The Day-dream Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDEDFGHGHIJIJKLKL M L NONOPQPR L OSOSTOTO L OUOUOVOV N WXWXOBOB N OYOYOZOZ N OA2OB2C2TC2D2 N NE2NE2F2OF2O N N G2H2G2H2HI2HI2 N G2G2G2G2J2G2HG2 N G2G2G2G2OG2OG2 K2 N G2L2G2M2OOOO N OOOOG2 G2 N OXOXN2O2N2P2 N G2G2G2G2Q2NQ2 K2 N G2OG2OVG2VG2 N R2G2R2G2NG2NG2 N S2G2S2G2O OT2 N U2OU2 F2NF2N T N G2G2G2G2CV2CV2 N O O W2X2W2X2 N Y2Q2Y2Q2 N N N CV2CV2 K2 N CXCXG2OG2O N G2G2G2G2NG2NG2 N N ZOZOOE2OE2OZ2OZ2OOOO M2OM2O N A3Y2A3Y2 N G2B3G2B3C3XC3XC3XC3R 2OG2OG2 N G2XG2XOG2OG2G2NG2NNN NN D3 CXC OG2OG2G2R2G2R2PROLOGUE | A |
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O Lady Flora let me speak | B |
A pleasant hour has passed away | C |
While dreaming on your damask cheek | B |
The dewy sister eyelids lay | C |
As by the lattice you reclined | D |
I went thro' many wayward moods | E |
To see you dreaming and behind | D |
A summer crisp with shining woods | F |
And I too dream'd until at last | G |
Across my fancy brooding warm | H |
The reflex of a legend past | G |
And loosely settled into form | H |
And would you have the thought I had | I |
And see the vision that I saw | J |
Then take the broidery frame and add | I |
A crimson to the quaint Macaw | J |
And I will tell it Turn your face | K |
Nor look with that too earnest eye | L |
The rhymes are dazzled from their place | K |
And order'd words asunder fly | L |
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THE SLEEPING PALACE | M |
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I | L |
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The varying year with blade and sheaf | N |
Clothes and reclothes the happy plains | O |
Here rests the sap within the leaf | N |
Here stays the blood along the veins | O |
Faint shadows vapours lightly curl'd | P |
Faint murmurs from the meadows come | Q |
Like hints and echoes of the world | P |
To spirits folded in the womb | R |
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II | L |
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Soft lustre bathes the range of urns | O |
On every slanting terrace lawn | S |
The fountain to his place returns | O |
Deep in the garden lake withdrawn | S |
Here droops the banner on the tower | T |
On the hall hearths the festal fires | O |
The peacock in his laurel bower | T |
The parrot in his gilded wires | O |
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III | L |
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Roof haunting martins warm their eggs | O |
In these in those the life is stay'd | U |
The mantles from the golden pegs | O |
Droop sleepily no sound is made | U |
Not even of a gnat that sings | O |
More like a picture seemeth all | V |
Than those old portraits of old kings | O |
That watch the sleepers from the wall | V |
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IV | N |
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Here sits the Butler with a flask | W |
Between his knees half drain'd and there | X |
The wrinkled steward at his task | W |
The maid of honour blooming fair | X |
The page has caught her hand in his | O |
Her lips are sever'd as to speak | B |
His own are pouted to a kiss | O |
The blush is fix'd upon her cheek | B |
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V | N |
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Till all the hundred summers pass | O |
The beams that thro' the Oriel shine | Y |
Make prisms in every carven glass | O |
And beaker brimm'd with noble wine | Y |
Each baron at the banquet sleeps | O |
Grave faces gather'd in a ring | Z |
His state the king reposing keeps | O |
He must have been a jovial king | Z |
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VI | N |
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All round a hedge upshoots and shows | O |
At distance like a little wood | A2 |
Thorns ivies woodbine mistletoes | O |
And grapes with bunches red as blood | B2 |
All creeping plants a wall of green | C2 |
Close matted bur and brake and briar | T |
And glimpsing over these just seen | C2 |
High up the topmost palace spire | D2 |
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VII | N |
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When will the hundred summers die | N |
And thought and time be born again | E2 |
And newer knowledge drawing nigh | N |
Bring truth that sways the soul of men | E2 |
Here all things in their place remain | F2 |
As all were order'd ages since | O |
Come Care and Pleasure Hope and Pain | F2 |
And bring the fated fairy Prince | O |
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THE SLEEPING BEAUTY | N |
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I | N |
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Year after year unto her feet | G2 |
She lying on her couch alone | H2 |
Across the purple coverlet | G2 |
The maiden's jet black hair has grown | H2 |
On either side her tranced form | H |
Forth streaming from a braid of pearl | I2 |
The slumbrous light is rich and warm | H |
And moves not on the rounded curl | I2 |
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II | N |
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The silk star broider'd coverlid | G2 |
Unto her limbs itself doth mould | G2 |
