The Emperor's Progress. - A Study In Three Stages. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCCBBCCBDEFDDG HDDHHDDHIJJIJI KLLMMLLMNHNHNH| On the Busts of Nero in the Uffizj | A |
| - | |
| I | - |
| - | |
| A child of brighter than the morning's birth | B |
| And lovelier than all smiles that may be smiled | C |
| Save only of little children undefiled | C |
| Sweet perfect witless of their own dear worth | B |
| Live rose of love mute melody of mirth | B |
| Glad as a bird is when the woods are mild | C |
| Adorable as is nothing save a child | C |
| Hails with wide eyes and lips his life on earth | B |
| His lovely life with all its heaven to be | D |
| And whoso reads the name inscribed or hears | E |
| Feels his own heart a frozen well of tears | F |
| Child for deep dread and fearful pity of thee | D |
| Whom God would not let rather die than see | D |
| The incumbent horror of impending years | G |
| - | |
| II | - |
| - | |
| Man that wast godlike being a child and now | H |
| No less than kinglike art no more in sooth | D |
| For all thy grace and lordliness of youth | D |
| The crown that bids men's branded foreheads bow | H |
| Much more has branded and bowed down thy brow | H |
| And gnawn upon it as with fire or tooth | D |
| Of steel or snake so sorely that the truth | D |
| Seems here to bear false witness Is it thou | H |
| Child and is all the summer of all thy spring | I |
| This are the smiles that drew men's kisses down | J |
| All faded and transfigured to the frown | J |
| That grieves thy face Art thou this weary thing | I |
| Then is no slave's load heavier than a crown | J |
| And such a thrall no bondman as a king | I |
| - | |
| III | - |
| - | |
| Misery beyond all men's most miserable | K |
| Absolute whole defiant of defence | L |
| Inevitable inexplacable intense | L |
| More vast than heaven is high more deep than hell | M |
| Past cure or charm of solace or of spell | M |
| Possesses and pervades the spirit and sense | L |
| Whereto the expanse of the earth pays tribute whence | L |
| Breeds evil only and broods on fumes that swell | M |
| Rank from the blood of brother and mother and wife | N |
| 'Misery of miseries all is misery ' saith | H |
| The heavy fair faced hateful head at strife | N |
| With its own lusts that burn with feverous breath | H |
| Lips which the loathsome bitterness of life | N |
| Leaves fearful of the bitterness of death | H |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Emperor's Progress. - A Study In Three Stages. poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Best Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne