The Princess (part 7) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLM NIOPQRSTUVFQEWIX YCZPQCA2B2FC2 OD2C2E2F2G2QH2I2QJ2K 2L2M2QQ N2QO2IP2Q2A2R2S2G2T2 U2V2 W2X2QIY2Z2A3 B3C3D3E3QF3A3G3R2CEH 3I3J3K3SL3M3L2N3O3E3 P3J2Q3R3S3A2 T3UU3V3W3X3Y3Z3R2B3V 3V3A4V3 V3VB4C4D4FQE4F4QG4Z2 N3S3B4N3U V3V3QA4CT3H4V3V3Z2I4 J4IL2A3V3K4L4QM4N4C2 O4FE2 UP4Q4A3 R4A3 V3A3 V3A3 P3M2S4 Z2E2 T4So was their sanctuary violated | A |
So their fair college turned to hospital | B |
At first with all confusion by and by | C |
Sweet order lived again with other laws | D |
A kindlier influence reigned and everywhere | E |
Low voices with the ministering hand | F |
Hung round the sick the maidens came they talked | G |
They sang they read till she not fair began | H |
To gather light and she that was became | I |
Her former beauty treble and to and fro | J |
With books with flowers with Angel offices | K |
Like creatures native unto gracious act | L |
And in their own clear element they moved | M |
- | |
But sadness on the soul of Ida fell | N |
And hatred of her weakness blent with shame | I |
Old studies failed seldom she spoke but oft | O |
Clomb to the roofs and gazed alone for hours | P |
On that disastrous leaguer swarms of men | Q |
Darkening her female field void was her use | R |
And she as one that climbs a peak to gaze | S |
O'er land and main and sees a great black cloud | T |
Drag inward from the deeps a wall of night | U |
Blot out the slope of sea from verge to shore | V |
And suck the blinding splendour from the sand | F |
And quenching lake by lake and tarn by tarn | Q |
Expunge the world so fared she gazing there | E |
So blackened all her world in secret blank | W |
And waste it seemed and vain till down she came | I |
And found fair peace once more among the sick | X |
- | |
And twilight dawned and morn by morn the lark | Y |
Shot up and shrilled in flickering gyres but I | C |
Lay silent in the muffled cage of life | Z |
And twilight gloomed and broader grown the bowers | P |
Drew the great night into themselves and Heaven | Q |
Star after Star arose and fell but I | C |
Deeper than those weird doubts could reach me lay | A2 |
Quite sundered from the moving Universe | B2 |
Nor knew what eye was on me nor the hand | F |
That nursed me more than infants in their sleep | C2 |
- | |
But Psyche tended Florian with her oft | O |
Melissa came for Blanche had gone but left | D2 |
Her child among us willing she should keep | C2 |
Court favour here and there the small bright head | E2 |
A light of healing glanced about the couch | F2 |
Or through the parted silks the tender face | G2 |
Peeped shining in upon the wounded man | Q |
With blush and smile a medicine in themselves | H2 |
To wile the length from languorous hours and draw | I2 |
The sting from pain nor seemed it strange that soon | Q |
He rose up whole and those fair charities | J2 |
Joined at her side nor stranger seemed that hears | K2 |
So gentle so employed should close in love | L2 |
Than when two dewdrops on the petals shake | M2 |
To the same sweet air and tremble deeper down | Q |
And slip at once all fragrant into one | Q |
- | |
Less prosperously the second suit obtained | N2 |
At first with Psyche Not though Blanche had sworn | Q |
That after that dark night among the fields | O2 |
She needs must wed him for her own good name | I |
Not though he built upon the babe restored | P2 |
Nor though she liked him yielded she but feared | Q2 |
To incense the Head once more till on a day | A2 |
When Cyril pleaded Ida came behind | R2 |
Seen but of Psyche on her foot she hung | S2 |
A moment and she heard at which her face | G2 |
A little flushed and she past on but each | T2 |
Assumed from thence a half consent involved | U2 |
In stillness plighted troth and were at peace | V2 |
- | |
Nor only these Love in the sacred halls | W2 |
Held carnival at will and flying struck | X2 |
With showers of random sweet on maid and man | Q |
Nor did her father cease to press my claim | I |
Nor did mine own now reconciled nor yet | Y2 |
Did those twin brothers risen again and whole | Z2 |
Nor Arac satiate with his victory | A3 |
- | |
But I lay still and with me oft she sat | B3 |
Then came a change for sometimes I would catch | C3 |
Her hand in wild delirium gripe it hard | D3 |
And fling it like a viper off and shriek | E3 |
'You are not Ida ' clasp it once again | Q |
And call her Ida though I knew her not | F3 |
And call her sweet as if in irony | A3 |
And call her hard and cold which seemed a truth | G3 |
And still she feared that I should lose my mind | R2 |
And often she believed that I should die | C |
Till out of long frustration of her care | E |
And pensive tendance in the all weary noons | H3 |
