The Dead Prophet Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BAC A B DE A FGFG H IJKJ H BLBL H MNMN H OPQP H R RP G STST G PCPU G VWVW G EPEP G PXPX H YZY H GA2GA2 H B2A2B2A2 H A2PA2 H A2XA2X G A2A2A2 G C2D2E2I | A |
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Dead | B |
And the Muses cried with a stormy cry | A |
'Send them no more for evermore | C |
Let the people die ' | - |
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II | A |
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Dead | B |
'Is it he then brought so low ' | - |
And a careless people flock'd from the fields | D |
With a purse to pay for the show | E |
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III | A |
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Dead who had served his time | F |
Was one of the people's kings | G |
Had labour'd in lifting them out of slime | F |
And showing them souls have wings | G |
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IV | H |
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Dumb on the winter heath he lay | I |
His friends had stript him bare | J |
And roll'd his nakedness everyway | K |
That all the crowd might stare | J |
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V | H |
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A storm worn signpost not to be read | B |
And a tree with a moulder'd nest | L |
On its barkless bones stood stark by the dead | B |
And behind him low in the West | L |
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VI | H |
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With shifting ladders of shadow and light | M |
And blurr'd in colour and form | N |
The sun hung over the gates of Night | M |
And glared at a coming storm | N |
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VII | H |
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Then glided a vulturous Beldam forth | O |
That on dumb death had thriven | P |
They call'd her 'Reverence' here upon earth | Q |
And 'The Curse of the Prophet' in Heaven | P |
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VIII | H |
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She knelt 'We worship him' all but wept | R |
'So great so noble was he ' | - |
She clear'd her sight she arose she swept | R |
The dust of earth from her knee | P |
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IX | G |
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'Great for he spoke and the people heard | S |
And his eloquence caught like a flame | T |
From zone to zone of the world till his Word | S |
Had won him a noble name | T |
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X | G |
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Noble he sung and the sweet sound ran | P |
Thro' palace and cottage door | C |
For he touch'd on the whole sad planet of man | P |
The kings and the rich and the poor | U |
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XI | G |
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And he sung not alone of an old sun set | V |
But a sun coming up in his youth | W |
Great and noble O yes but yet | V |
For man is a lover of Truth | W |
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XII | G |
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And bound to follow wherever she go | E |
Stark naked and up or down | P |
Thro' her high hill passes of stainless snow | E |
Or the foulest sewer of the town | P |
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XIII | G |
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Noble and great O ay but then | P |
Tho' a prophet should have his due | X |
Was he noblier fashion'd than other men | P |
Shall we see to it I and you | X |
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XIV | H |
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For since he would sit on a Prophet's seat | Y |
As a lord of the Human soul | Z |
We needs must scan him from head to feet | Y |
Were it but for a wart or a mole ' | - |
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XV | H |
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His wife and his child stood by him in tears | G |
But she she push'd them aside | A2 |
'Tho' a name may last for a thousand years | G |
Yet a truth is a truth ' she cried | A2 |
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XVI | H |
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And she that had haunted his pathway still | B2 |
Had often truckled and cower'd | A2 |
When he rose in his wrath and had yielded her will | B2 |
To the master as overpower'd | A2 |
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XVII | H |
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She tumbled his helpless corpse about | A2 |
'Small blemish upon the skin | P |
But I think we know what is fair without | A2 |
Is often as foul within ' | - |
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XVIII | H |
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She crouch'd she tore him part from part | A2 |
And out of his body she drew | X |
The red 'Blood eagle' of liver and heart | A2 |
She held them up to the view | X |
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XIX | G |
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She gabbled as she groped in the dead | A2 |
And all the people were pleased | A2 |
'See what a little heart ' she said | A2 |
'And the liver is half diseased ' | - |
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XX | G |
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She tore the Prophet after death | C2 |
And the people paid her well | D2 |
Lightnings flicker'd along the heath | E2 |
One shriek'd 'The fires of Hell ' | - |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(1)
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