The Holy Grail Poem Rhyme Scheme

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From 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
	-
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
	-
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 '	-
	-
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 '	-
	-
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 '	-
	-
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 '	-
	-
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 '	-
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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

The Holy Grail Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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