The Princess (part I) Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Princess (part I) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

About The Princess (part I)

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A prince I was blue eyed and fair in face	A
Of temper amorous as the first of May	B
With lengths of yellow ringlet like a girl	C
For on my cradle shone the Northern star	D
	-
There lived an ancient legend in our house	E
Some sorcerer whom a far off grandsire burnt	F
Because he cast no shadow had foretold	G
Dying that none of all our blood should know	H
The shadow from the substance and that one	I
Should come to fight with shadows and to fall	J
For so my mother said the story ran	K
And truly waking dreams were more or less	L
An old and strange affection of the house	E
Myself too had weird seizures Heaven knows what	M
On a sudden in the midst of men and day	B
And while I walked and talked as heretofore	N
I seemed to move among a world of ghosts	O
And feel myself the shadow of a dream	P
Our great court Galen poised his gilt head cane	Q
And pawed his beard and muttered 'catalepsy'	O
My mother pitying made a thousand prayers	O
My mother was as mild as any saint	R
Half canonized by all that looked on her	S
So gracious was her tact and tenderness	O
But my good father thought a king a king	T
He cared not for the affection of the house	O
He held his sceptre like a pedant's wand	U
To lash offence and with long arms and hands	O
Reached out and picked offenders from the mass	O
For judgment	V
Now it chanced that I had been	W
While life was yet in bud and blade bethrothed	V
To one a neighbouring Princess she to me	X
Was proxy wedded with a bootless calf	Y
At eight years old and still from time to time	Z
Came murmurs of her beauty from the South	A2
And of her brethren youths of puissance	O
And still I wore her picture by my heart	V
And one dark tress and all around them both	B2
Sweet thoughts would swarm as bees about their queen	C2
	-
But when the days drew nigh that I should wed	V
My father sent ambassadors with furs	O
And jewels gifts to fetch her these brought back	D2
A present a great labour of the loom	E2
And therewithal an answer vague as wind	V
Besides they saw the king he took the gifts	O
He said there was a compact that was true	F2
But then she had a will was he to blame	G2
And maiden fancies loved to live alone	H2
Among her women certain would not wed	V
	-
That morning in the presence room I stood	V
With Cyril and with Florian my two friends	O
The first a gentleman of broken means	O
His father's fault but given to starts and bursts	O
Of revel and the last my other heart	V
And almost my half self for still we moved	V
Together twinned as horse's ear and eye	I2
	-
Now while they spake I saw my father's face	O
Grow long and troubled like a rising moon	J2
Inflamed with wrath he started on his feet	V
Tore the king's letter snowed it down and rent	V
The wonder of the loom through warp and woof	K2
From skirt to skirt and at the last he sware	F2
That he would send a hundred thousand men	L2
And bring her in a whirlwind then he chewed	V
The thrice turned cud of wrath and cooked his spleen	C2
Communing with his captains of the war	F2
	-
At last I spoke 'My father let me go	H
It cannot be but some gross error lies	O
In this report this answer of a king	T
Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable	M2
Or maybe I myself my bride once seen	C2
Whate'er my grief to find her less than fame	G2
May rue the bargain made ' And Florian said	V
'I have a sister at the foreign court	V
Who moves about the Princess she you know	H
Who wedded with a nobleman from thence	O
He dying lately left her as I hear	F2
The lady of three castles in that land	V
Through her this matter might be sifted clean '	-
And Cyril whispered 'Take me with you too '	-
Then laughing 'what if these weird seizures come	N2
Upon you in those lands and no one near	F2
To point you out the shadow from the truth	O2
Take me I'll serve you better in a strait	V
I grate on rusty hinges here ' but 'No '	-
Roared the rough king 'you shall not we ourself	P2
Will crush her pretty maiden fancies dead	V
In iron gauntlets break the council up '	-
	-
But when the council broke I rose and past	V
Through the wild woods that hung about the town	Q2
Found a still place and plucked her likeness out	V
Laid it on flowers and watched it lying bathed	V
In the green gleam of dewy tasselled trees	O
What were those fancies wherefore break her troth	B2
Proud looked the lips but while I meditated	V
A wind arose and rushed upon the South	A2
And shook the songs the whispers and the shrieks	O
Of the wild woods together and a Voice	O
Went with it 'Follow follow thou shalt win '	-
	-
Then ere the silver sickle of that month	R2
Became her golden shield I stole from court	V
With Cyril and with Florian unperceived	V
Cat footed through the town and half in dread	V
To hear my father's clamour at our backs	O
With Ho from some bay window shake the night	V
But all was quiet from the bastioned walls	O
Like threaded spiders one by one we dropt	V
And flying reached the frontier then we crost	V
To a livelier land and so by tilth and grange	S2
And vines and blowing bosks of wilderness	O
We gained the mother city thick with towers	O
And in the imperial palace found the king	T
	-
His name was Gama cracked and small his voice	O
But bland the smile that like a wrinkling wind	V
On glassy water drove his cheek in lines	O
A little dry old man without a star	F2
Not like a king three days he feasted us	O
And on the fourth I spake of why we came	G2
And my bethrothed 'You do us Prince ' he said	V
Airing a snowy hand and signet gem	T2
'All honour We remember love ourselves	O
In our sweet youth there did a compact pass	O
Long summers back a kind of ceremony	X
I think the year in which our olives failed	V
