The Falcon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABBBCCCDDDEEEFFFGG GHHHIIIJJJKKKLLLMMMN ONPPPMMMJJJQRRDDDDDD SSSTTTRRRUUUVVVDDDWW WXXXDDDUUUDDDDDDUUUD DDUUUYYYDDDRRRDDDDDD ZA2A2UUUB2A2Who would not be Sir Hubert for his birth and bearing fine | A |
His rich sky skirted woodlands valleys flowing oil and wine | A |
Sir Hubert to whose sunning all the rays of fortune shine | A |
So most men praised Sir Hubert and some others warm'd with praise | B |
Of Hubert noble hearted than whom none went on his ways | B |
Less spoilt by splendid fortune whom no peril could amaze | B |
To Ladies all save one he was the rule by which the worth | C |
Of other men was reckon'd so that many a maid for dearth | C |
Of such a knight to woo her love forswore and with it mirth | C |
No prince could match his banquets when proud Mabel was his guest | D |
And shows and sumptuous triumphs day by day his hope express'd | D |
That love e'en yet might burgeon in her young unburgeon'd breast | D |
Time pass'd and use for riches pass'd with hope which slowly fled | E |
And want came on unheeded and report in one day spread | E |
Of good Sir Hubert houseless and of Mabel richly wed | E |
Forth went he from the city where she dwelt to one poor farm | F |
All left of all his valleys there Sir Hubert's single arm | F |
Served Hubert's wants and labour soon relieved love's rankling harm | F |
Much hardship brought much easement of the melancholy freight | G |
He bore within his bosom and his fancy was elate | G |
And proud of Love's rash sacrifice which led to this estate | G |
One friend was left a falcon famed for beauty skill and size | H |
Kept from his fortune's ruin for the sake of its great eyes | H |
That seem'd to him like Mabel's Of an evening he would rise | H |
And wake its royal glances and reluctantly flapp'd wings | I |
And looks of grave communion with his lightsome questionings | I |
That broke the drowsy sameness and the sense like fear that springs | I |
At night when we are conscious of our distance from the strife | J |
Of cities and the memory of the spirit in all things rife | J |
Endows the silence round us with a grim and ghastly life | J |
His active resignation wrought in time a heartfelt peace | K |
And though in noble bosoms love once lit can never cease | K |
He could walk and think of Mabel and his pace would not increase | K |
Who say when somewhat distanced from the heat and fiercer might | L |
Love's brand burns us no longer it is out use not their sight | L |
For ever and for ever we are lighted by the light | L |
And ere there be extinguish'd one minutest flame love fann'd | M |
The Pyramids of Egypt shall have no place in the land | M |
But as a nameless portion of its ever shifting sand | M |
News came at last that Mabel was a widow but with this | N |
That all her dead Lord's wealth went first to her one child and his | O |
So she was not for Hubert had she beckon'd him to bliss | N |
For Hubert felt tho' Mabel might like him become resign'd | P |
To poverty for Love's sake she might never like him find | P |
That poverty is plenty peace and freedom of the mind | P |
One morning while he rested from his delving spade in hand | M |
He thought of her and blest her and he look'd about the land | M |
And he and all he look'd at seem'd to brighten and expand | M |
The wind was newly risen and the airy skies were rife | J |
With fleets of sailing cloudlets and the trees were all in strife | J |
Extravagantly triumphant at their newly gotten life | J |
Birds wrangled in the branches with a trouble of sweet noise | Q |
Even the conscious cuckoo judging wisest to rejoice | R |
Shook round his cuckoo cuckoo as if careless of his voice | R |
But Hubert mused and marvell'd at the glory in his breast | D |
The first glow turn'd to passion and he nursed it unexpress'd | D |
And glory gilding glory turn'd at last to sunny rest | D |
Then again he look'd around him like an angel and behold | D |
The scene was changed no cloudlets cross'd the serious blue but roll'd | D |
Behind the distant hill tops gleam'd a rial hills of gold | D |
The wind too was abated and the trees and birds were grown | S |
As quiet as the cloud banks right above the bright sun shone | S |
Down looking from the forehead of the giant sky alone | S |
