The Princess (part Ii) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNKOP QRSTUVWXYV ZA2A2B2A2 ZA2C2ZZD2E2ZA2C2ZZF2 G2H2FI2J2 K2C2MA2ME2ZZPC2ZA2A2 PL2ZE2M2N2O2A2P2Q2ZB 2ZPFHL2R2 ZZE2S2T2F2ZZZZU2ZZA2 V2 E2 ZW2ZE2X2ZD2 Y2ZE2Z2A3A2B3CA2Y2ZA 2ZJ2A2ZZZC3ZZZZD3E2E 3BL2A2ZF3G3H3E2KA2FZ L2I3E2I3FZZE2ZA2FJ3Z F3C3ZFK3L3 ZA2E2ZM3ZZMZA2 A2Z Y2A2N3 ZO3I2ZF3P3ZQ3E2 E2 E2H3R3FS3 E2S3FT3J2Z FE2J3A2FA2I2U3ZV3B ZE2I2O3W3I2KZ N3X3I2BO3ZZBE2 A2A2Z FE2ZZE3X3FF A2E2I2Y3ZZZZ3 E2Z KA2ZKA2FA2A4B2ZBFZE3 KZE2 A2ZZB4ZE2ZC4I2Z ZY2P2A2J3N2KM3 D4ZY2E2KZE3ZM FBA2N3ZZ BE2ZE4FN2ZKF4G4 ZZ3 E2H4BY2A2BZY2I3FZ ZZFZZZZLZZYE2ZZYY2A2 KZZY2FZE2YE2Y2 K ZZ ZYN3KE2YYYFA2A2BO3YZ A2I2FKA2ZZYZK3E2FYFO 3A2ZZYYY2A2K ZKZFZYYE2YZ2KFYE2YE2 ZY2YFE2ZZI2I4ZKE2YKA 2YA2A2YA2YYZKYZZYE2Z FA2FA2FFA2Y ZE2ZE2ZZE2J4

At 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 ruin all '	-
'No plot no plot ' he answered 'Wretched boy	A2
How saw you not the inscription on the gate	Z
LET NO MAN ENTER IN ON PAIN OF DEATH '	-
'And if I had ' he answered 'who could think	Y2
The softer Adams of your Academe	A2
O sister Sirens though they be were such	N3
As chanted on the blanching bones of men '	-
'But you will find it otherwise' she said	Z
'You jest ill jesting with edge tools my vow	O3
Binds me to speak and O that iron will	I2
That axelike edge unturnable our Head	Z
The Princess ' 'Well then Psyche take my life	F3
And nail me like a weasel on a grange	P3
For warning bury me beside the gate	Z
And cut this epitaph above my bones	Q3
Here lies a brother by a sister slain	E2
All for the common good of womankind '	-
'Let me die too ' said Cyril 'having seen	E2
And heard the Lady Psyche '	-
I struck in	E2
'Albeit so masked Madam I love the truth	H3
Receive it and in me behold the Prince	R3
Your countryman affianced years ago	F
To the Lady Ida here for here she was	S3
And thus what other way was left I came '	-
'O Sir O Prince I have no country none	E2
If any this but none Whate'er I was	S3
Disrooted what I am is grafted here	F
Affianced Sir love whispers may not breathe	T3
Within this vestal limit and how should I	J2
Who am not mine say live the thunderbolt	Z
Hangs silent but prepare I speak it falls '	-
'Yet pause ' I said 'for that inscription there	F
I think no more of deadly lurks therein	E2
Than in a clapper clapping in a garth	J3
To scare the fowl from fruit if more there be	A2
If more and acted on what follows war	F
Your own work marred for this your Academe	A2
Whichever side be Victor in the halloo	I2
Will topple to the trumpet down and pass	U3
With all fair theories only made to gild	Z
A stormless summer ' 'Let the Princess judge	V3
Of that' she said 'farewell Sir and to you	B
I shudder at the sequel but I go '	-
	-
'Are you that Lady Psyche ' I rejoined	Z
'The fifth in line from that old Florian	E2
Yet hangs his portrait in my father's hall	I2
The gaunt old Baron with his beetle brow	O3
Sun shaded in the heat of dusty fights	W3
As he bestrode my Grandsire when he fell	I2
And all else fled we point to it and we say	K
The loyal warmth of Florian is not cold	Z
But branches current yet in kindred veins '	-
'Are you that Psyche ' Florian added 'she	N3
With whom I sang about the morning hills	X3
Flung ball flew kite and raced the purple fly	I2
And snared the squirrel of the glen are you	B
That Psyche wont to bind my throbbing brow	O3
To smoothe my pillow mix the foaming draught	Z
Of fever tell me pleasant tales and read	Z
My sickness down to happy dreams are you	B
That brother sister Psyche both in one	E2
You were that Psyche but what are you now '	-
'You are that Psyche ' said Cyril 'for whom	A2
I would be that for ever which I seem	A2
Woman if I might sit beside your feet	Z
And glean your scattered sapience '	-
Then once more	F
'Are you that Lady Psyche ' I began	E2
'That on her bridal morn before she past	Z
From all her old companions when the kind	Z
Kissed her pale cheek declared that ancient ties	E3
Would still be dear beyond the southern hills	X3
That were there any of our people there	F
In want or peril there was one to hear	F
And help them look for such are these and I '	-
'Are you that Psyche ' Florian asked 'to whom	A2
In gentler days your arrow wounded fawn	E2
Came flying while you sat beside the well	I2
The creature laid his muzzle on your lap	Y3
And sobbed and you sobbed with it and the blood	Z
Was sprinkled on your kirtle and you wept	Z
That was fawn's blood not brother's yet you wept	Z
O by the bright head of my little niece	Z3
You were that Psyche and what are you now '	-
'You are that Psyche ' Cyril said again	E2
'The mother of the sweetest little maid	Z
That ever crowed for kisses '	-
'Out upon it '	-
She answered 'peace and why should I not play	K
The Spartan Mother with emotion be	A2
The Lucius Junius Brutus of my kind	Z
Him you call great he for the common weal	K
The fading politics of mortal Rome	A2
As I might slay this child if good need were	F
Slew both his sons and I shall I on whom	A2
The secular emancipation turns	A4
Of half this world be swerved from right to save	B2
A prince a brother a little will I yield	Z
Best so perchance for us and well for you	B
O hard when love and duty clash I fear	F
My conscience will not count me fleckless yet	Z
Hear my conditions promise otherwise	E3
You perish as you came to slip away	K
Today tomorrow soon it shall be said	Z
These women were too barbarous would not learn	E2
They fled who might have shamed us promise all '	-
	-
What could we else we promised each and she	A2
Like some wild creature newly caged commenced	Z
A to and fro so pacing till she paused	Z
By Florian holding out her lily arms	B4
Took both his hands and smiling faintly said	Z
'I knew you at the first though you have grown	E2
You scarce have altered I am sad and glad	Z
To see you Florian I give thee to death	C4
My brother it was duty spoke not I	I2
My needful seeming harshness pardon it	Z
Our mother is she well '	-
With that she kissed	Z
His forehead then a moment after clung	Y2
About him and betwixt them blossomed up	P2
From out a common vein of memory	A2
Sweet household talk and phrases of the hearth	J3
And far allusion till the gracious dews	N2
Began to glisten and to fall and while	K
They stood so rapt we gazing came a voice	M3
'I brought a message here from Lady Blanche '	-
Back started she and turning round we saw	D4
The Lady Blanche's daughter where she stood	Z
Melissa with her hand upon the lock	Y2
A rosy blonde and in a college gown	E2
That clad her like an April daffodilly	K
Her mother's colour with her lips apart	Z
And all her thoughts as fair within her eyes	E3
As bottom agates seen to wave and float	Z
In crystal currents of clear morning seas	M
	-
So stood that same fair creature at the door	F
Then Lady Psyche 'Ah Melissa you	B
You heard us ' and Melissa 'O pardon me	A2
I heard I could not help it did not wish	N3
But dearest Lady pray you fear me not	Z
Nor think I bear that heart within my breast	Z
To give three gallant gentlemen to death '	-
'I trust you ' said the other 'for we two	B
Were always friends none closer elm and vine	E2
But yet your mother's jealous temperament	Z
Let not your prudence dearest drowse or prove	E4
The Dana d of a leaky vase for fear	F
This whole foundation ruin and I lose	N2
My honour these their lives ' 'Ah fear me not'	Z
Replied Melissa 'no I would not tell	K
No not for all Aspasia's cleverness	F4
No not to answer Madam all those hard things	G4
That Sheba came to ask of Solomon '	-
'Be it so' the other 'that we still may lead	Z
The new light up and culminate in peace	Z3
For Solomon may come to Sheba yet '	-
Said Cyril 'Madam he the wisest man	E2
Feasted the woman wisest then in halls	H4
Of Lebanonian cedar nor should you	B
Though Madam you should answer we would ask	Y2
Less welcome find among us if you came	A2
Among us debtors for our lives to you	B
Myself for something more ' He said not what	Z
But 'Thanks ' she answered 'Go we have been too long	Y2
Together keep your hoods about the face	I3
They do so that affect abstraction here	F
Speak little mix not with the rest and hold	Z
Your promise all I trust may yet be well '	-
	-
We turned to go but Cyril took the child	Z
And held her round the knees against his waist	Z
And blew the swollen cheek of a trumpeter	F
While Psyche watched them smiling and the child	Z
Pushed her flat hand against his face and laughed	Z
And thus our conference closed	Z
And then we strolled	Z
For half the day through stately theatres	L
Benched crescent wise In each we sat we heard	Z
The grave Professor On the lecture slate	Z
The circle rounded under female hands	Y
With flawless demonstration followed then	E2
A classic lecture rich in sentiment	Z
With scraps of thunderous Epic lilted out	Z
By violet hooded Doctors elegies	Y
And quoted odes and jewels five words long	Y2
That on the stretched forefinger of all Time	A2
Sparkle for ever then we dipt in all	K
That treats of whatsoever is the state	Z
The total chronicles of man the mind	Z
The morals something of the frame the rock	Y2
The star the bird the fish the shell the flower	F
Electric chemic laws and all the rest	Z
And whatsoever can be taught and known	E2
Till like three horses that have broken fence	Y
And glutted all night long breast deep in corn	E2
We issued gorged with knowledge and I spoke	Y2
'Why Sirs they do all this as well as we '	-
'They hunt old trails' said Cyril 'very well	K
But when did woman ever yet invent '	-
'Ungracious ' answered Florian 'have you learnt	Z
No more from Psyche's lecture you that talked	Z
The trash that made me sick and almost sad '	-
'O trash' he said 'but with a kernel in it	Z
Should I not call her wise who made me wise	Y
And learnt I learnt more from her in a flash	N3
Than in my brainpan were an empty hull	K
And every Muse tumbled a science in	E2
A thousand hearts lie fallow in these halls	Y
And round these halls a thousand baby loves	Y
Fly twanging headless arrows at the hearts	Y
Whence follows many a vacant pang but O	F
With me Sir entered in the bigger boy	A2
The Head of all the golden shafted firm	A2
The long limbed lad that had a Psyche too	B
He cleft me through the stomacher and now	O3
What think you of it Florian do I chase	Y
The substance or the shadow will it hold	Z
I have no sorcerer's malison on me	A2
No ghostly hauntings like his Highness I	I2
Flatter myself that always everywhere	F
I know the substance when I see it Well	K
Are castles shadows Three of them Is she	A2
The sweet proprietress a shadow If not	Z
Shall those three castles patch my tattered coat	Z
For dear are those three castles to my wants	Y
And dear is sister Psyche to my heart	Z
And two dear things are one of double worth	K3
And much I might have said but that my zone	E2
Unmanned me then the Doctors O to hear	F
The Doctors O to watch the thirsty plants	Y
Imbibing once or twice I thought to roar	F
To break my chain to shake my mane but thou	O3
Modulate me Soul of mincing mimicry	A2
Make liquid treble of that bassoon my throat	Z
Abase those eyes that ever loved to meet	Z
Star sisters answering under crescent brows	Y
Abate the stride which speaks of man and loose	Y
A flying charm of blushes o'er this cheek	Y2
Where they like swallows coming out of time	A2
Will wonder why they came but hark the bell	K
For dinner let us go '	-
And in we streamed	Z
Among the columns pacing staid and still	K
By twos and threes till all from end to end	Z
With beauties every shade of brown and fair	F
In colours gayer than the morning mist	Z
The long hall glittered like a bed of flowers	Y
How might a man not wander from his wits	Y
Pierced through with eyes but that I kept mine own	E2
Intent on her who rapt in glorious dreams	Y
The second sight of some Astr an age	Z2
Sat compassed with professors they the while	K
Discussed a doubt and tost it to and fro	F
A clamour thickened mixt with inmost terms	Y
Of art and science Lady Blanche alone	E2
Of faded form and haughtiest lineaments	Y
With all her autumn tresses falsely brown	E2
Shot sidelong daggers at us a tiger cat	Z
In act to spring	Y2
At last a solemn grace	Y
Concluded and we sought the gardens there	F
One walked reciting by herself and one	E2
In this hand held a volume as to read	Z
And smoothed a petted peacock down with that	Z
Some to a low song oared a shallop by	I2
Or under arches of the marble bridge	I4
Hung shadowed from the heat some hid and sought	Z
In the orange thickets others tost a ball	K
Above the fountain jets and back again	E2
With laughter others lay about the lawns	Y
Of the older sort and murmured that their May	K
Was passing what was learning unto them	A2
They wished to marry they could rule a house	Y
Men hated learned women but we three	A2
Sat muffled like the Fates and often came	A2
Melissa hitting all we saw with shafts	Y
Of gentle satire kin to charity	A2
That harmed not then day droopt the chapel bells	Y
Called us we left the walks we mixt with those	Y
Six hundred maidens clad in purest white	Z
Before two streams of light from wall to wall	K
While the great organ almost burst his pipes	Y
Groaning for power and rolling through the court	Z
A long melodious thunder to the sound	Z
Of solemn psalms and silver litanies	Y
The work of Ida to call down from Heaven	E2
A blessing on her labours for the world	Z
	-
	-
Sweet and low sweet and low	F
Wind of the western sea	A2
Low low breathe and blow	F
Wind of the western sea	A2
Over the rolling waters go	F
Come from the dying moon and blow	F
Blow him again to me	A2
While my little one while my pretty one sleeps	Y
	-
Sleep and rest sleep and rest	Z
Father will come to thee soon	E2
Rest rest on mother's breast	Z
Father will come to thee soon	E2
Father will come to his babe in the nest	Z
Silver sails all out of the west	Z
Under the silver moon	E2
Sleep my little one sleep my pretty one sleep	J4

Alfred Lord Tennyson

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