Lancelot And Elaine Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBBCDBEBBFBCBGBHIBB JABKBLM BNBMNM OMLIBBBABBMLBMMALMLB B MMBMMMLAIBPAQLMLB BBLBIQI MMLAOQQBLBLMAOML NMBR LMBBBMMMBMMQBOQIQ IOBLMSMMMBAMATMBMDQ MBIB LAMBUNLOBQDMI MLQBMMVMMMLLBLBLBBMWElaine the fair Elaine the loveable | A |
Elaine the lily maid of Astolat | B |
High in her chamber up a tower to the east | B |
Guarded the sacred shield of Lancelot | B |
Which first she placed where the morning's earliest ray | C |
Might strike it and awake her with the gleam | D |
Then fearing rust or soilure fashioned for it | B |
A case of silk and braided thereupon | E |
All the devices blazoned on the shield | B |
In their own tinct and added of her wit | B |
A border fantasy of branch and flower | F |
And yellow throated nestling in the nest | B |
Nor rested thus content but day by day | C |
Leaving her household and good father climbed | B |
That eastern tower and entering barred her door | G |
Stript off the case and read the naked shield | B |
Now guessed a hidden meaning in his arms | H |
Now made a pretty history to herself | I |
Of every dint a sword had beaten in it | B |
And every scratch a lance had made upon it | B |
Conjecturing when and where this cut is fresh | J |
That ten years back this dealt him at Caerlyle | A |
That at Caerleon this at Camelot | B |
And ah God's mercy what a stroke was there | K |
And here a thrust that might have killed but God | B |
Broke the strong lance and rolled his enemy down | L |
And saved him so she lived in fantasy | M |
- | |
How came the lily maid by that good shield | B |
Of Lancelot she that knew not even his name | N |
He left it with her when he rode to tilt | B |
For the great diamond in the diamond jousts | M |
Which Arthur had ordained and by that name | N |
Had named them since a diamond was the prize | M |
- | |
For Arthur long before they crowned him King | O |
Roving the trackless realms of Lyonnesse | M |
Had found a glen gray boulder and black tarn | L |
A horror lived about the tarn and clave | I |
Like its own mists to all the mountain side | B |
For here two brothers one a king had met | B |
And fought together but their names were lost | B |
And each had slain his brother at a blow | A |
And down they fell and made the glen abhorred | B |
And there they lay till all their bones were bleached | B |
And lichened into colour with the crags | M |
And he that once was king had on a crown | L |
Of diamonds one in front and four aside | B |
And Arthur came and labouring up the pass | M |
All in a misty moonshine unawares | M |
Had trodden that crowned skeleton and the skull | A |
Brake from the nape and from the skull the crown | L |
Rolled into light and turning on its rims | M |
Fled like a glittering rivulet to the tarn | L |
And down the shingly scaur he plunged and caught | B |
And set it on his head and in his heart | B |
Heard murmurs 'Lo thou likewise shalt be King ' | - |
- | |
Thereafter when a King he had the gems | M |
Plucked from the crown and showed them to his knights | M |
Saying 'These jewels whereupon I chanced | B |
Divinely are the kingdom's not the King's | M |
For public use henceforward let there be | M |
Once every year a joust for one of these | M |
For so by nine years' proof we needs must learn | L |
Which is our mightiest and ourselves shall grow | A |
In use of arms and manhood till we drive | I |
The heathen who some say shall rule the land | B |
Hereafter which God hinder ' Thus he spoke | P |
And eight years past eight jousts had been and still | A |
Had Lancelot won the diamond of the year | Q |
With purpose to present them to the Queen | L |
When all were won but meaning all at once | M |
To snare her royal fancy with a boon | L |
Worth half her realm had never spoken word | B |
- | |
Now for the central diamond and the last | B |
And largest Arthur holding then his court | B |
Hard on the river nigh the place which now | L |
Is this world's hugest let proclaim a joust | B |
At Camelot and when the time drew nigh | I |
Spake for she had been sick to Guinevere | Q |
'Are you so sick my Queen you cannot move | I |
To these fair jousts ' 'Yea lord ' she said 'ye know it ' | - |
'Then will ye miss ' he answered 'the great deeds | M |
Of Lancelot and his prowess in the lists | M |
A sight ye love to look on ' And the Queen | L |
Lifted her eyes and they dwelt languidly | A |
On Lancelot where he stood beside the King | O |
He thinking that he read her meaning there | Q |
'Stay with me I am sick my love is more | Q |
Than many diamonds ' yielded and a heart | B |
Love loyal to the least wish of the Queen | L |
However much he yearned to make complete | B |
The tale of diamonds for his destined boon | L |
Urged him to speak against the truth and say | M |
'Sir King mine ancient wound is hardly whole | A |
And lets me from the saddle ' and the King | O |
Glanced first at him then her and went his way | M |
No sooner gone than suddenly she began | L |
- | |
'To blame my lord Sir Lancelot much to blame | N |
Why go ye not to these fair jousts the knights | M |
Are half of them our enemies and the crowd | B |
Will murmur Lo the shameless ones who take | R |
Their pastime now the trustful King is gone ' | - |
Then Lancelot vext at having lied in vain | L |
'Are ye so wise ye were not once so wise | M |
My Queen that summer when ye loved me first | B |
Then of the crowd ye took no more account | B |
Than of the myriad cricket of the mead | B |
When its own voice clings to each blade of grass | M |
And every voice is nothing As to knights | M |
Them surely can I silence with all ease | M |
But now my loyal worship is allowed | B |
Of all men many a bard without offence | M |
Has linked our names together in his lay | M |
Lancelot the flower of bravery Guinevere | Q |
The pearl of beauty and our knights at feast | B |
Have pledged us in this union while the King | O |
Would listen smiling How then is there more | Q |
Has Arthur spoken aught or would yourself | I |
Now weary of my service and devoir | Q |
Henceforth be truer to your faultless lord ' | - |
- | |
She broke into a little scornful laugh | I |
'Arthur my lord Arthur the faultless King | O |
That passionate perfection my good lord | B |
But who can gaze upon the Sun in heaven | L |
He never spake word of reproach to me | M |
He never had a glimpse of mine untruth | S |
He cares not for me only here today | M |
There gleamed a vague suspicion in his eyes | M |
Some meddling rogue has tampered with him else | M |
Rapt in this fancy of his Table Round | B |
And swearing men to vows impossible | A |
To make them like himself but friend to me | M |
He is all fault who hath no fault at all | A |
For who loves me must have a touch of earth | T |
The low sun makes the colour I am yours | M |
Not Arthur's as ye know save by the bond | B |
And therefore hear my words go to the jousts | M |
The tiny trumpeting gnat can break our dream | D |
When sweetest and the vermin voices here | Q |
May buzz so loud we scorn them but they sting ' | - |
- | |
Then answered Lancelot the chief of knights | M |
'And with what face after my pretext made | B |
Shall I appear O Queen at Camelot I | I |
Before a King who honours his own word | B |
As if it were his God's ' | - |
- | |
'Yea ' said the Queen | L |
'A moral child without the craft to rule | A |
Else had he not lost me but listen to me | M |
If I must find you wit we hear it said | B |
That men go down before your spear at a touch | U |
But knowing you are Lancelot your great name | N |
This conquers hide it therefore go unknown | L |
Win by this kiss you will and our true King | O |
Will then allow your pretext O my knight | B |
As all for glory for to speak him true | Q |
Ye know right well how meek soe'er he seem | D |
No keener hunter after glory breathes | M |
He loves it in his knights more than himself | I |
They prove to him his work win and return ' | - |
- | |
Then got Sir Lancelot suddenly to horse | M |
Wroth at himself Not willing to be known | L |
He left the barren beaten thoroughfare | Q |
Chose the green path that showed the rarer foot | B |
And there among the solitary downs | M |
Full often lost in fancy lost his way | M |
Till as he traced a faintly shadowed track | V |
That all in loops and links among the dales | M |
Ran to the Castle of Astolat he saw | M |
Fired from the west far on a hill the towers | M |
Thither he made and blew the gateway horn | L |
Then came an old dumb myriad wrinkled man | L |
Who let him into lodging and disarmed | B |
And Lancelot marvelled at the wordless man | L |
And issuing found the Lord of Astolat | B |
With two strong sons Sir Torre and Sir Lavaine | L |
Moving to meet him in the castle court | B |
And close behind them stept the lily maid | B |
Elaine his daughter mother of the house | M |
There was not some light jest among them | W |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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Write your comment about Lancelot And Elaine poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Elaine Hopgood Davila: Yes, and I am not the lili maid of Astolat but my mom loved this poem so much she named me after her.
Shirley Ephraim: Much too long!!
Best Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson