Gareth And Lynette Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDAEAEEFGHEAAIJEKL MNAFOPAQAIAR KAA AAA ECDASESEAAEPATUTA AA EIAVWXYAA AEZABA2IKWEWB2B2AEC2 EED2EDAED2EB AAEWBAE2ABEAWF2JXXOA BB AABBG2H2CI2WBJ2 XXGK2AI L2AM2XN2O2AIA AG H2WEEP2M2 M2AQAXE AWJDWF2E JGIThe last tall son of Lot and Bellicent | A |
And tallest Gareth in a showerful spring | B |
Stared at the spate A slender shafted Pine | C |
Lost footing fell and so was whirled away | D |
'How he went down ' said Gareth 'as a false knight | A |
Or evil king before my lance if lance | E |
Were mine to use O senseless cataract | A |
Bearing all down in thy precipitancy | E |
And yet thou art but swollen with cold snows | E |
And mine is living blood thou dost His will | F |
The Maker's and not knowest and I that know | G |
Have strength and wit in my good mother's hall | H |
Linger with vacillating obedience | E |
Prisoned and kept and coaxed and whistled to | A |
Since the good mother holds me still a child | A |
Good mother is bad mother unto me | I |
A worse were better yet no worse would I | J |
Heaven yield her for it but in me put force | E |
To weary her ears with one continuous prayer | K |
Until she let me fly discaged to sweep | L |
In ever highering eagle circles up | M |
To the great Sun of Glory and thence swoop | N |
Down upon all things base and dash them dead | A |
A knight of Arthur working out his will | F |
To cleanse the world Why Gawain when he came | O |
With Modred hither in the summertime | P |
Asked me to tilt with him the proven knight | A |
Modred for want of worthier was the judge | Q |
Then I so shook him in the saddle he said | A |
Thou hast half prevailed against me said so he | I |
Though Modred biting his thin lips was mute | A |
For he is alway sullen what care I ' | R |
- | |
And Gareth went and hovering round her chair | K |
Asked 'Mother though ye count me still the child | A |
Sweet mother do ye love the child ' She laughed | A |
'Thou art but a wild goose to question it ' | - |
'Then mother an ye love the child ' he said | A |
'Being a goose and rather tame than wild | A |
Hear the child's story ' 'Yea my well beloved | A |
An 'twere but of the goose and golden eggs ' | - |
- | |
And Gareth answered her with kindling eyes | E |
'Nay nay good mother but this egg of mine | C |
Was finer gold than any goose can lay | D |
For this an Eagle a royal Eagle laid | A |
Almost beyond eye reach on such a palm | S |
As glitters gilded in thy Book of Hours | E |
And there was ever haunting round the palm | S |
A lusty youth but poor who often saw | E |
The splendour sparkling from aloft and thought | A |
An I could climb and lay my hand upon it | A |
Then were I wealthier than a leash of kings | E |
But ever when he reached a hand to climb | P |
One that had loved him from his childhood caught | A |
And stayed him Climb not lest thou break thy neck | T |
I charge thee by my love and so the boy | U |
Sweet mother neither clomb nor brake his neck | T |
But brake his very heart in pining for it | A |
And past away ' | - |
- | |
To whom the mother said | A |
'True love sweet son had risked himself and climbed | A |
And handed down the golden treasure to him ' | - |
- | |
And Gareth answered her with kindling eyes | E |
'Gold ' said I gold ay then why he or she | I |
Or whosoe'er it was or half the world | A |
Had ventured HAD the thing I spake of been | V |
Mere gold but this was all of that true steel | W |
Whereof they forged the brand Excalibur | X |
And lightnings played about it in the storm | Y |
And all the little fowl were flurried at it | A |
And there were cries and clashings in the nest | A |
That sent him from his senses let me go ' | - |
- | |
Then Bellicent bemoaned herself and said | A |
'Hast thou no pity upon my loneliness | E |
Lo where thy father Lot beside the hearth | Z |
Lies like a log and all but smouldered out | A |
For ever since when traitor to the King | B |
He fought against him in the Barons' war | A2 |
And Arthur gave him back his territory | I |
His age hath slowly droopt and now lies there | K |
A yet warm corpse and yet unburiable | W |
No more nor sees nor hears nor speaks nor knows | E |
And both thy brethren are in Arthur's hall | W |
Albeit neither loved with that full love | B2 |
I feel for thee nor worthy such a love | B2 |
Stay therefore thou red berries charm the bird | A |