I would you had her Prince with all my heart	V
With my full heart but there were widows here	F2
Two widows Lady Psyche Lady Blanche	U2
They fed her theories in and out of place	O
Maintaining that with equal husbandry	X
The woman were an equal to the man	K
They harped on this with this our banquets rang	V2
Our dances broke and buzzed in knots of talk	W2
Nothing but this my very ears were hot	V
To hear them knowledge so my daughter held	V
Was all in all they had but been she thought	V
As children they must lose the child assume	E2
The woman then Sir awful odes she wrote	V
Too awful sure for what they treated of	X2
But all she is and does is awful odes	O
About this losing of the child and rhymes	O
And dismal lyrics prophesying change	S2
Beyond all reason these the women sang	V2
And they that know such things I sought but peace	O
No critic I would call them masterpieces	O
They mastered me At last she begged a boon	J2
A certain summer palace which I have	Y2
Hard by your father's frontier I said no	H
Yet being an easy man gave it and there	F2
All wild to found an University	X
For maidens on the spur she fled and more	F2
We know not only this they see no men	L2
Not even her brother Arac nor the twins	O
Her brethren though they love her look upon her	F2
As on a kind of paragon and I	I2
Pardon me saying it were much loth to breed	V
Dispute betwixt myself and mine but since	O
And I confess with right you think me bound	V
In some sort I can give you letters to her	F2
And yet to speak the truth I rate your chance	O
Almost at naked nothing '	-
Thus the king	T
And I though nettled that he seemed to slur	F2
With garrulous ease and oily courtesies	O
Our formal compact yet not less all frets	O
But chafing me on fire to find my bride	V
Went forth again with both my friends We rode	V
Many a long league back to the North At last	V
From hills that looked across a land of hope	Z2
We dropt with evening on a rustic town	Q2
Set in a gleaming river's crescent curve	A3
Close at the boundary of the liberties	O
There entered an old hostel called mine host	V
To council plied him with his richest wines	O
And showed the late writ letters of the king	T
	-
He with a long low sibilation stared	V
As blank as death in marble then exclaimed	V
Averring it was clear against all rules	O
For any man to go but as his brain	Q
Began to mellow 'If the king ' he said	V
'Had given us letters was he bound to speak	B3
The king would bear him out ' and at the last	V
The summer of the vine in all his veins	O
'No doubt that we might make it worth his while	C3
She once had past that way he heard her speak	B3
She scared him life he never saw the like	D3
She looked as grand as doomsday and as grave	E3
And he he reverenced his liege lady there	F2
He always made a point to post with mares	O
His daughter and his housemaid were the boys	O
The land he understood for miles about	V
Was tilled by women all the swine were sows	O
And all the dogs'	O
But while he jested thus	O
A thought flashed through me which I clothed in act	V
Remembering how we three presented Maid	V
Or Nymph or Goddess at high tide of feast	V
In masque or pageant at my father's court	V
We sent mine host to purchase female gear	F2
He brought it and himself a sight to shake	F3
The midriff of despair with laughter holp	Z2
To lace us up till each in maiden plumes	O
We rustled him we gave a costly bribe	G3
To guerdon silence mounted our good steeds	O
And boldly ventured on the liberties	O
	-
We followed up the river as we rode	V
And rode till midnight when the college lights	O
Began to glitter firefly like in copse	O
And linden alley then we past an arch	H3
Whereon a woman statue rose with wings	O
From four winged horses dark against the stars	O
And some inscription ran along the front	V
But deep in shadow further on we gained	V
A little street half garden and half house	O
But scarce could hear each other speak for noise	O
Of clocks and chimes like silver hammers falling	T
On silver anvils and the splash and stir	F2
Of fountains spouted up and showering down	Q2
In meshes of the jasmine and the rose	O
And all about us pealed the nightingale	I3
Rapt in her song and careless of the snare	F2
	-
There stood a bust of Pallas for a sign	J3
By two sphere lamps blazoned like Heaven and Earth	K3
With constellation and with continent	V
Above an entry riding in we called	V
A plump armed Ostleress and a stable wench	H3
Came running at the call and helped us down	Q2
Then stept a buxom hostess forth and sailed	V
Full blown before us into rooms which gave	E3
Upon a pillared porch the bases lost	V
In laurel her we asked of that and this	O
And who were tutors 'Lady Blanche' she said	V
'And Lady Psyche ' 'Which was prettiest	V
Best natured ' 'Lady Psyche ' 'Hers are we '	-
One voice we cried and I sat down and wrote	V
In such a hand as when a field of corn	L3
Bows all its ears before the roaring East	V
	-
'Three ladies of the Northern empire pray	F2
Your Highness would enroll them with your own	H2
As Lady Psyche's pupils '	-
This I sealed	V
The seal was Cupid bent above a scroll	M3
And o'er his head Uranian Venus hung	N3
And raised the blinding bandage from his eyes	O
I gave the letter to be sent with dawn	O3
And then to bed where half in doze I seemed	V
To float about a glimmering night and watch	H3
A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight swell	P3
On some dark shore just seen that it was rich	H3
	-
	-
As through the land at eve we went	V
And plucked the ripened ears	O
We fell out my wife and I	I2
O we fell out I know not why	I2
And kissed again with tears	O
And blessings on the falling out	V
That all the more endears	O
When we fall out with those we love	X2
And kiss again with tears	O
For when we came where lies the child	V
We lost in other years	O
There above the little grave	E3
O there above the little grave	E3
We kissed again with tears	O