The Last Tournament Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEEFEG HIEJKLELEMENOPLQREEE EH STUVV EWEVEEXYWZA2 A2A2A2A2B2 VEA2C2YB2 EE D2E2L WVLEWVLVB2F2G2VA2EA2 A2VA2H2A2 LLLI2J2A2K2WVG2WA2EW A2EEV LL2L M2B2LLA2A2EA2A2WEA2A 2 A2EVEEN2A2 EEA2EWA2WVEA2W A2VEO2WV P2LVQ2K2VWWA2EVEB2EL EWEEVWEEEER2A2Dagonet the fool whom Gawain in his mood | A |
Had made mock knight of Arthur's Table Round | B |
At Camelot high above the yellowing woods | C |
Danced like a withered leaf before the hall | D |
And toward him from the hall with harp in hand | E |
And from the crown thereof a carcanet | E |
Of ruby swaying to and fro the prize | F |
Of Tristram in the jousts of yesterday | E |
Came Tristram saying Why skip ye so Sir Fool ' | G |
- | |
For Arthur and Sir Lancelot riding once | H |
Far down beneath a winding wall of rock | I |
Heard a child wail A stump of oak half dead | E |
From roots like some black coil of carven snakes | J |
Clutched at the crag and started through mid air | K |
Bearing an eagle's nest and through the tree | L |
Rushed ever a rainy wind and through the wind | E |
Pierced ever a child's cry and crag and tree | L |
Scaling Sir Lancelot from the perilous nest | E |
This ruby necklace thrice around her neck | M |
And all unscarred from beak or talon brought | E |
A maiden babe which Arthur pitying took | N |
Then gave it to his Queen to rear the Queen | O |
But coldly acquiescing in her white arms | P |
Received and after loved it tenderly | L |
And named it Nestling so forgot herself | Q |
A moment and her cares till that young life | R |
Being smitten in mid heaven with mortal cold | E |
Past from her and in time the carcanet | E |
Vext her with plaintive memories of the child | E |
So she delivering it to Arthur said | E |
Take thou the jewels of this dead innocence | H |
And make them an thou wilt a tourney prize ' | - |
- | |
To whom the King Peace to thine eagle borne | S |
Dead nestling and this honour after death | T |
Following thy will but O my Queen I muse | U |
Why ye not wear on arm or neck or zone | V |
Those diamonds that I rescued from the tarn | V |
And Lancelot won methought for thee to wear ' | - |
- | |
Would rather you had let them fall ' she cried | E |
Plunge and be lost ill fated as they were | W |
A bitterness to me ye look amazed | E |
Not knowing they were lost as soon as given | V |
Slid from my hands when I was leaning out | E |
Above the river that unhappy child | E |
Past in her barge but rosier luck will go | X |
With these rich jewels seeing that they came | Y |
Not from the skeleton of a brother slayer | W |
But the sweet body of a maiden babe | Z |
Perchance who knows the purest of thy knights | A2 |
May win them for the purest of my maids ' | - |
- | |
She ended and the cry of a great jousts | A2 |
With trumpet blowings ran on all the ways | A2 |
From Camelot in among the faded fields | A2 |
To furthest towers and everywhere the knights | A2 |
Armed for a day of glory before the King | B2 |
- | |
But on the hither side of that loud morn | V |
Into the hall staggered his visage ribbed | E |
From ear to ear with dogwhip weals his nose | A2 |
Bridge broken one eye out and one hand off | C2 |
And one with shattered fingers dangling lame | Y |
A churl to whom indignantly the King | B2 |
- | |
My churl for whom Christ died what evil beast | E |
Hath drawn his claws athwart thy face or fiend | E |
Man was it who marred heaven's image in thee thus ' | - |
- | |
Then sputtering through the hedge of splintered teeth | D2 |
Yet strangers to the tongue and with blunt stump | E2 |
Pitch blackened sawing the air said the maimed churl | L |
- | |
He took them and he drave them to his tower | W |
Some hold he was a table knight of thine | V |
A hundred goodly ones the Red Knight he | L |
Lord I was tending swine and the Red Knight | E |
Brake in upon me and drave them to his tower | W |
And when I called upon thy name as one | V |
That doest right by gentle and by churl | L |
Maimed me and mauled and would outright have slain | V |
Save that he sware me to a message saying | B2 |
'Tell thou the King and all his liars that I | F2 |
Have founded my Round Table in the North | G2 |
And whatsoever his own knights have sworn | V |
My knights have sworn the counter to it and say | A2 |
My tower is full of harlots like his court | E |
But mine are worthier seeing they profess | A2 |
To be none other than themselves and say | A2 |
My knights are all adulterers like his own | V |
But mine are truer seeing they profess | A2 |
To be none other and say his hour is come | H2 |
