Andromeda Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEBFCGGEHEEIJCKLA MJBGNGGCAOGBEGEFEGGP GCQBRESTEUVOGGGBBWCG GWXWCCWYXWBCWZEWGBA2 CWCGWOGCCWREYB2B2B2G WGGWZWCCWWYWWGZB2EC2 GGCGZEW| Over the sea past Crete on the Syrian shore to the southward | A |
| Dwells in the well tilled lowland a dark haired AEthiop people | B |
| Skilful with needle and loom and the arts of the dyer and carver | C |
| Skilful but feeble of heart for they know not the lords of Olympus | D |
| Lovers of men neither broad browed Zeus nor Pallas Athene | E |
| Teacher of wisdom to heroes bestower of might in the battle | B |
| Share not the cunning of Hermes nor list to the songs of Apollo | F |
| Fearing the stars of the sky and the roll of the blue salt water | C |
| Fearing all things that have life in the womb of the seas and the livers | G |
| Eating no fish to this day nor ploughing the main like the Phoenics | G |
| Manful with black beaked ships they abide in a sorrowful region | E |
| Vexed with the earthquake and flame and the sea floods scourge of | H |
| Poseidon | E |
| Whelming the dwellings of men and the toils of the slow footed oxen | E |
| Drowning the barley and flax and the hard earned gold of the harvest | I |
| Up to the hillside vines and the pastures skirting the woodland | J |
| Inland the floods came yearly and after the waters a monster | C |
| Bred of the slime like the worms which are bred from the slime of the Nile | K |
| bank | L |
| Shapeless a terror to see and by night it swam out to the seaward | A |
| Daily returning to feed with the dawn and devoured of the fairest | M |
| Cattle and children and maids till the terrified people fled inland | J |
| Fasting in sackcloth and ashes they came both the king and his people | B |
| Came to the mountain of oaks to the house of the terrible sea gods | G |
| Hard by the gulf in the rocks where of old the world wide deluge | N |
| Sank to the inner abyss and the lake where the fish of the goddess | G |
| Holy undying abide whom the priests feed daily with dainties | G |
| There to the mystical fish high throned in her chamber of cedar | C |
| Burnt they the fat of the flock till the flame shone far to the seaward | A |
| Three days fasting they prayed but the fourth day the priests of the | O |
| goddess | G |
| Cunning in spells cast lots to discover the crime of the people | B |
| All day long they cast till the house of the monarch was taken | E |
| Cepheus king of the land and the faces of all gathered blackness | G |
| Then once more they cast and Cassiopoeia was taken | E |
| Deep bosomed wife of the king whom oft far seeing Apollo | F |
| Watched well pleased from the welkin the fairest of AEthiop women | E |
| Fairest save only her daughter for down to the ankle her tresses | G |
| Rolled blue black as the night ambrosial joy to beholders | G |
| Awful and fair she arose most like in her coming to Here | P |
| Queen before whom the Immortals arise as she comes on Olympus | G |
| Out of the chamber of gold which her son Hephaestos has wrought her | C |
| Such in her stature and eyes and the broad white light of her forehead | Q |
| Stately she came from her place and she spoke in the midst of the people | B |
| 'Pure are my hands from blood most pure this heart in my bosom | R |
| Yet one fault I remember this day one word have I spoken | E |
| Rashly I spoke on the shore and I dread lest the sea should have heard it | S |
| Watching my child at her bath as she plunged in the joy of her girlhood | T |
| Fairer I called her in pride than Atergati queen of the ocean | E |
| Judge ye if this be my sin for I know none other ' She ended | U |
| Wrapping her head in her mantle she stood and the people were silent | V |
| Answered the dark browed priests 'No word once spoken returneth | O |
| Even if uttered unwitting Shall gods excuse our rashness | G |
| That which is done that abides and the wrath of the sea is against us | G |
| Hers and the wrath of her brother the Sun god lord of the sheepfolds | G |
| Fairer than her hast thou boasted thy daughter Ah folly for hateful | B |
| Hateful are they to the gods whoso impious liken a mortal | B |
| Fair though he be to their glory and hateful is that which is likened | W |
| Grieving the eyes of their pride and abominate doomed to their anger | C |
| What shall be likened to gods The unknown who deep in the darkness | G |
