The Holy Grail Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDBEF GGHIJKLMFB MNOPPQBRQST UBVOWX YZA2B2DBC2 BD2E2D2D2D2D2LD2F2G2 H2I2 BDH2D2J2DK2D2 APD2E2D2D2L2D2H2D2D2 D2H2BD D2ID2BH2D2D2M2D2N2O2 H2O2PBAD2D PH2BBH2D2BD2H2H2D2DL D2N2K2BP2D2BBH2D2N2D DA2D2 H2D2Q2D2P D2D2BAD2D2H2D2R2 O2D2DS2O2D2 DDD2T2D2H2K2U2AUD2A2 V2W2H2D2X2 DDDD2BD2H2D2Y2D2PZ2Y 2 H2BPFrom noiseful arms and acts of prowess done | A |
In tournament or tilt Sir Percivale | B |
Whom Arthur and his knighthood called The Pure | C |
Had passed into the silent life of prayer | D |
Praise fast and alms and leaving for the cowl | B |
The helmet in an abbey far away | E |
From Camelot there and not long after died | F |
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And one a fellow monk among the rest | G |
Ambrosius loved him much beyond the rest | G |
And honoured him and wrought into his heart | H |
A way by love that wakened love within | I |
To answer that which came and as they sat | J |
Beneath a world old yew tree darkening half | K |
The cloisters on a gustful April morn | L |
That puffed the swaying branches into smoke | M |
Above them ere the summer when he died | F |
The monk Ambrosius questioned Percivale | B |
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O brother I have seen this yew tree smoke | M |
Spring after spring for half a hundred years | N |
For never have I known the world without | O |
Nor ever strayed beyond the pale but thee | P |
When first thou camest such a courtesy | P |
Spake through the limbs and in the voice I knew | Q |
For one of those who eat in Arthur's hall | B |
For good ye are and bad and like to coins | R |
Some true some light but every one of you | Q |
Stamped with the image of the King and now | S |
Tell me what drove thee from the Table Round | T |
My brother was it earthly passion crost ' | - |
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Nay ' said the knight for no such passion mine | U |
But the sweet vision of the Holy Grail | B |
Drove me from all vainglories rivalries | V |
And earthly heats that spring and sparkle out | O |
Among us in the jousts while women watch | W |
Who wins who falls and waste the spiritual strength | X |
Within us better offered up to Heaven ' | - |
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To whom the monk The Holy Grail I trust | Y |
We are green in Heaven's eyes but here too much | Z |
We moulder as to things without I mean | A2 |
Yet one of your own knights a guest of ours | B2 |
Told us of this in our refectory | D |
But spake with such a sadness and so low | B |
We heard not half of what he said What is it | C2 |
The phantom of a cup that comes and goes ' | - |
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Nay monk what phantom ' answered Percivale | B |
The cup the cup itself from which our Lord | D2 |
Drank at the last sad supper with his own | E2 |
This from the blessd land of Aromat | D2 |
After the day of darkness when the dead | D2 |
Went wandering o'er Moriah the good saint | D2 |
Arimathan Joseph journeying brought | D2 |
To Glastonbury where the winter thorn | L |
Blossoms at Christmas mindful of our Lord | D2 |
And there awhile it bode and if a man | F2 |
Could touch or see it he was healed at once | G2 |
By faith of all his ills But then the times | H2 |
Grew to such evil that the holy cup | I2 |
Was caught away to Heaven and disappeared ' | - |
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To whom the monk From our old books I know | B |
That Joseph came of old to Glastonbury | D |
And there the heathen Prince Arviragus | H2 |
Gave him an isle of marsh whereon to build | D2 |
And there he built with wattles from the marsh | J2 |
A little lonely church in days of yore | D |
For so they say these books of ours but seem | K2 |
Mute of this miracle far as I have read | D2 |
But who first saw the holy thing today ' | - |
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A woman ' answered Percivale a nun | A |
And one no further off in blood from me | P |
Than sister and if ever holy maid | D2 |
With knees of adoration wore the stone | E2 |
A holy maid though never maiden glowed | D2 |
But that was in her earlier maidenhood | D2 |
With such a fervent flame of human love | L2 |
Which being rudely blunted glanced and shot | D2 |
Only to holy things to prayer and praise | H2 |
She gave herself to fast and alms And yet | D2 |
Nun as she was the scandal of the Court | D2 |
Sin against Arthur and the Table Round | D2 |
And the strange sound of an adulterous race | H2 |
Across the iron grating of her cell | B |
Beat and she prayed and fasted all the more | D |
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And he to whom she told her sins or what | D2 |
Her all but utter whiteness held for sin | I |
A man wellnigh a hundred winters old | D2 |
Spake often with her of the Holy Grail | B |
A legend handed down through five or six | H2 |
And each of these a hundred winters old | D2 |
