Prologue To Doctor Faustus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK LLMMNNOOPPFQRROOAASS TTUUVVWW| Light as when dawn takes wing and smites the sea | A |
| Smote England when his day bade Marlowe be | A |
| No fire so keen had thrilled the clouds of time | B |
| Since Dante's breath made Italy sublime | B |
| Earth bright with flowers whose dew shone soft as tears | C |
| Through Chaucer cast her charm on eyes and ears | D |
| The lustrous laughter of the love lit earth | E |
| Rang leapt and lightened in his might of mirth | E |
| Deep moonlight hallowing all the breathless air | F |
| Made earth and heaven for Spenser faint and fair | F |
| But song might bid not heaven and earth be one | G |
| Till Marlowe's voice gave warning of the sun | G |
| Thought quailed and fluttered as a wounded bird | H |
| Till passion fledged the wing of Marlowe's word | H |
| Faith born of fear bade hope and doubt be dumb | I |
| Till Marlowe's pride bade light or darkness come | I |
| Then first our speech was thunder then our song | J |
| Shot lightning through the clouds that wrought us wrong | J |
| Blind fear whose faith feeds hell with fire became | K |
| A moth self shrivelled in its own blind flame | K |
| We heard in tune with even our seas that roll | L |
| The speech of storm the thunders of the soul | L |
| Men's passions clothed with all the woes they wrought | M |
| Shone through the fire of man's transfiguring thought | M |
| The thirst of knowledge quenchless at her springs | N |
| Ambition fire that clasps the thrones of kings | N |
| Love light that makes of life one lustrous hour | O |
| And song the soul's chief crown and throne of power | O |
| The hungering heart of greed and ravenous hate | P |
| Made music high as heaven and deep as fate | P |
| Strange pity scarce half scornful of her tear | F |
| In Berkeley's vaults bowed down on Edward's bier | Q |
| But higher in forceful flight of song than all | R |
| The soul of man its own imperious thrall | R |
| Rose when his royal spirit of fierce desire | O |
| Made life and death for man one flame of fire | O |
| Incarnate man fast bound as earth and sea | A |
| Spake when his pride would fain set Faustus free | A |
| Eternal beauty strong as day and night | S |
| Shone when his word bade Helen back to sight | S |
| Fear when he bowed the soul before her spell | T |
| Thundered and lightened through the vaults of hell | T |
| The music known of all men's tongues that sing | U |
| When Marlowe sang bade love make heaven of spring | U |
| The music none but English tongues may make | V |
| Our own sole song spake first when Marlowe spake | V |
| And on his grave though there no stone may stand | W |
| The flower it shows was laid by Shakespeare's hand | W |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
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