And thee mine innocent the jousts the wars | E |
Who never knewest finger ache nor pang | C2 |
Of wrenched or broken limb an often chance | E |
In those brain stunning shocks and tourney falls | E |
Frights to my heart but stay follow the deer | D2 |
By these tall firs and our fast falling burns | E |
So make thy manhood mightier day by day | D |
Sweet is the chase and I will seek thee out | A |
Some comfortable bride and fair to grace | E |
Thy climbing life and cherish my prone year | D2 |
Till falling into Lot's forgetfulness | E |
I know not thee myself nor anything | B |
Stay my best son ye are yet more boy than man ' | - |
- | |
Then Gareth 'An ye hold me yet for child | A |
Hear yet once more the story of the child | A |
For mother there was once a King like ours | E |
The prince his heir when tall and marriageable | W |
Asked for a bride and thereupon the King | B |
Set two before him One was fair strong armed | A |
But to be won by force and many men | E2 |
Desired her one good lack no man desired | A |
And these were the conditions of the King | B |
That save he won the first by force he needs | E |
Must wed that other whom no man desired | A |
A red faced bride who knew herself so vile | W |
That evermore she longed to hide herself | F2 |
Nor fronted man or woman eye to eye | J |
Yea some she cleaved to but they died of her | X |
And one they called her Fame and one O Mother | X |
How can ye keep me tethered to you Shame | O |
Man am I grown a man's work must I do | A |
Follow the deer follow the Christ the King | B |
Live pure speak true right wrong follow the King | B |
Else wherefore born ' | - |
- | |
To whom the mother said | A |
'Sweet son for there be many who deem him not | A |
Or will not deem him wholly proven King | B |
Albeit in mine own heart I knew him King | B |
When I was frequent with him in my youth | G2 |
And heard him Kingly speak and doubted him | H2 |
No more than he himself but felt him mine | C |
Of closest kin to me yet wilt thou leave | I2 |
Thine easeful biding here and risk thine all | W |
Life limbs for one that is not proven King | B |
Stay till the cloud that settles round his birth | J2 |
Hath lifted but a little Stay sweet son ' | - |
- | |
And Gareth answered quickly 'Not an hour | X |
So that ye yield me I will walk through fire | X |
Mother to gain it your full leave to go | G |
Not proven who swept the dust of ruined Rome | K2 |
From off the threshold of the realm and crushed | A |
The Idolaters and made the people free | I |
Who should be King save him who makes us free ' | - |
- | |
So when the Queen who long had sought in vain | L2 |
To break him from the intent to which he grew | A |
Found her son's will unwaveringly one | M2 |
She answered craftily 'Will ye walk through fire | X |
Who walks through fire will hardly heed the smoke | N2 |
Ay go then an ye must only one proof | O2 |
Before thou ask the King to make thee knight | A |
Of thine obedience and thy love to me | I |
Thy mother I demand | A |
- | |
And Gareth cried | A |
'A hard one or a hundred so I go | G |
Nay quick the proof to prove me to the quick ' | - |
- | |
But slowly spake the mother looking at him | H2 |
'Prince thou shalt go disguised to Arthur's hall | W |
And hire thyself to serve for meats and drinks | E |
Among the scullions and the kitchen knaves | E |
And those that hand the dish across the bar | P2 |
Nor shalt thou tell thy name to anyone | M2 |
And thou shalt serve a twelvemonth and a day ' | - |
- | |
For so the Queen believed that when her son | M2 |
Beheld his only way to glory lead | A |
Low down through villain kitchen vassalage | Q |
Her own true Gareth was too princely proud | A |
To pass thereby so should he rest with her | X |
Closed in her castle from the sound of arms | E |
- | |
Silent awhile was Gareth then replied | A |
'The thrall in person may be free in soul | W |
And I shall see the jousts Thy son am I | J |
And since thou art my mother must obey | D |
I therefore yield me freely to thy will | W |
For hence will I disguised and hire myself | F2 |
To serve with scullions and with kitchen knaves | E |
Nor tell my name to any no not the King ' | - |
- | |
Gareth awhile lingered The mother's eye | J |
Full of the wistful fear that he would go | G |
And turning toward him wheresoe'er he | I |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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