From our Lord's time And when King Arthur made | D2 |
His Table Round and all men's hearts became | M2 |
Clean for a season surely he had thought | D2 |
That now the Holy Grail would come again | N2 |
But sin broke out Ah Christ that it would come | O2 |
And heal the world of all their wickedness | H2 |
O Father asked the maiden might it come | O2 |
To me by prayer and fasting Nay said he | P |
I know not for thy heart is pure as snow | B |
And so she prayed and fasted till the sun | A |
Shone and the wind blew through her and I thought | D2 |
She might have risen and floated when I saw her | D |
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For on a day she sent to speak with me | P |
And when she came to speak behold her eyes | H2 |
Beyond my knowing of them beautiful | B |
Beyond all knowing of them wonderful | B |
Beautiful in the light of holiness | H2 |
And O my brother Percivale she said | D2 |
Sweet brother I have seen the Holy Grail | B |
For waked at dead of night I heard a sound | D2 |
As of a silver horn from o'er the hills | H2 |
Blown and I thought It is not Arthur's use | H2 |
To hunt by moonlight ' and the slender sound | D2 |
As from a distance beyond distance grew | D |
Coming upon me O never harp nor horn | L |
Nor aught we blow with breath or touch with hand | D2 |
Was like that music as it came and then | N2 |
Streamed through my cell a cold and silver beam | K2 |
And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail | B |
Rose red with beatings in it as if alive | P2 |
Till all the white walls of my cell were dyed | D2 |
With rosy colours leaping on the wall | B |
And then the music faded and the Grail | B |
Past and the beam decayed and from the walls | H2 |
The rosy quiverings died into the night | D2 |
So now the Holy Thing is here again | N2 |
Among us brother fast thou too and pray | D |
And tell thy brother knights to fast and pray | D |
That so perchance the vision may be seen | A2 |
By thee and those and all the world be healed | D2 |
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Then leaving the pale nun I spake of this | H2 |
To all men and myself fasted and prayed | D2 |
Always and many among us many a week | Q2 |
Fasted and prayed even to the uttermost | D2 |
Expectant of the wonder that would be | P |
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And one there was among us ever moved | D2 |
Among us in white armour Galahad | D2 |
God make thee good as thou art beautiful | B |
Said Arthur when he dubbed him knight and none | A |
In so young youth was ever made a knight | D2 |
Till Galahad and this Galahad when he heard | D2 |
My sister's vision filled me with amaze | H2 |
His eyes became so like her own they seemed | D2 |
Hers and himself her brother more than I | R2 |
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Sister or brother none had he but some | O2 |
Called him a son of Lancelot and some said | D2 |
Begotten by enchantment chatterers they | D |
Like birds of passage piping up and down | S2 |
That gape for flies we know not whence they come | O2 |
For when was Lancelot wanderingly lewd | D2 |
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But she the wan sweet maiden shore away | D |
Clean from her forehead all that wealth of hair | D |
Which made a silken mat work for her feet | D2 |
And out of this she plaited broad and long | T2 |
A strong sword belt and wove with silver thread | D2 |
And crimson in the belt a strange device | H2 |
A crimson grail within a silver beam | K2 |
And saw the bright boy knight and bound it on him | U2 |
Saying My knight my love my knight of heaven | A |
O thou my love whose love is one with mine | U |
I maiden round thee maiden bind my belt | D2 |
Go forth for thou shalt see what I have seen | A2 |
And break through all till one will crown thee king | V2 |
Far in the spiritual city and as she spake | W2 |
She sent the deathless passion in her eyes | H2 |
Through him and made him hers and laid her mind | D2 |
On him and he believed in her belief | X2 |
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Then came a year of miracle O brother | D |
In our great hall there stood a vacant chair | D |
Fashioned by Merlin ere he past away | D |
And carven with strange figures and in and out | D2 |
The figures like a serpent ran a scroll | B |
Of letters in a tongue no man could read | D2 |
And Merlin called it The Siege perilous | H2 |
Perilous for good and ill for there he said | D2 |
No man could sit but he should lose himself | Y2 |
And once by misadvertence Merlin sat | D2 |
In his own chair and so was lost but he | P |
Galahad when he heard of Merlin's doom | Z2 |
Cried If I lose myself I save myself | Y2 |
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Then on a summer night it came to pass | H2 |
While the great banquet lay along the hall | B |
That Galahad would si | P |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(2)
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