Idylls Of The King: The Last Tournament (excerpt) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEEFEG HIEJKLELEMENOPLQREEE EHF STUVVK EWEVEEXYWZA2B2 B2B2B2B2C2 VEB2D2YC2 EEB2 E2F2L WVLEWVLVC2G2H2VB2EB2 B2VB2I2B2 LLLJ2K2B2L2WVH2WB2EW B2EEVL LM2LL N2C2LLB2B2EB2B2WEB2B 2W B2EVEEO2B2B2 EEB2EWB2WVEB2W B2VEP2WV Q2LVR2L2VWWB2EVEC2ELDagonet the fool whom Gawain in his mood | A |
Had made mock knight of Arthur's Table Round | B |
At Camelot high above the yellowing woods | C |
Danced like a wither'd leaf before the hall | D |
And toward him from the hall with harp in hand | E |
And from the crown thereof a carcanet | E |
Of ruby swaying to and fro the prize | F |
Of Tristram in the jousts of yesterday | E |
Came Tristram saying Why skip ye so Sir Fool | G |
- | |
For Arthur and Sir Lancelot riding once | H |
Far down beneath a winding wall of rock | I |
Heard a child wail A stump of oak half dead | E |
From roots like some black coil of carven snakes | J |
Clutch'd at the crag and started thro' mid air | K |
Bearing an eagle's nest and thro' the tree | L |
Rush'd ever a rainy wind and thro' the wind | E |
Pierced ever a child's cry and crag and tree | L |
Scaling Sir Lancelot from the perilous nest | E |
This ruby necklace thrice around her neck | M |
And all unscarr'd from beak or talon brought | E |
A maiden babe which Arthur pitying took | N |
Then gave it to his Queen to rear the Queen | O |
But coldly acquiescing in her white arms | P |
Received and after loved it tenderly | L |
And named it Nestling so forgot herself | Q |
A moment and her cares till that young life | R |
Being smitten in mid heaven with mortal cold | E |
Past from her and in time the carcanet | E |
Vext her with plaintive memories of the child | E |
So she delivering it to Arthur said | E |
Take thou the jewels of this dead innocence | H |
And make them an thou wilt a tourney prize | F |
- | |
To whom the King Peace to thine eagle borne | S |
Dead nestling and this honour after death | T |
Following thy will but O my Queen I muse | U |
Why ye not wear on arm or neck or zone | V |
Those diamonds that I rescued from the tarn | V |
And Lancelot won methought for thee to wear | K |
- | |
Would rather you had let them fall she cried | E |
Plunge and be lost ill fated as they were | W |
A bitterness to me ye look amazed | E |
Not knowing they were lost as soon as given | V |
Slid from my hands when I was leaning out | E |
Above the river that unhappy child | E |
Past in her barge but rosier luck will go | X |
With these rich jewels seeing that they came | Y |
Not from the skeleton of a brother slayer | W |
But the sweet body of a maiden babe | Z |
Perchance who knows the purest of thy knights | A2 |
May win them for the purest of my maids | B2 |
- | |
She ended and the cry of a great jousts | B2 |
With trumpet blowings ran on all the ways | B2 |
From Camelot in among the faded fields | B2 |
To furthest towers and everywhere the knights | B2 |
Arm'd for a day of glory before the King | C2 |
- | |
But on the hither side of that loud morn | V |
Into the hall stagger'd his visage ribb'd | E |
From ear to ear with dogwhip weals his nose | B2 |
Bridge broken one eye out and one hand off | D2 |
And one with shatter'd fingers dangling lame | Y |
A churl to whom indignantly the King | C2 |
- | |
My churl for whom Christ died what evil beast | E |
Hath drawn his claws athwart thy face or fiend | E |
Man was it who marr'd heaven's image in thee thus | B2 |
- | |
Then sputtering thro' the hedge of splinter'd teeth | E2 |
Yet strangers to the tongue and with blunt stump | F2 |
Pitch blacken'd sawing the air said the maim'd churl | L |
- | |
He took them and he drave them to his tower | W |
Some hold he was a table knight of thine | V |
A hundred goodly ones the Red Knight he | L |
Lord I was tending swine and the Red Knight | E |
Brake in upon me and drave them to his tower | W |
And when I cal'd upon thy name as one | V |
That doest right by gentle and by churl | L |
Maim'd me and maul'd and would outright have slain | V |
Save that he aware me to a message saying | C2 |
'Tell thou the King and all his liars that I | G2 |
Have founded my Round Table in the North | H2 |
And whatsoever his own knights have sworn | V |
My knights have sworn the counter to it and say | B2 |
My tower is full of harlots like his court | E |
But mine are worthier seeing they profess | B2 |