Then the nightingale awaken'd by the silence shot a throng | T |
Of notes into the sunshine cautious first then swift and strong | T |
Then he madly smote them round him till the bright air throbb'd with song | T |
And suddenly stopp'd singing all amid his ecstasies | R |
Myrtles rustle what sees Hubert sight is sceptic but his knees | R |
Bend to the Lady Mabel as she blossoms from the trees | R |
She spoke her eyes cast downwards while upon them dropp'd half way | U |
Lids fairer than the bosom of an unblown lily lay | U |
In faith of ancient amity Sir Hubert I this day | U |
Would beg a boon and bind me your great debtor O her mouth | V |
Was sweet beyond new honey or the bean perfumed South | V |
And better than pomegranates to a pilgrim dumb for drouth | V |
She look'd at his poor homestead at the spade beside his hand | D |
And then her heart reproach'd her What inordinate demand | D |
Was she come there for making Then she says in accents bland | D |
Her Page and she are weary and her wish can wait she'll share | W |
His noontide meal by his favour This he hastens to prepare | W |
But lo the roost is empty and his humble larder bare | W |
No friend has he to help him no one near of whom to claim | X |
The tax and force its payment in his passion's sovereign name | X |
No time to set the pitfalls for the swift and fearful game | X |
Too late to fly his falcon which as if it would assist | D |
Its master's trouble perches on his idly proffer'd fist | D |
With busy dumb caresses treading up and down his wrist | D |
But now a gleam of comfort and a shadow of dismay | U |
Pass o'er the good knight's features now it seems he would essay | U |
The fatness of his falcon while it flaps both wings for play | U |
Now lo the ruthless lover takes it off its trusted stand | D |
Grasps all its frighten'd body with his hard remorseless hand | D |
Puts out its faithful life and plucks and broils it on the brand | D |
In midst of this her dinner Mabel gave her wish its word | D |
My wilful child Sir Hubert pines from fancy long deferr'd | D |
And now he raves in fever to possess your famous bird | D |
Alas he said behold it there Then nobly did she say | U |
It grieves my heart Sir Hubert that I'm much too poor to pay | U |
For this o'er queenly banquet I am honour'd with to day | U |
But if Sir we two henceforth can converse as friends my board | D |
To you shall be as open as it would were you its Lord | D |
And so she bow'd and left him from his vex'd mind unrestored | D |
Months pass'd and Hubert went not but lived on in his old way | U |
Until to him one morning Mabel sent her Page to say | U |
That should it suit his pleasure she would speak with him that day | U |
Ah welcome Sir said Mabel rising courteous kind and free | Y |
I hoped ere this to have had you for my guest but now I see | Y |
That you are even prouder than they whisper you to be | Y |
Made grave by her great beauty but not dazzled he replied | D |
With every noble courtesy to her words and spoke beside | D |
Such things as are permitted to bare friendship not in pride | D |
Or wilful overacting of the right which often blends | R |
Its sacrificial pathos bitter sweet with lover's ends | R |
Or that he now remember'd her command to meet as friends | R |
But having not had knowledge that the infant heir was dead | D |
Whose life made it more loving to preserve his love unsaid | D |
He waited calmly wondering to what mark this summons led | D |
She puzzled with a strangeness by his actions disavow'd | D |
Spoke further Once Sir Hubert I was thoughtless therefore proud | D |
Your love on me shone sunlike I alas have been your cloud | D |
And graceless quench'd the light that made me splendid I would fain | Z |
Pay part of what I owe you that is if alas but then | A2 |
I know not Things are changed and you are not as other men | A2 |
She strove to give her meaning yet blush'd deeply with dismay | U |
Lest he should find it Hubert fear'd she purpos'd to repay | U |
His love with less than love Thought he Sin 'twas my hawk to slay | U |
His eyes are dropp'd in sorrow from their worshipping but lo | B2 |
Upon her sable vesture they are fall'n | A2 |
Coventry Patmore
(1)
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