The heathen are upon him his long lance | A2 |
Broken and his Excalibur a straw '' | - |
- | |
Then Arthur turned to Kay the seneschal | L |
Take thou my churl and tend him curiously | L |
Like a king's heir till all his hurts be whole | L |
The heathen but that ever climbing wave | I2 |
Hurled back again so often in empty foam | J2 |
Hath lain for years at rest and renegades | A2 |
Thieves bandits leavings of confusion whom | K2 |
The wholesome realm is purged of otherwhere | W |
Friends through your manhood and your fealty now | V |
Make their last head like Satan in the North | G2 |
My younger knights new made in whom your flower | W |
Waits to be solid fruit of golden deeds | A2 |
Move with me toward their quelling which achieved | E |
The loneliest ways are safe from shore to shore | W |
But thou Sir Lancelot sitting in my place | A2 |
Enchaired tomorrow arbitrate the field | E |
For wherefore shouldst thou care to mingle with it | E |
Only to yield my Queen her own again | V |
Speak Lancelot thou art silent is it well ' | - |
- | |
Thereto Sir Lancelot answered It is well | L |
Yet better if the King abide and leave | L2 |
The leading of his younger knights to me | L |
Else for the King has willed it it is well ' | - |
- | |
Then Arthur rose and Lancelot followed him | M2 |
And while they stood without the doors the King | B2 |
Turned to him saying Is it then so well | L |
Or mine the blame that oft I seem as he | L |
Of whom was written 'A sound is in his ears' | A2 |
The foot that loiters bidden go the glance | A2 |
That only seems half loyal to command | E |
A manner somewhat fallen from reverence | A2 |
Or have I dreamed the bearing of our knights | A2 |
Tells of a manhood ever less and lower | W |
Or whence the fear lest this my realm upreared | E |
By noble deeds at one with noble vows | A2 |
From flat confusion and brute violences | A2 |
Reel back into the beast and be no more ' | - |
- | |
He spoke and taking all his younger knights | A2 |
Down the slope city rode and sharply turned | E |
North by the gate In her high bower the Queen | V |
Working a tapestry lifted up her head | E |
Watched her lord pass and knew not that she sighed | E |
Then ran across her memory the strange rhyme | N2 |
Of bygone Merlin Where is he who knows | A2 |
From the great deep to the great deep he goes ' | - |
- | |
But when the morning of a tournament | E |
By these in earnest those in mockery called | E |
The Tournament of the Dead Innocence | A2 |
Brake with a wet wind blowing Lancelot | E |
Round whose sick head all night like birds of prey | W |
The words of Arthur flying shrieked arose | A2 |
And down a streetway hung with folds of pure | W |
White samite and by fountains running wine | V |
Where children sat in white with cups of gold | E |
Moved to the lists and there with slow sad steps | A2 |
Ascending filled his double dragoned chair | W |
- | |
He glanced and saw the stately galleries | A2 |
Dame damsel each through worship of their Queen | V |
White robed in honour of the stainless child | E |
And some with scattered jewels like a bank | O2 |
Of maiden snow mingled with sparks of fire | W |
He looked but once and vailed his eyes again | V |
- | |
The sudden trumpet sounded as in a dream | P2 |
To ears but half awaked then one low roll | L |
Of Autumn thunder and the jousts began | V |
And ever the wind blew and yellowing leaf | Q2 |
And gloom and gleam and shower and shorn plume | K2 |
Went down it Sighing weariedly as one | V |
Who sits and gazes on a faded fire | W |
When all the goodlier guests are past away | W |
Sat their great umpire looking o'er the lists | A2 |
He saw the laws that ruled the tournament | E |
Broken but spake not once a knight cast down | V |
Before his throne of arbitration cursed | E |
The dead babe and the follies of the King | B2 |
And once the laces of a helmet cracked | E |
And showed him like a vermin in its hole | L |
Modred a narrow face anon he heard | E |
The voice that billowed round the barriers roar | W |
An ocean sounding welcome to one knight | E |
But newly entered taller than the rest | E |
And armoured all in forest green whereon | V |
There tript a hundred tiny silver deer | W |
And wearing but a holly spray for crest | E |
With ever scattering berries and on shield | E |
A spear a harp a bugle Tristram late | E |
From overseas in Brittany returned | E |
And marriage with a princess of that realm | R2 |
Isolt the White Sir Tristram of the Woods | A2 |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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