To be none other than themselves and say | B2 |
My knights are all adulterers like his own | V |
But mine are truer seeing they profess | B2 |
To be none other and say his hour is come | I2 |
The heathen are upon him his long lance | B2 |
Broken and his Excalibur a straw ' | - |
- | |
Then Arthur turn'd to Kay the seneschal | L |
Take thou my churl and tend him curiously | L |
Like a king's heir till all his hurts be whole | L |
The heathen but that ever climbing wave | J2 |
Hurl'd back again so often in empty foam | K2 |
Hath lain for years at rest and renegades | B2 |
Thieves bandits leavings of confusion whom | L2 |
The wholesome realm is purged of otherwhere | W |
Friends thro' your manhood and your fealty now | V |
Make their last head like Satan in the North | H2 |
My younger knights new made in whom your flower | W |
Waits to be solid fruit of golden deeds | B2 |
Move with me toward their quelling which achieved | E |
The loneliest ways are safe from shore to shore | W |
But thou Sir Lancelot sitting in my place | B2 |
Enchair'd to morrow arbitrate the field | E |
For wherefore shouldst thou care to mingle with it | E |
Only to yield my Queen her own again | V |
Speak Lancelot thou art silent is it well | L |
- | |
- | |
Thereto Sir Lancelot answer'd It is well | L |
Yet better if the King abide and leave | M2 |
The leading of his younger knights to me | L |
Else for the King has will'd it it is well | L |
- | |
- | |
Then Arthur rose and Lancelot follow'd him | N2 |
And while they stood without the doors the King | C2 |
Turn'd to him saying Is it then so well | L |
Or mine the blame that oft I seem as he | L |
Of whom was written 'A sound is in his ears' | B2 |
The foot that loiters bidden go the glance | B2 |
That only seems half loyal to command | E |
A manner somewhat fall'n from reverence | B2 |
Or have I dream'd the bearing of our knights | B2 |
Tells of a manhood ever less and lower | W |
Or whence the fear lest this my realm uprear'd | E |
By noble deeds at one with noble vows | B2 |
From flat confusion and brute violence s | B2 |
Reel back into the beast and be no more | W |
- | |
- | |
He spoke and taking all his younger knights | B2 |
Down the slope city rode and sharply turn'd | E |
North by the gate In her high bower the Queen | V |
Working a tapestry lifted up her head | E |
Watch'd her lord pass and knew not that she sigh'd | E |
Then ran across her memory the strange rhyme | O2 |
Of bygone Merlin Where is he who knows | B2 |
From the great deep to the great deep he goes | B2 |
- | |
- | |
But when the morning of a tournament | E |
By these in earnest those in mockery call'd | E |
The Tournament of the Dead Innocence | B2 |
Brake with a wet wind blowing Lancelot | E |
Round whose sick head all night like birds of prey | W |
The words of Arthur flying shriek'd arose | B2 |
And down a streetway hung with folds of pure | W |
White samite and by fountains running wine | V |
Where children sat in white with cups of gold | E |
Moved to the lists and there with slow sad steps | B2 |
Ascending fill'd his double dragon'd chair | W |
- | |
- | |
He glanced and saw the stately galleries | B2 |
Dame damsel each thro' worship of their Queen | V |
White robed in honour of the stainless child | E |
And some with scatter'd jewels like a bank | P2 |
Of maiden snow mingled with sparks of fire | W |
He look'd but once and vail'd his eyes again | V |
- | |
- | |
The sudden trumpet sounded as in a dream | Q2 |
To ears but half awaked then one low roll | L |
Of Autumn thunder and the jousts began | V |
And ever the wind blew and yellowing leaf | R2 |
And gloom and gleam and shower and shorn plume | L2 |
Went down it Sighing weariedly as one | V |
Who sits and gazes on a faded fire | W |
When all the goodlier guests are past away | W |
Sat their great umpire looking o'er the lists | B2 |
He saw the laws that ruled the tournament | E |
Broken but spake not once a knight cast down | V |
Before his throne of arbitration cursed | E |
The dead babe and the follies of the King | C2 |
And once the laces of a helmet crack'd | E |
And show'd him like a vermin in its hole | L |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Idylls Of The King: The Last Tournament (excerpt) poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Best Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson