The Princess (part 2) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNKOP QRSTUVWXYV ZA2A2B2A2 ZA2C2ZZD2E2ZA2C2ZZF2 G2H2FI2J2 K2C2MA2ME2ZZPC2ZA2A2 PL2ZE2M2N2O2A2P2Q2ZB 2ZPFHL2R2 ZZE2S2T2F2ZZZZU2ZZA2 V2 E2 ZW2ZE2X2ZD2 Y2ZE2Z2A3A2B3CA2Y2ZA 2ZJ2A2ZZZC3ZZZZD3E2E 3BL2A2ZF3G3H3E2KA2FZ L2I3E2I3FZZE2ZA2FJ3Z F3C3ZFK3L3 ZA2E2ZM3ZZMZA2ZAt break of day the College Portress came | A |
She brought us Academic silks in hue | B |
The lilac with a silken hood to each | C |
And zoned with gold and now when these were on | D |
And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons | E |
She curtseying her obeisance let us know | F |
The Princess Ida waited out we paced | G |
I first and following through the porch that sang | H |
All round with laurel issued in a court | I |
Compact of lucid marbles bossed with lengths | J |
Of classic frieze with ample awnings gay | K |
Betwixt the pillars and with great urns of flowers | L |
The Muses and the Graces grouped in threes | M |
Enringed a billowing fountain in the midst | N |
And here and there on lattice edges lay | K |
Or book or lute but hastily we past | O |
And up a flight of stairs into the hall | P |
- | |
There at a board by tome and paper sat | Q |
With two tame leopards couched beside her throne | R |
All beauty compassed in a female form | S |
The Princess liker to the inhabitant | T |
Of some clear planet close upon the Sun | U |
Than our man's earth such eyes were in her head | V |
And so much grace and power breathing down | W |
From over her arched brows with every turn | X |
Lived through her to the tips of her long hands | Y |
And to her feet She rose her height and said | V |
- | |
'We give you welcome not without redound | Z |
Of use and glory to yourselves ye come | A2 |
The first fruits of the stranger aftertime | A2 |
And that full voice which circles round the grave | B2 |
Will rank you nobly mingled up with me | A2 |
What are the ladies of your land so tall ' | - |
'We of the court' said Cyril 'From the court' | Z |
She answered 'then ye know the Prince ' and he | A2 |
'The climax of his age as though there were | C2 |
One rose in all the world your Highness that | Z |
He worships your ideal ' she replied | Z |
'We scarcely thought in our own hall to hear | D2 |
This barren verbiage current among men | E2 |
Light coin the tinsel clink of compliment | Z |
Your flight from out your bookless wilds would seem | A2 |
As arguing love of knowledge and of power | C2 |
Your language proves you still the child Indeed | Z |
We dream not of him when we set our hand | Z |
To this great work we purposed with ourself | F2 |
Never to wed You likewise will do well | G2 |
Ladies in entering here to cast and fling | H2 |
The tricks which make us toys of men that so | F |
Some future time if so indeed you will | I2 |
You may with those self styled our lords ally | J2 |
Your fortunes justlier balanced scale with scale ' | - |
- | |
At those high words we conscious of ourselves | K2 |
Perused the matting then an officer | C2 |
Rose up and read the statutes such as these | M |
Not for three years to correspond with home | A2 |
Not for three years to cross the liberties | M |
Not for three years to speak with any men | E2 |
And many more which hastily subscribed | Z |
We entered on the boards and 'Now ' she cried | Z |
'Ye are green wood see ye warp not Look our hall | P |
Our statues not of those that men desire | C2 |
Sleek Odalisques or oracles of mode | Z |
Nor stunted squaws of West or East but she | A2 |
That taught the Sabine how to rule and she | A2 |
The foundress of the Babylonian wall | P |
The Carian Artemisia strong in war | L2 |
The Rhodope that built the pyramid | Z |
Clelia Cornelia with the Palmyrene | E2 |
That fought Aurelian and the Roman brows | M2 |
Of Agrippina Dwell with these and lose | N2 |
Convention since to look on noble forms | O2 |
Makes noble through the sensuous organism | A2 |
That which is higher O lift your natures up | P2 |
Embrace our aims work out your freedom Girls | Q2 |
Knowledge is now no more a fountain sealed | Z |
Drink deep until the habits of the slave | B2 |
The sins of emptiness gossip and spite | Z |
And slander die Better not be at all | P |
Than not be noble Leave us you may go | F |
Today the Lady Psyche will harangue | H |
The fresh arrivals of the week before | L2 |
For they press in from all the provinces | R2 |
And fill the hive ' | - |
She spoke and bowing waved | Z |
Dismissal back again we crost the court | Z |
To Lady Psyche's as we entered in | E2 |
There sat along the forms like morning doves | S2 |
That sun their milky bosoms on the thatch | T2 |
A patient range of pupils she herself | F2 |
Erect behind a desk of satin wood | Z |
A quick brunette well moulded falcon eyed | Z |
And on the hither side or so she looked | Z |
Of twenty summers At her left a child | Z |
In shining draperies headed like a star | U2 |
Her maiden babe a double April old | Z |
Agla a slept We sat the Lady glanced | Z |
Then Florian but not livelier than the dame | A2 |
That whispered 'Asses' ears' among the sedge | V2 |
'My sister ' 'Comely too by all that's fair ' | - |
Said Cyril 'Oh hush hush ' and she began | E2 |
- | |
'This world was once a fluid haze of light | Z |
Till toward the centre set the starry tides | W2 |
And eddied into suns that wheeling cast | Z |
The planets then the monster then the man | E2 |
Tattooed or woaded winter clad in skins | X2 |
Raw from the prime and crushing down his mate | Z |
As yet we find in barbarous isles and here | D2 |
Among the lowest ' | - |
Thereupon she took | Y2 |
A bird's eye view of all the ungracious past | Z |
Glanced at the legendary Amazon | E2 |
As emblematic of a nobler age | Z2 |
Appraised the Lycian custom spoke of those | A3 |
That lay at wine with Lar and Lucumo | A2 |
Ran down the Persian Grecian Roman lines | B3 |
Of empire and the woman's state in each | C |
How far from just till warming with her theme | A2 |
She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique | Y2 |
And little footed China touched on Mahomet | Z |
With much contempt and came to chivalry | A2 |
When some respect however slight was paid | Z |
To woman superstition all awry | J2 |
However then commenced the dawn a beam | A2 |
Had slanted forward falling in a land | Z |
Of promise fruit would follow Deep indeed | Z |
Their debt of thanks to her who first had dared | Z |
To leap the rotten pales of prejudice | C3 |
Disyoke their necks from custom and assert | Z |
None lordlier than themselves but that which made | Z |
Woman and man She had founded they must build | Z |
Here might they learn whatever men were taught | Z |
Let them not fear some said their heads were less | D3 |
Some men's were small not they the least of men | E2 |
For often fineness compensated size | E3 |
Besides the brain was like the hand and grew | B |
With using thence the man's if more was more | L2 |
He took advantage of his strength to be | A2 |
First in the field some ages had been lost | Z |
But woman ripened earlier and her life | F3 |
Was longer and albeit their glorious names | G3 |
Were fewer scattered stars yet since in truth | H3 |
The highest is the measure of the man | E2 |
And not the Kaffir Hottentot Malay | K |
Nor those horn handed breakers of the glebe | A2 |
But Homer Plato Verulam even so | F |
With woman and in arts of government | Z |
Elizabeth and others arts of war | L2 |
The peasant Joan and others arts of grace | I3 |
Sappho and others vied with any man | E2 |
And last not least she who had left her place | I3 |
And bowed her state to them that they might grow | F |
To use and power on this Oasis lapt | Z |
In the arms of leisure sacred from the blight | Z |
Of ancient influence and scorn | E2 |
At last | Z |
She rose upon a wind of prophecy | A2 |
Dilating on the future 'everywhere | F |
Who heads in council two beside the hearth | J3 |
Two in the tangled business of the world | Z |
Two in the liberal offices of life | F3 |
Two plummets dropt for one to sound the abyss | C3 |
Of science and the secrets of the mind | Z |
Musician painter sculptor critic more | F |
And everywhere the broad and bounteous Earth | K3 |
Should bear a double growth of those rare souls | L3 |
Poets whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world ' | - |
- | |
She ended here and beckoned us the rest | Z |
Parted and glowing full faced welcome she | A2 |
Began to address us and was moving on | E2 |
In gratulation till as when a boat | Z |
Tacks and the slackened sail flaps all her voice | M3 |
Faltering and fluttering in her throat she cried | Z |
'My brother ' 'Well my sister ' 'O ' she said | Z |
'What do you here and in this dress and these | M |
Why who are these a wolf within the fold | Z |
A pack of wolves the Lord be gracious to me | A2 |
A plot a plot a plot to | Z |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(1)
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