| Ever abide twyformed many handed terrible shapeless | G |
| Woe to the queen for the land is defiled and the people accursed | W |
| Take thou her therefore by night thou ill starred Cassiopoeia | X |
| Take her with us in the night when the moon sinks low to the westward | W |
| Bind her aloft for a victim a prey for the gorge of the monster | C |
| Far on the sea girt rock which is washed by the surges for ever | C |
| So may the goddess accept her and so may the land make atonement | W |
| Purged by her blood from its sin so obey thou the doom of the rulers ' | Y |
| Bitter in soul they went out Cepheus and Cassiopoeia | X |
| Bitter in soul and their hearts whirled round as the leaves in the eddy | W |
| Weak was the queen and rebelled but the king like a shepherd of people | B |
| Willed not the land should waste so he yielded the life of his daughter | C |
| Deep in the wane of the night as the moon sank low to the westward | W |
| They by the shade of the cliffs with the horror of darkness around them | Z |
| Stole as ashamed to a deed which became not the light of the sunshine | E |
| Slowly the priests and the queen and the virgin bound in the galley | W |
| Slowly they rowed to the rocks but Cepheus far in the palace | G |
| Sate in the midst of the hall on his throne like a shepherd of people | B |
| Choking his woe dry eyed while the slaves wailed loudly around him | A2 |
| They on the sea girt rock which is washed by the surges for ever | C |
| Set her in silence the guiltless aloft with her face to the eastward | W |
| Under a crag of the stone where a ledge sloped down to the water | C |
| There they set Andromeden most beautiful shaped like a goddess | G |
| Lifting her long white arms wide spread to the walls of the basalt | W |
| Chaining them ruthless with brass and they called on the might of the | O |
| Rulers | G |
| 'Mystical fish of the seas dread Queen whom AEthiops honour | C |
| Whelming the land in thy wrath unavoidable sharp as the sting ray | C |
| Thou and thy brother the Sun brain smiting lord of the sheepfold | W |
| Scorching the earth all day and then resting at night in thy bosom | R |
| Take ye this one life for many appeased by the blood of a maiden | E |
| Fairest and born of the fairest a queen most priceless of victims ' | Y |
| Thrice they spat as they went by the maid but her mother delaying | B2 |
| Fondled her child to the last heart crushed and the warmth of her weeping | B2 |
| Fell on the breast of the maid as her woe broke forth into wailing | B2 |
| 'Daughter my daughter forgive me Oh curse not the murderess Curse | G |
| not | W |
| How have I sinned but in love Do the gods grudge glory to mothers | G |
| Loving I bore thee in vain in the fate cursed bride bed of Cepheus | G |
| Loving I fed thee and tended and loving rejoiced in thy beauty | W |
| Blessing thy limbs as I bathed them and blessing thy locks as I combed them | Z |
| Decking thee ripening to woman I blest thee yet blessing I slew thee | W |
| How have I sinned but in love Oh swear to me swear to thy mother | C |
| Never to haunt me with curse as I go to the grave in my sorrow | C |
| Childless and lone may the gods never send me another to slay it | W |
| See I embrace thy knees soft knees where no babe will be fondled | W |
| Swear to me never to curse me the hapless one not in the death pang ' | Y |
| Weeping she clung to the knees of the maid and the maid low answered | W |
| 'Curse thee Not in the death pang ' The heart of the lady was lightened | W |
| Slowly she went by the ledge and the maid was alone in the darkness | G |
| Watching the pulse of the oars die down as her own died with them | Z |
| Tearless dumb with amaze she stood as a storm stunned nestling | B2 |
| Fallen from bough or from eave lies dumb which the home going herdsman | E |
| Fancies a stone till he catches the light of its terrified eyeball | C2 |
| So through the long long hours the maid stood helpless and hopeless | G |
| Wide eyed downward gazing in vain at the black blank darkness | G |
| Feebly at last she began while wild thoughts bubbled within her | C |
| 'Guiltless I am why thus then Are gods more ruthless than mortals | G |
| Have they no mercy for youth no love for the souls who have loved them | Z |
| Even as I loved thee dread sea as I played by thy margin | E |
| B | W |
Charles Kingsley
(1)
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