Guinevere Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGH IJKLMJNJJOPJ JQJRSJJJLRJBTUQJVWXY ZSJMA2B2JC2JD2KJ JJSE2 JJF2YSGRG2RVF2MJBH2I 2J2JJC2BK2JJJL2K2MM2 JJN2O2X JJ JJJJRJBJBP2JMQ2R2S2J E2WJ T2U2V2W2RBNKQJX2BJJK YRY2BJ MWJMZ2BJJ JA3JJJA3W2JB3MJMA3JJ BS2 JM J HHW2 JJW2 JJW2 JJ| Queen Guinevere had fled the court and sat | A |
| There in the holy house at Almesbury | B |
| Weeping none with her save a little maid | C |
| A novice one low light betwixt them burned | D |
| Blurred by the creeping mist for all abroad | E |
| Beneath a moon unseen albeit at full | F |
| The white mist like a face cloth to the face | G |
| Clung to the dead earth and the land was still | H |
| - | |
| For hither had she fled her cause of flight | I |
| Sir Modred he that like a subtle beast | J |
| Lay couchant with his eyes upon the throne | K |
| Ready to spring waiting a chance for this | L |
| He chilled the popular praises of the King | M |
| With silent smiles of slow disparagement | J |
| And tampered with the Lords of the White Horse | N |
| Heathen the brood by Hengist left and sought | J |
| To make disruption in the Table Round | J |
| Of Arthur and to splinter it into feuds | O |
| Serving his traitorous end and all his aims | P |
| Were sharpened by strong hate for Lancelot | J |
| - | |
| For thus it chanced one morn when all the court | J |
| Green suited but with plumes that mocked the may | Q |
| Had been their wont a maying and returned | J |
| That Modred still in green all ear and eye | R |
| Climbed to the high top of the garden wall | S |
| To spy some secret scandal if he might | J |
| And saw the Queen who sat betwixt her best | J |
| Enid and lissome Vivien of her court | J |
| The wiliest and the worst and more than this | L |
| He saw not for Sir Lancelot passing by | R |
| Spied where he couched and as the gardener's hand | J |
| Picks from the colewort a green caterpillar | B |
| So from the high wall and the flowering grove | T |
| Of grasses Lancelot plucked him by the heel | U |
| And cast him as a worm upon the way | Q |
| But when he knew the Prince though marred with dust | J |
| He reverencing king's blood in a bad man | V |
| Made such excuses as he might and these | W |
| Full knightly without scorn for in those days | X |
| No knight of Arthur's noblest dealt in scorn | Y |
| But if a man were halt or hunched in him | Z |
| By those whom God had made full limbed and tall | S |
| Scorn was allowed as part of his defect | J |
| And he was answered softly by the King | M |
| And all his Table So Sir Lancelot holp | A2 |
| To raise the Prince who rising twice or thrice | B2 |
| Full sharply smote his knees and smiled and went | J |
| But ever after the small violence done | C2 |
| Rankled in him and ruffled all his heart | J |
| As the sharp wind that ruffles all day long | D2 |
| A little bitter pool about a stone | K |
| On the bare coast | J |
| - | |
| But when Sir Lancelot told | J |
| This matter to the Queen at first she laughed | J |
| Lightly to think of Modred's dusty fall | S |
| Then shuddered as the village wife who cries | E2 |
| I shudder some one steps across my grave ' | - |
| Then laughed again but faintlier for indeed | J |
| She half foresaw that he the subtle beast | J |
| Would track her guilt until he found and hers | F2 |
| Would be for evermore a name of scorn | Y |
| Henceforward rarely could she front in hall | S |
| Or elsewhere Modred's narrow foxy face | G |
| Heart hiding smile and gray persistent eye | R |
| Henceforward too the Powers that tend the soul | G2 |
| To help it from the death that cannot die | R |
| And save it even in extremes began | V |
| To vex and plague her Many a time for hours | F2 |
| Beside the placid breathings of the King | M |
| In the dead night grim faces came and went | J |
| Before her or a vague spiritual fear | B |
| Like to some doubtful noise of creaking doors | H2 |
| Heard by the watcher in a haunted house | I2 |
| That keeps the rust of murder on the walls | J2 |
| Held her awake or if she slept she dreamed | J |
| An awful dream for then she seemed to stand | J |
| On some vast plain before a setting sun | C2 |
| And from the sun there swiftly made at her | B |
| A ghastly something and its shadow flew | K2 |
| Before it till it touched her and she turned | J |
| When lo her own that broadening from her feet | J |
| And blackening swallowed all the land and in it | J |
| Far cities burnt and with a cry she woke | L2 |
| And all this trouble did not pass but grew | K2 |
| Till even the clear face of the guileless King | M |
| And trustful courtesies of household life | M2 |
| Became her bane and at the last she said | J |
| O Lancelot get thee hence to thine own land | J |
| For if thou tarry we shall meet again | N2 |
