on me O my lord | H3 |
I swear to you I heard his voice between | F2 |
The thunders in the black Veragua nights | T |
'O soul of little faith slow to believe | B2 |
Have I not been about thee from thy birth | S |
Given thee the keys of the great Ocean sea | T |
Set thee in light till time shall he no more | D3 |
Is it I who have deceived thee or the world | H3 |
Endure thou hast done so well for men that men | F2 |
Cry out against thee was it otherwise | T |
With mine own Son ' | M |
And more than once in days | T |
Of doubt and cloud and storm when drowning hope | I3 |
Sank all but out of sight I heard his voice | T |
'Be not cast down I lead thee by the hand | H3 |
Fear not ' And I shall hear his voice again | F2 |
I know that he has led me all my life | B2 |
I am not yet too old to work his will | K |
His voice again | F2 |
Still for all that my lord | H3 |
I lying here bedridden and alone | F2 |
Cast off put by scouted by court and king | F |
The first discoverer starves his followers all | K |
Flower into fortune our world's way and I | Y2 |
Without a roof that I can call mine own | F2 |
With scarce a coin to buy a meal withal | K |
And seeing what a door for scoundrel scum | T |
I open'd to the West thro' which the lust | H3 |
Villany violence avarice of your Spain | F2 |
Pour'd in on all those happy naked isles | T |
Their kindly native princes slain or slaved | H3 |
Their wives and children Spanish concubines | T |
Their innocent hospitalities quench'd in blood | H3 |
Some dead of hunger some beneath the scourge | J3 |
Some over labour'd some by their own hands | T |
Yea the dear mothers crazing Nature kill | K |
Their babies at the breast for hate of Spain | F2 |
Ah God the harmless people whom we found | H3 |
In Hispaniola's island Paradise | T |
Who took us for the very Gods from Heaven | F2 |
And we have sent them very fiends from Hell | K |
And I myself myself not blameless I | Y2 |
Could sometimes wish I had never led the way | K3 |
Only the ghost of our great Catholic Queen | F2 |
Smiles on me saying 'Be thou comforted | H3 |
This creedless people will he brought to Christ | H3 |
And own the holy governance of Rome ' | M |
But who could dream that we who bore the Cross | T |
Thither were excommunicated there | D3 |
For curbing crimes that scandalised the Cross | T |
By him the Catalonian Minorite | H3 |
Rome's Vicar in our Indies who believe | B2 |
These hard memorials of our truth to Spain | F2 |
Clung closer to us for a longer term | T |
Than any friend of ours at Court and yet | H3 |
Pardon too harsh unjust I am rack'd with pains | T |
You see that I have hung them by my bed | H3 |
And I will have them buried in my grave | B2 |
Sir in that flight of ages which are God's | T |
Own voice to justify the dead perchance | T |
Spain once the most chivalric race on earth | S |
Spain then the mightiest wealthiest realm on earth | S |
So made by me may seek to unbury me | T |
To lay me in some shrine of this old Spain | F2 |
Or in that vaster Spain I leave to Spain | F2 |
Then some one standing by my grave will say | K3 |
'Behold the bones of Christopher Col n' | F2 |
'Ay but the chains what do they mean the chains ' | M |
I sorrow for that kindly child of Spain | F2 |
Who then will have to answer 'These same chains | T |
Bound these same bones back thro' the Atlantic sea | T |
Which he unchain'd for all the world to come ' | M |
- | |
- | |
O Queen of Heaven who seest the souls in Hell | K |
And purgatory I suffer all as much | L3 |
As they do for the moment Stay my son | F2 |
Is here anon my son will speak for me | T |
Ablier than I can in these spasms that grind | H3 |
Bone against bone You will not One last word | H3 |
You move about the Court I pray you tell | K |
King Ferdinand who plays with me that one | F2 |
Whose life has been no play with him and his | T |
Hidalgos shipwrecks famines fevers fights | T |
Mutinies treacheries wink'd at and condoned | H3 |
That I am loyal to him till the death | M3 |
And ready tho' our Holy Catholic Queen | F2 |
Who fain had pledged her jewels on my first voyage | N3 |
Whose hope was mine to spread the Catholic faith | O3 |
Who wept with me when I return'd in chains | T |
Who sits beside the blessed Virgin now | F2 |
To whom I send my prayer by night and day | K3 |
She is gone but you will tell the King that I | Y2 |
Rack'd as I am with gout and wrench'd with pains | T |
Gain'd in the service of His Highness yet | H3 |
Am ready to sail forth on one last voyage | N3 |
And readier if the King would hear to lead | H3 |
One last crusade against the Saracen | F2 |
And save the Holy Sepulchre from thrall | K |
Going I am old and slighted you have dared | H3 |
Somewhat perhaps in coming my poor thanks | T |
I am but an alien and a Genovese | T |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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