Geraint And Enid Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFG HIJKILMNOJPQRSTUVQUQ WPXQYQZA2B2C2BD2BKE2 F2G2H2I2C2J2K2L2L2JQ QM2N2O2N2L2L2I L2L2N2JL2 QL2N2L2I P2L2JQL2Q2 R2JL2L2S2F2R2L2QQF2Q BT2FJQL2 N2L2L2U2BV2QN2L2S2L2 BL2L2W2N2QL2L2X2L2L2 Y2S Q L2L2QBZ2L2A3L2 F2 N2 L2QB3 N2L2L2JC3L2 L2D3Q2F2B3L2VL2A2BL2 FBBB3L2BQN2B3O2BL2L2 Q2L2 B3C2O purblind race of miserable men | A |
How many among us at this very hour | B |
Do forge a life long trouble for ourselves | C |
By taking true for false or false for true | D |
Here through the feeble twilight of this world | E |
Groping how many until we pass and reach | F |
That other where we see as we are seen | G |
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So fared it with Geraint who issuing forth | H |
That morning when they both had got to horse | I |
Perhaps because he loved her passionately | J |
And felt that tempest brooding round his heart | K |
Which if he spoke at all would break perforce | I |
Upon a head so dear in thunder said | L |
'Not at my side I charge thee ride before | M |
Ever a good way on before and this | N |
I charge thee on thy duty as a wife | O |
Whatever happens not to speak to me | J |
No not a word ' and Enid was aghast | P |
And forth they rode but scarce three paces on | Q |
When crying out 'Effeminate as I am | R |
I will not fight my way with gilded arms | S |
All shall be iron ' he loosed a mighty purse | T |
Hung at his belt and hurled it toward the squire | U |
So the last sight that Enid had of home | V |
Was all the marble threshold flashing strown | Q |
With gold and scattered coinage and the squire | U |
Chafing his shoulder then he cried again | Q |
'To the wilds ' and Enid leading down the tracks | W |
Through which he bad her lead him on they past | P |
The marches and by bandit haunted holds | X |
Gray swamps and pools waste places of the hern | Q |
And wildernesses perilous paths they rode | Y |
Round was their pace at first but slackened soon | Q |
A stranger meeting them had surely thought | Z |
They rode so slowly and they looked so pale | A2 |
That each had suffered some exceeding wrong | B2 |
For he was ever saying to himself | C2 |
'O I that wasted time to tend upon her | B |
To compass her with sweet observances | D2 |
To dress her beautifully and keep her true' | B |
And there he broke the sentence in his heart | K |
Abruptly as a man upon his tongue | E2 |
May break it when his passion masters him | F2 |
And she was ever praying the sweet heavens | G2 |
To save her dear lord whole from any wound | H2 |
And ever in her mind she cast about | I2 |
For that unnoticed failing in herself | C2 |
Which made him look so cloudy and so cold | J2 |
Till the great plover's human whistle amazed | K2 |
Her heart and glancing round the waste she feared | L2 |
In ever wavering brake an ambuscade | L2 |
Then thought again 'If there be such in me | J |
I might amend it by the grace of Heaven | Q |
If he would only speak and tell me of it ' | - |
- | |
But when the fourth part of the day was gone | Q |
Then Enid was aware of three tall knights | M2 |
On horseback wholly armed behind a rock | N2 |
In shadow waiting for them caitiffs all | O2 |
And heard one crying to his fellow 'Look | N2 |
Here comes a laggard hanging down his head | L2 |
Who seems no bolder than a beaten hound | L2 |
Come we will slay him and will have his horse | I |
And armour and his damsel shall be ours ' | - |
- | |
Then Enid pondered in her heart and said | L2 |
'I will go back a little to my lord | L2 |
And I will tell him all their caitiff talk | N2 |
For be he wroth even to slaying me | J |
Far liefer by his dear hand had I die | L2 |
Than that my lord should suffer loss or shame ' | - |
- | |
Then she went back some paces of return | Q |
Met his full frown timidly firm and said | L2 |
'My lord I saw three bandits by the rock | N2 |
Waiting to fall on you and heard them boast | L2 |
That they would slay you and possess your horse | I |
And armour and your damsel should be theirs ' | - |
- | |
He made a wrathful answer 'Did I wish | P2 |
Your warning or your silence one command | L2 |
I laid upon you not to speak to me | J |
And thus ye keep it Well then look for now | Q |
Whether ye wish me victory or defeat | L2 |
Long for my life or hunger for my death | Q2 |
Yourself shall see my vigour is not lost ' | - |
- | |
Then Enid waited pale and sorrowful | R2 |
And down upon him bare the bandit three | J |
And at the midmost charging Prince Geraint | L2 |
Drave the long spear a cubit through his breast | L2 |
And out beyond and then against his brace | S2 |
Of comrades each of whom had broken on him | F2 |