| And if we meet again some evil chance | O2 |
| Will make the smouldering scandal break and blaze | X |
| Before the people and our lord the King ' | - |
| And Lancelot ever promised but remained | J |
| And still they met and met Again she said | J |
| O Lancelot if thou love me get thee hence ' | - |
| And then they were agreed upon a night | J |
| When the good King should not be there to meet | J |
| And part for ever Vivien lurking heard | J |
| She told Sir Modred Passion pale they met | J |
| And greeted Hands in hands and eye to eye | R |
| Low on the border of her couch they sat | J |
| Stammering and staring It was their last hour | B |
| A madness of farewells And Modred brought | J |
| His creatures to the basement of the tower | B |
| For testimony and crying with full voice | P2 |
| Traitor come out ye are trapt at last ' aroused | J |
| Lancelot who rushing outward lionlike | M |
| Leapt on him and hurled him headlong and he fell | Q2 |
| Stunned and his creatures took and bare him off | R2 |
| And all was still then she The end is come | S2 |
| And I am shamed for ever ' and he said | J |
| Mine be the shame mine was the sin but rise | E2 |
| And fly to my strong castle overseas | W |
| There will I hide thee till my life shall end | J |
| There hold thee with my life against the world ' | - |
| She answered Lancelot wilt thou hold me so | T2 |
| Nay friend for we have taken our farewells | U2 |
| Would God that thou couldst hide me from myself | V2 |
| Mine is the shame for I was wife and thou | W2 |
| Unwedded yet rise now and let us fly | R |
| For I will draw me into sanctuary | B |
| And bide my doom ' So Lancelot got her horse | N |
| Set her thereon and mounted on his own | K |
| And then they rode to the divided way | Q |
| There kissed and parted weeping for he past | J |
| Love loyal to the least wish of the Queen | X2 |
| Back to his land but she to Almesbury | B |
| Fled all night long by glimmering waste and weald | J |
| And heard the Spirits of the waste and weald | J |
| Moan as she fled or thought she heard them moan | K |
| And in herself she moaned Too late too late ' | - |
| Till in the cold wind that foreruns the morn | Y |
| A blot in heaven the Raven flying high | R |
| Croaked and she thought He spies a field of death | Y2 |
| For now the Heathen of the Northern Sea | B |
| Lured by the crimes and frailties of the court | J |
| Begin to slay the folk and spoil the land ' | - |
| - | |
| And when she came to Almesbury she spake | M |
| There to the nuns and said Mine enemies | W |
| Pursue me but O peaceful Sisterhood | J |
| Receive and yield me sanctuary nor ask | M |
| Her name to whom ye yield it till her time | Z2 |
| To tell you ' and her beauty grace and power | B |
| Wrought as a charm upon them and they spared | J |
| To ask it | J |
| - | |
| So the stately Queen abode | J |
| For many a week unknown among the nuns | A3 |
| Nor with them mixed nor told her name nor sought | J |
| Wrapt in her grief for housel or for shrift | J |
| But communed only with the little maid | J |
| Who pleased her with a babbling heedlessness | A3 |
| Which often lured her from herself but now | W2 |
| This night a rumour wildly blown about | J |
| Came that Sir Modred had usurped the realm | B3 |
| And leagued him with the heathen while the King | M |
| Was waging war on Lancelot then she thought | J |
| With what a hate the people and the King | M |
| Must hate me ' and bowed down upon her hands | A3 |
| Silent until the little maid who brooked | J |
| No silence brake it uttering Late so late | J |
| What hour I wonder now ' and when she drew | B |
| No answer by and by began to hum | S2 |
| An air the nuns had taught her Late so late ' | - |
| Which when she heard the Queen looked up and said | J |
| O maiden if indeed ye list to sing | M |
| Sing and unbind my heart that I may weep ' | - |
| Whereat full willingly sang the little maid | J |
| - | |
| Late late so late and dark the night and chill | H |
| Late late so late but we can enter still | H |
| Too late too late ye cannot enter now | W2 |
| - | |
| No light had we for that we do repent | J |
| And learning this the bridegroom will relent | J |
| Too late too late ye cannot enter now | W2 |
| - | |
| No light so late and dark and chill the night | J |
| O let us in that we may find the light | J |
| Too late too late ye cannot enter now | W2 |
| - | |
| Have we not heard the bridegroom is so sweet | J |
| O let us in though late | J |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About Guinevere
Guinevere is a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about Guinevere poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Best Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson
