The Passing Of Arthur Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDE AFG HIJKALMNOAPQRSTUVAW XYZAA2B2C2D2 E2B2F2G2H2A2I2J2D2G2 K2 L2SM2GN2O2WP2G2XBZC2 G AXQ2R2S2T2BU2V2C2B2W 2A A2X2W2W2Y2Z2FB2W2AGA 3AB3A2XW2AC3D3E3F3AQ 2W2F3W2W2FG3H3W2I3F3 W2W2W2A2J3 I2WAW2B2K3AL3M2AM3N3 AI3A3R2W2W2 AO3G LP3J3W2A3Q3G GW2GR3E3W2 S3W2W2W2GAT3GAW2GU3V 3AAD3 C3W2P2V3W3PM2W2X3W2

That story which the bold Sir BedivereA
First made and latest left of all the knightsB
Told when the man was no more than a voiceC
In the white winter of his age to thoseD
With whom he dwelt new faces other mindsE
-
For on their march to westward BedivereA
Who slowly paced among the slumbering hostF
Heard in his tent the moanings of the KingG
-
'I found Him in the shining of the starsH
I marked Him in the flowering of His fieldsI
But in His ways with men I find Him notJ
I waged His wars and now I pass and dieK
O me for why is all around us hereA
As if some lesser god had made the worldL
But had not force to shape it as he wouldM
Till the High God behold it from beyondN
And enter it and make it beautifulO
Or else as if the world were wholly fairA
But that these eyes of men are dense and dimP
And have not power to see it as it isQ
Perchance because we see not to the closeR
For I being simple thought to work His willS
And have but stricken with the sword in vainT
And all whereon I leaned in wife and friendU
Is traitor to my peace and all my realmV
Reels back into the beast and is no moreA
My God thou hast forgotten me in my deathW
Nay God my Christ I pass but shall not die '-
-
Then ere that last weird battle in the westX
There came on Arthur sleeping Gawain killedY
In Lancelot's war the ghost of Gawain blownZ
Along a wandering wind and past his earA
Went shrilling 'Hollow hollow all delightA2
Hail King tomorrow thou shalt pass awayB2
Farewell there is an isle of rest for theeC2
And I am blown along a wandering windD2
And hollow hollow hollow all delight '-
And fainter onward like wild birds that changeE2
Their season in the night and wail their wayB2
From cloud to cloud down the long wind the dreamF2
Shrilled but in going mingled with dim criesG2
Far in the moonlit haze among the hillsH2
As of some lonely city sacked by nightA2
When all is lost and wife and child with wailI2
Pass to new lords and Arthur woke and calledJ2
'Who spake A dream O light upon the windD2
Thine Gawain was the voice are these dim criesG2
Thine or doth all that haunts the waste and wildK2
Mourn knowing it will go along with me '-
-
This heard the bold Sir Bedivere and spakeL2
'O me my King let pass whatever willS
Elves and the harmless glamour of the fieldM2
But in their stead thy name and glory clingG
To all high places like a golden cloudN2
For ever but as yet thou shalt not passO2
Light was Gawain in life and light in deathW
Is Gawain for the ghost is as the manP2
And care not thou for dreams from him but riseG2
I hear the steps of Modred in the westX
And with him many of thy people and knightsB
Once thine whom thou hast loved but grosser grownZ
Than heathen spitting at their vows and theeC2
Right well in heart they know thee for the KingG
Arise go forth and conquer as of old '-
-
Then spake King Arthur to Sir BedivereA
'Far other is this battle in the westX
Whereto we move than when we strove in youthQ2
And brake the petty kings and fought with RomeR2
Or thrust the heathen from the Roman wallS2
And shook him through the north Ill doom is mineT2
To war against my people and my knightsB
The king who fights his people fights himselfU2
And they my knights who loved me once the strokeV2
That strikes them dead is as my death to meC2
Yet let us hence and find or feel a wayB2
Through this blind haze which ever since I sawW2
One lying in the dust at AlmesburyA
Hath folded in the passes of the world '-
-
Then rose the King and moved his host by nightA2
And ever pushed Sir Modred league by leagueX2
Back to the sunset bound of LyonnesseW2
A land of old upheaven from the abyssW2
By fire to sink into the abyss againY2
Where fragments of forgotten peoples dweltZ2
And the long mountains ended in a coastF
Of ever shifting sand and far awayB2
The phantom circle of a moaning seaW2
There the pursuer could pursue no moreA
And he that fled no further fly the KingG
And there that day when the great light of heavenA3
Burned at his lowest in the rolling yearA
On the waste sand by the waste sea they closedB3
Nor ever yet had Arthur fought a fightA2
Like this last dim weird battle of the westX
A deathwhite mist slept over sand and seaW2
Whereof the chill to him who breathed it drewA
Down with his blood till all his heart was coldC3
With formless fear and even on Arthur fellD3
Confusion since he saw not whom he foughtE3
For friend and foe were shadows in the mistF3
And friend slew friend not knowing whom he slewA
And some had visions out of golden youthQ2
And some beheld the faces of old ghostsW2
Look in upon the battle and in the mistF3
Was many a noble deed many a baseW2
And chance and craft and strength in single fightsW2
And ever and anon with host to hostF
Shocks and the splintering spear the hard mail hewnG3
Shield breakings and the clash of brands the crashH3
Of battleaxes on shattered helms and shrieksW2
After the Christ of those who falling downI3
Looked up for heaven and only saw the mistF3
And shouts of heathen and the traitor knightsW2
Oaths insults filth and monstrous blasphemiesW2
Sweat writhings anguish labouring of the lungsW2
In that close mist and cryings for the lightA2
Moans of the dying and voices of the deadJ3
-
Last as by some one deathbed after wailI2
Of suffering silence follows or through deathW
Or deathlike swoon thus over all that shoreA
Save for some whisper of the seething seasW2
A dead hush fell but when the dolorous dayB2
Grew drearier toward twilight falling cameK3
A bitter wind clear from the North and blewA
The mist aside and with that wind the tideL3
Rose and the pale King glanced across the fieldM2
Of battle but no man was moving thereA
Nor any cry of Christian heard thereonM3
Nor yet of heathen only the wan waveN3
Brake in among dead faces to and froA
Swaying the helpless hands and up and downI3
Tumbling the hollow helmets of the fallenA3
And shivered brands that once had fought with RomeR2
And rolling far along the gloomy shoresW2
The voice of days of old and days to beW2
-
Then spake King Arthur to Sir BedivereA
And whiter than the mist that all day longO3
Had held the field of battle was the KingG
-
'Hearest thou this great voice that shakes the worldL
And wastes the narrow realm whereon we moveP3
And beats upon the faces of the deadJ3
My dead as though they had not died for meW2
O Bedivere for on my heart hath fallenA3
Confusion till I know not what I amQ3
Nor whence I am nor whether I be KingG
Behold I seem but King among the dead '-
-
Then spake the bold Sir Bedivere 'My KingG
King everywhere and so the dead have kingsW2
There also will I worship thee as KingG
Yet still thy life is whole and still I liveR3
Who love thee but who hates thee he that broughtE3
The heathen back among us yonder standsW2
Modred unharmed the traitor of thine house '-
-
Then spake the King 'My house hath been my doomS3
But call not thou this traitor of my houseW2
Who hath but dwelt beneath one roof with meW2
My house are rather they who sware my vowsW2
Yea even while they brake them owned me KingG
And well for thee saying in my dark hourA
When all the purport of my throne hath failedT3
That quick or dead thou holdest me for KingG
King am I whatsoever be their cryA
And one last act of kinghood shalt thou seeW2
Yet ere I pass ' And uttering this the KingG
Made at the man then Modred smote his liegeU3
Hard on that helm which many a heathen swordV3
Had beaten thin while Arthur at one blowA
Striking the last stroke with ExcaliburA
Slew him and all but slain himself he fellD3
-
So all day long the noise of battle rolledC3
Among the mountains by the winter seaW2
Until King Arthur's Table man by manP2
Had fallen in Lyonnesse about their lordV3
King Arthur Then because his wound was deepW3
The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted himP
And bore him to a chapel nigh the fieldM2
A broken chancel with a broken crossW2
That stood on a dark strait of barren landX3
On one sW2

Alfred Lord Tennyson



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