A lance that splintered like an icicle | R2 |
Swung from his brand a windy buffet out | L2 |
Once twice to right to left and stunned the twain | Q |
Or slew them and dismounting like a man | Q |
That skins the wild beast after slaying him | F2 |
Stript from the three dead wolves of woman born | Q |
The three gay suits of armour which they wore | B |
And let the bodies lie but bound the suits | T2 |
Of armour on their horses each on each | F |
And tied the bridle reins of all the three | J |
Together and said to her 'Drive them on | Q |
Before you ' and she drove them through the waste | L2 |
- | |
He followed nearer ruth began to work | N2 |
Against his anger in him while he watched | L2 |
The being he loved best in all the world | L2 |
With difficulty in mild obedience | U2 |
Driving them on he fain had spoken to her | B |
And loosed in words of sudden fire the wrath | V2 |
And smouldered wrong that burnt him all within | Q |
But evermore it seemed an easier thing | N2 |
At once without remorse to strike her dead | L2 |
Than to cry 'Halt ' and to her own bright face | S2 |
Accuse her of the least immodesty | L2 |
And thus tongue tied it made him wroth the more | B |
That she COULD speak whom his own ear had heard | L2 |
Call herself false and suffering thus he made | L2 |
Minutes an age but in scarce longer time | W2 |
Than at Caerleon the full tided Usk | N2 |
Before he turn to fall seaward again | Q |
Pauses did Enid keeping watch behold | L2 |
In the first shallow shade of a deep wood | L2 |
Before a gloom of stubborn shafted oaks | X2 |
Three other horsemen waiting wholly armed | L2 |
Whereof one seemed far larger than her lord | L2 |
And shook her pulses crying 'Look a prize | Y2 |
Three horses and three goodly suits of arms | S |
And all in charge of whom a girl set on ' | - |
'Nay ' said the second 'yonder comes a knight ' | - |
The third 'A craven how he hangs his head ' | - |
The giant answered merrily 'Yea but one | Q |
Wait here and when he passes fall upon him ' | - |
- | |
And Enid pondered in her heart and said | L2 |
'I will abide the coming of my lord | L2 |
And I will tell him all their villainy | Q |
My lord is weary with the fight before | B |
And they will fall upon him unawares | Z2 |
I needs must disobey him for his good | L2 |
How should I dare obey him to his harm | A3 |
Needs must I speak and though he kill me for it | L2 |
I save a life dearer to me than mine ' | - |
- | |
And she abode his coming and said to him | F2 |
With timid firmness 'Have I leave to speak ' | - |
He said 'Ye take it speaking ' and she spoke | N2 |
- | |
'There lurk three villains yonder in the wood | L2 |
And each of them is wholly armed and one | Q |
Is larger limbed than you are and they say | B3 |
That they will fall upon you while ye pass ' | - |
- | |
To which he flung a wrathful answer back | N2 |
'And if there were an hundred in the wood | L2 |
And every man were larger limbed than I | L2 |
And all at once should sally out upon me | J |
I swear it would not ruffle me so much | C3 |
As you that not obey me Stand aside | L2 |
And if I fall cleave to the better man ' | - |
- | |
And Enid stood aside to wait the event | L2 |
Not dare to watch the combat only breathe | D3 |
Short fits of prayer at every stroke a breath | Q2 |
And he she dreaded most bare down upon him | F2 |
Aimed at the helm his lance erred but Geraint's | B3 |
A little in the late encounter strained | L2 |
Struck through the bulky bandit's corselet home | V |
And then brake short and down his enemy rolled | L2 |
And there lay still as he that tells the tale | A2 |
Saw once a great piece of a promontory | B |
That had a sapling growing on it slide | L2 |
From the long shore cliff's windy walls to the beach | F |
And there lie still and yet the sapling grew | B |
So lay the man transfixt His craven pair | B |
Of comrades making slowlier at the Prince | B3 |
When now they saw their bulwark fallen stood | L2 |
On whom the victor to confound them more | B |
Spurred with his terrible war cry for as one | Q |
That listens near a torrent mountain brook | N2 |
All through the crash of the near cataract hears | B3 |
The drumming thunder of the huger fall | O2 |
At distance were the soldiers wont to hear | B |
His voice in battle and be kindled by it | L2 |
And foemen scared like that false pair who turned | L2 |
Flying but overtaken died the death | Q2 |
Themselves had wrought on many an innocent | L2 |
- | |
Thereon Geraint dismounting picked the lance | B3 |
That pleased him best and drew from those dead wolve | C2 |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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