And watches in the dead the dark when clocks | I3 |
Throbbed thunder through the palace floors or called | J3 |
On flying Time from all their silver tongues | K3 |
And out of memories of her kindlier days | S |
And sidelong glances at my father's grief | L3 |
And at the happy lovers heart in heart | M3 |
And out of hauntings of my spoken love | L2 |
And lonely listenings to my muttered dream | N3 |
And often feeling of the helpless hands | O3 |
And wordless broodings on the wasted cheek | E3 |
From all a closer interest flourished up | P3 |
Tenderness touch by touch and last to these | J2 |
Love like an Alpine harebell hung with tears | Q3 |
By some cold morning glacier frail at first | R3 |
And feeble all unconscious of itself | S3 |
But such as gathered colour day by day | A2 |
- | |
Last I woke sane but well nigh close to death | T3 |
For weakness it was evening silent light | U |
Slept on the painted walls wherein were wrought | U3 |
Two grand designs for on one side arose | V3 |
The women up in wild revolt and stormed | W3 |
At the Oppian Law Titanic shapes they crammed | X3 |
The forum and half crushed among the rest | Y3 |
A dwarf like Cato cowered On the other side | Z3 |
Hortensia spoke against the tax behind | R2 |
A train of dames by axe and eagle sat | B3 |
With all their foreheads drawn in Roman scowls | V3 |
And half the wolf's milk curdled in their veins | V3 |
The fierce triumvirs and before them paused | A4 |
Hortensia pleading angry was her face | V3 |
- | |
I saw the forms I knew not where I was | V3 |
They did but look like hollow shows nor more | V |
Sweet Ida palm to palm she sat the dew | B4 |
Dwelt in her eyes and softer all her shape | C4 |
And rounder seemed I moved I sighed a touch | D4 |
Came round my wrist and tears upon my hand | F |
Then all for languor and self pity ran | Q |
Mine down my face and with what life I had | E4 |
And like a flower that cannot all unfold | F4 |
So drenched it is with tempest to the sun | Q |
Yet as it may turns toward him I on her | G4 |
Fixt my faint eyes and uttered whisperingly | Z2 |
- | |
'If you be what I think you some sweet dream | N3 |
I would but ask you to fulfil yourself | S3 |
But if you be that Ida whom I knew | B4 |
I ask you nothing only if a dream | N3 |
Sweet dream be perfect I shall die tonight | U |
Stoop down and seem to kiss me ere I die ' | - |
- | |
I could no more but lay like one in trance | V3 |
That hears his burial talked of by his friends | V3 |
And cannot speak nor move nor make one sign | Q |
But lies and dreads his doom She turned she paused | A4 |
She stooped and out of languor leapt a cry | C |
Leapt fiery Passion from the brinks of death | T3 |
And I believed that in the living world | H4 |
My spirit closed with Ida's at the lips | V3 |
Till back I fell and from mine arms she rose | V3 |
Glowing all over noble shame and all | Z2 |
Her falser self slipt from her like a robe | I4 |
And left her woman lovelier in her mood | J4 |
Than in her mould that other when she came | I |
From barren deeps to conquer all with love | L2 |
And down the streaming crystal dropt and she | A3 |
Far fleeted by the purple island sides | V3 |
Naked a double light in air and wave | K4 |
To meet her Graces where they decked her out | L4 |
For worship without end nor end of mine | Q |
Stateliest for thee but mute she glided forth | M4 |
Nor glanced behind her and I sank and slept | N4 |
Filled through and through with Love a happy sleep | C2 |
- | |
Deep in the night I woke she near me held | O4 |
A volume of the Poets of her land | F |
There to herself all in low tones she read | E2 |
- | |
- | |
'Now sleeps the crimson petal now the white | U |
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk | P4 |
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font | Q4 |
The fire fly wakens wake thou with me | A3 |
- | |
Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost | R4 |
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me | A3 |
- | |
Now lies the Earth all Dana to the stars | V3 |
And all thy heart lies open unto me | A3 |
- | |
Now lies the silent meteor on and leaves | V3 |
A shining furrow as thy thoughts in me | A3 |
- | |
Now folds the lily all her sweetness up | P3 |
And slips into the bosom of the lake | M2 |
So fold thyself my dearest thou and slip | S4 |
Into my bosom and be lost in me ' | - |
- | |
- | |
I heard her turn the page she found a small | Z2 |
Sweet Idyl and once more as low she read | E2 |
- | |
- | |
'Come down O maid from | T4 |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Princess (part 7) poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Best Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson