Tiresias Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST GUVWXYZA2B2QIC2D2E2F 2G2H2I2EJ2K2L2SM2N2O 2P2Q2R2S2T2KU2V2W2X2 RY2Z2A3B3QC3D3E3F3G3 H3CI3JJ3QK3K3QT2L3M3 RN3O3K3RH3G2P3TQ3J3R 3D3S3T3G3U3V3W3X3Y3Z 3A4B4SHC4RU2O2SD4BSR E4F4G4G4QY2IH4I4J4K3 SSK4L4SD4RIWH4E3M4JH 3RSHN4O4BP4SQ4E4G4SB R4Y2S4T4U4V4W4X4WSIY 4Z4SB4C4RSSU3SSSJLE3 HM3 M3SM3SFFSSB4SQ3SQ3H4 RH4RG3SG3SU2U2I wish I were as in the years of old | A |
While yet the blessed daylight made itself | B |
Ruddy thro' both the roofs of sight and woke | C |
These eyes now dull but then so keen to seek | D |
The meanings ambush'd under all they saw | E |
The flight of birds the flame of sacrifice | F |
What omens may foreshadow fate to man | G |
And woman and the secret of the Gods | H |
My son the Gods despite of human prayer | I |
Are slower to forgive than human kings | J |
The great God Ar s burns in anger still | K |
Against the guiltless heirs of him from Tyre | L |
Our Cadmus out of whom thou art who found | M |
Beside the springs of Dirc smote and still'd | N |
Thro' all its folds the multitudinous beast | O |
The dragon which our trembling fathers call'd | P |
The God's own son | Q |
A tale that told to me | R |
When but thine age by age as winter white | S |
As mine is now amazed but made me yearn | T |
For larger glimpses of that more than man | G |
Which rolls the heavens and lifts and lays the deep | U |
Yet loves and hates with mortal hates and loves | V |
And moves unseen among the ways of men | W |
Then in my wanderings all the lands that lie | X |
Subjected to the Heliconian ridge | Y |
Have heard this footstep fall altho' my wont | Z |
Was more to scale the highest of the heights | A2 |
With some strange hope to see the nearer God | B2 |
One naked peak the sister of the Sun | Q |
Would climb from out the dark and linger there | I |
To silver all the valleys with her shafts | C2 |
There once but long ago five fold thy term | D2 |
Of years I lay the winds were dead for heat | E2 |
The noonday crag made the hand burn and sick | F2 |
For shadow not one bush was near I rose | G2 |
Following a torrent till its myriad falls | H2 |
Found silence in the hollows underneath | I2 |
There in a secret olive glade I saw | E |
Pallas Athene climbing from the bath | J2 |
In anger yet one glittering foot disturb'd | K2 |
The lucid well one snowy knee was prest | L2 |
Against the margin flowers a dreadful light | S |
Came from her golden hair her golden helm | M2 |
And all her golden armor on the grass | N2 |
And from her virgin breast and virgin eyes | O2 |
Remaining fixt on mine till mine grew dark | P2 |
For ever and I heard a voice that said | Q2 |
Henceforth be blind for thou hast seen too much | R2 |
And speak the truth that no man may believe | S2 |
Son in the hidden world of sight that lives | T2 |
Behind this darkness I behold her still | K |
Beyond all work of those who carve the stone | U2 |
Beyond all dreams of Godlike womanhood | V2 |
Ineffable beauty out of whom at a glance | W2 |
And as it were perforce upon me flash'd | X2 |
The power of prophesying but to me | R |
No power so chain'd and coupled with the curse | Y2 |
Of blindness and their unbelief who heard | Z2 |
And heard not when I spake of famine plague | A3 |
Shrine shattering earthquake fire flood thunderbolt | B3 |
And angers of the Gods for evil done | Q |
And expiation lack'd no power on Fate | C3 |
Theirs or mine own for when the crowd would roar | D3 |
For blood for war whose issue was their doom | E3 |
To cast wise words among the multitude | F3 |
Was flinging fruit to lions nor in hours | G3 |
Of civil outbreak when I knew the twain | H3 |
Would each waste each and bring on both the yoke | C |
Of stronger states was mine the voice to curb | I3 |
The madness of our cities and their kings | J |
Who ever turn'd upon his heel to hear | J3 |
My warning that the tyranny of one | Q |
Was prelude to the tyranny of all | K3 |
My counsel that the tyranny of all | K3 |
Led backward to the tyranny of one | Q |
This power hath work'd no good to aught that lives | T2 |
And these blind hands were useless in their wars | L3 |
O therefore that the unfulfill'd desire | M3 |
The grief for ever born from griefs to be | R |
The boundless yearning of the prophet's heart | N3 |
Could that stand forth and like a statue rear'd | O3 |
To some great citizen win all praise from all | K3 |
Who past it saying That was he | R |
In vain | H3 |
Virtue must shape itself in deed and those | G2 |
Whom weakness or necessity have cramp'd | P3 |
Within themselves immerging each his urn | T |
In his own well draws solace as he may | Q3 |
Menoeceus thou hast eyes and I can hear | J3 |
Too plainly what full tides of onset sap | R3 |
Our seven high gates and what a weight of war | D3 |
Rides on those ringing axles jingle of bits | S3 |
Shouts arrows tramp of the horn footed horse | T3 |
That grind the glebe to powder Stony showers | G3 |
Of that ear stunning hail of Ar s crash | U3 |
Along the sounding walls Above below | V3 |
Shock after shock the song built towers and gates | W3 |
Reel bruised and butted with the shuddering | X3 |
War thunder of iron rams and from within | Y3 |
The city comes a murmur void of joy | Z3 |
Lest she be taken captive maidens wives | A4 |
And mothers with their babblers of the dawn | B4 |
And oldest age in shadow from the night | S |
Falling about their shrines before their Gods | H |
And wailing Save us | C4 |
And they wail to thee | R |
These eyeless eyes that cannot see thine own | U2 |
See this that only in thy virtue lies | O2 |
The saving of our Thebes for yesternight | S |
To me the great God Ar s whose one bliss | D4 |
Is war and human sacrifice himself | B |
Blood red from battle spear and helmet tipt | S |
With stormy light as on a mast at sea | R |
Stood out before a darkness crying Thebes | E4 |
Thy Thebes shall fall and perish for I loathe | F4 |
The seed of Cadmus yet if one of these | G4 |
By his own hand if one of these | G4 |
My son | Q |
No sound is breathed so potent to coerce | Y2 |
And to conciliate as their names who dare | I |
For that sweet mother land which gave them birth | H4 |
Nobly to do nobly to die Their names | I4 |
Graven on memorial columns are a song | J4 |
Heard in the future few but more than wall | K3 |
And rampart their examples reach a hand | S |
Far thro' all years and everywhere they meet | S |
And kindle generous purpose and the strength | K4 |
To mould it into action pure as theirs | L4 |
Fairer thy fate than mine if life's best end | S |
Be to end well and thou refusing this | D4 |
Unvenerable will thy memory be | R |
While men shall move the lips but if thou dare | I |
Thou one of these the race of Cadmus then | W |
No stone is fitted in yon marble girth | H4 |
Whose echo shall not tongue thy glorious doom | E3 |
Nor in this pavement but shall ring thy name | M4 |
To every hoof that clangs it and the springs | J |
Of Dirc laving yonder battle plain | H3 |
Heard from the roofs by night will murmur thee | R |
To thine own Thebes while Thebes thro' thee shall stand | S |
Firm based with all her Gods | H |
The Dragon's cave | N4 |
Half hid they tell me now in flowing vines | O4 |
Where once he dwelt and whence he roll'd himself | B |
At dead of night thou knowest and that smooth rock | P4 |
Before it altar fashion'd where of late | S |
The woman breasted Sphinx with wings drawn back | Q4 |
Folded her lion paws and look'd to Thebes | E4 |
There blanch the bones of whom she slew and these | G4 |
Mixt with her own because the fierce beast found | S |
A wiser than herself and dash'd herself | B |
Dead in her rage but thou art wise enough | R4 |
Tho' young to love thy wiser blunt the curse | Y2 |
Of Pallas bear and tho' I speak the truth | S4 |
Believe I speak it let thine own hand strike | T4 |
Thy youthful pulses into rest and quench | U4 |
The red God's anger fearing not to plunge | V4 |
Thy torch of life in darkness rather thou | W4 |
Rejoicing that the sun the moon the stars | X4 |
Send no such light upon the ways of men | W |
As one great deed | S |
Thither my son and there | I |
Thou that hast never known the embrace of love | Y4 |
Offer thy maiden life | Z4 |
This useless hand | S |
I felt one warm tear fall upon it Gone | B4 |
He will achieve his greatness | C4 |
But for me | R |
I would that I were gather'd to my rest | S |
And mingled with the famous kings of old | S |
On whom about their ocean islets flash | U3 |
The faces of the Gods the wise man's word | S |
Here trampled by the populace underfoot | S |
There crown'd with worship and these eyes will find | S |
The men I knew and watch the chariot whirl | |
About the goal again and hunters race | |
The shadowy lion and the warrior kings | J |
In height and prowess more than human strive | |
Again for glory while the golden lyre | L |
Is ever sounding in heroic ears | |
Heroic hymns and every way the vales | |
Wind clouded with the grateful incense fume | E3 |
Of those who mix all odor to the Gods | H |
On one far height in one far shining fire | M3 |
- | |
One height and one far shining fire | M3 |
And while I fancied that my friend | S |
For this brief idyll would require | M3 |
A less diffuse and opulent end | S |
And would defend his judgment well | |
If I should deem it over nice | F |
The tolling of his funeral bell | |
Broke on my Pagan Paradise | F |
And mixt the dream of classic times | |
And all the phantoms of the dream | |
With present grief and made the rhymes | |
That miss'd his living welcome seem | |
Like would be guests an hour too late | S |
Who down the highway moving on | |
With easy laughter find the gate | S |
Is bolted and the master gone | B4 |
Gone onto darkness that full light | S |
Of friendship past in sleep away | Q3 |
By night into the deeper night | S |
The deeper night A clearer day | Q3 |
Than our poor twilight dawn on earth | H4 |
If night what barren toil to be | R |
What life so maim'd by night were worth | H4 |
Our living out Not mine to me | R |
Remembering all the golden hours | G3 |
Now silent and so many dead | S |
And him the last and laying flowers | G3 |
This wreath above his honour'd head | S |
And praying that when I from hence | |
Shall fade with him into the unknown | U2 |
My close of earth's experience | |
May prove as peaceful as his own | U2 |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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