Languidly ever and amid | G2 |
Her full black ringlets downward roll'd | G2 |
Glows forth each softly shadow'd arm | J2 |
With bracelets of the diamond bright | G2 |
Her constant beauty doth inform | H |
Stillness with love and day with light | G2 |
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III | N |
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She sleeps her breathings are not heard | G2 |
In palace chambers far apart | G2 |
The fragrant tresses are not stirr'd | G2 |
That lie upon her charmed heart | G2 |
She sleeps on either hand upswells | O |
The gold fringed pillow lightly prest | G2 |
She sleeps nor dreams but ever dwells | O |
A perfect form in perfect rest | G2 |
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THE ARRIVAL | K2 |
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I | N |
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All precious things discover'd late | G2 |
To those that seek them issue forth | L2 |
For love in sequel works with fate | G2 |
And draws the veil from hidden worth | M2 |
He travels far from other skies | O |
His mantle glitters on the rocks | O |
A fairy Prince with joyful eyes | O |
And lighter footed than the fox | O |
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II | N |
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The bodies and the bones of those | O |
That strove in other days to pass | O |
Are wither'd in the thorny close | O |
Or scatter'd blanching on the grass | O |
He gazes on the silent dead | G2 |
'They perish'd in their daring deeds ' | - |
This proverb flashes thro' his head | G2 |
'The many fail the one succeeds ' | - |
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III | N |
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He comes scarce knowing what he seeks | O |
He breaks the hedge he enters there | X |
The colour flies into his cheeks | O |
He trusts to light on something fair | X |
For all his life the charm did talk | N2 |
About his path and hover near | O2 |
With words of promise in his walk | N2 |
And whisper'd voices at his ear | P2 |
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IV | N |
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More close and close his footsteps wind | G2 |
The Magic Music in his heart | G2 |
Beats quick and quicker till he find | G2 |
The quiet chamber far apart | G2 |
His spirit flutters like a lark | Q2 |
He stoops to kiss her on his knee | N |
'Love if thy tresses be so dark | Q2 |
How dark those hidden eyes must be ' | - |
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THE REVIVAL | K2 |
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I | N |
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A touch a kiss the charm was snapt | G2 |
There rose a noise of striking clocks | O |
And feet that ran and doors that clapt | G2 |
And barking dogs and crowing cocks | O |
A fuller light illumined all | V |
A breeze thro' all the garden swept | G2 |
A sudden hubbub shook the hall | V |
And sixty feet the fountain leapt | G2 |
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II | N |
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The hedge broke in the banner blew | R2 |
The butler drank the steward scrawl'd | G2 |
The fire shot up the martin flew | R2 |
The parrot scream'd the peacock squall'd | G2 |
The maid and page renew'd their strife | N |
The palace bang'd and buzz'd and clackt | G2 |
And all the long pent stream of life | N |
Dash'd downward in a cataract | G2 |
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III | N |
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And last with these the king awoke | S2 |
And in his chair himself uprear'd | G2 |
And yawn'd and rubb'd his face and spoke | S2 |
'By holy rood a royal beard | G2 |
How say you we have slept my lords | O |
My beard has grown into my lap ' | - |
The barons swore with many words | O |
'Twas but an after dinner's nap | T2 |
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IV | N |
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'Pardy ' retnrn'd the king 'but still | U2 |
My joints are somewhat stiff or so | O |
My lord and shall we pass the bill | U2 |
I mention'd half an hour ago ' | - |
The chancellor sedate and vain | F2 |
In courteous words return'd reply | N |
But dallied with his golden chain | F2 |
And smiling put the question by | N |
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THE DEPARTURE | T |
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I | N |
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And on her lover's arm she leant | G2 |
And round her waist she felt it fold | G2 |
And far across the hills they went | G2 |
In that new world which is the old | G2 |
Across the hills and far away | C |
Beyond their utmost purple rim | V2 |
And deep into the dying day | C |
The happy princess follow'd him | V2 |
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II | N |
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'I'd sleep another hundred years | O |
O love for such another kiss ' | - |
'O wake for ever love ' she hears | O |
'O love 'twas such as this and this ' | - |
And o'er them many a sliding star | W2 |
And many a merry wind was borne | X2 |
And stream'd thro' many a golden bar | W2 |
The twilight melted into morn | X2 |
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III | N |
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'O eyes long laid in happy sleep ' | - |
'O happy sleep that lightly fled ' | - |
'O happy kiss that woke thy sleep ' | - |
'O love thy kiss would wake the dead ' | - |
And o'er them many a flowing range | Y2 |
Of vapour buoy'd the crescent bark | Q2 |
And rapt thro' many a rosy change | Y2 |
The twilight died into the dark | Q2 |
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IV | N |
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'A hundred summers can it be | N |
And whither goest thou tell me where ' | - |
'O seek my father's court with me | N |
For there are greater wonders there ' | - |
And o'er the hills and far away | C |
Beyond their utmost purple rim | V2 |
Beyond the night across the day | C |
Thro' all the world she follow'd him | V2 |
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MORAL | K2 |
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I | N |
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So Lady Flora take my lay | C |
And if you find no moral there | X |
Go look in any glass and say | C |
What moral is in being fair | X |
Oh to what uses shall we put | G2 |
The wildweed flower that simply blows | O |
And is there any moral shut | G2 |
Within the bosom of the rose | O |
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II | N |
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But any man that walks the mead | G2 |
In bud or blade or bloom may find | G2 |
According as his humours lead | G2 |
A meaning suited to his mind | G2 |
And liberal applications lie | N |
In Art like Nature dearest friend | G2 |
So 'twere to cramp its use if I | N |
Should hook it to some useful end | G2 |
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L'ENVOI | N |
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I | N |
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You shake your head A random string | Z |
Your finer female sense offends | O |
Well were it not a pleasant thing | Z |
To fall asleep with all one's friends | O |
To pass with all our social ties | O |
To silence from the paths of men | E2 |
And every hundred years to rise | O |
And learn the world and sleep again | E2 |
To sleep thro' terms of mighty wars | O |
And wake on science grown to more | Z2 |
On secrets of the brain the stars | O |
As wild as aught of fairy lore | Z2 |
And all that else the years will show | O |
The Poet forms of stronger hours | O |
The vast Republics that may grow | O |
The Federations and the Powers | O |
Titanic forces taking birth | M2 |
In divers seasons divers climes | O |
For we are Ancients of the earth | M2 |
And in the morning of the times | O |
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II | N |
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So sleeping so aroused from sleep | A3 |
Thro' sunny decades new and strange | Y2 |
Or gay quinquenniads would we reap | A3 |
The flower and quintessence of change | Y2 |
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III | N |
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Ah yet would I and would I might | G2 |
So much your eyes my fancy take | B3 |
Be still the first to leap to light | G2 |
That I might kiss those eyes awake | B3 |
For am I right or am I wrong | C3 |
To choose your own you did not care | X |
You'd have my moral from the song | C3 |
And I will take my pleasure there | X |
And am I right or am I wrong | C3 |
My fancy ranging thro' and thro' | X |
To search a meaning for the song | C3 |
Perforce will still revert to you | R2 |
Nor finds a closer truth than this | O |
All graceful head so richly curl'd | G2 |
And evermore a costly kiss | O |
The prelude to some brighter world | G2 |
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IV | N |
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For since the time when Adam first | G2 |
Embraced his Eve in happy hour | X |
And every bird of Eden burst | G2 |
In carol every bud to flower | X |
What eyes like thine have waken'd hopes | O |
What lips like thine so sweetly join'd | G2 |
Where on the double rosebud droops | O |
The fulness of the pensive mind | G2 |
Which all too dearly self involved | G2 |
Yet sleeps a dreamless sleep to me | N |
A sleep by kisses undissolved | G2 |
That lets thee neither hear nor see | N |
But break it In the name of wife | N |
And in the rights that name may give | N |
Are clasp'd the moral of thy life | N |
And that for which I care to live | N |
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EPILOGUE | D3 |
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So Lady Flora take my lay | C |
And if you find a meaning there | X |
O whisper to your glass and say | C |
'What wonder if he thinks me fair ' | - |
What wonder I was all unwise | O |
To shape the song for your delight | G2 |
Like long tail'd birds of Paradise | O |
That float thro' Heaven and cannot light | G2 |
Or old world trains upheld at court | G2 |
By Cupid boys of blooming hue | R2 |
But take it earnest wed with sport | G2 |
And either sacred unto you | R2 |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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