Dante At Verona Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABBACCDEEFGGHAAHII JKKJLLJJJMNNOKKOPAJJ JJAAJQQJRRGJJGAAJJJJ SSLJJLTTKAAKAAJJJJKK OUUOAAVAAVJJWJJWAAXN QXAAYAAYKKJAAJJJZA2A 2ZJJB2C2UD2AAAAAAKKM KKMJJWJJWKKJMMJAAGJJ GWWJKKJJJE2SSIJJAF2F 2AGG2JJJMJJJAAJNNJZZ JC2C2AZZAJJJAAJJJJJJ JAAA2AAA2JJJBehold even I even I am Beatrice | A |
Div Com Purg xxx | A |
OF Florence and of Beatrice | A |
Servant and singer from of old | B |
O'er Dante's heart in youth had toll'd | B |
The knell that gave his Lady peace | A |
And now in manhood flew the dart | C |
Wherewith his City pierced his heart | C |
Yet if his Lady's home above | D |
Was Heaven on earth she filled his soul | E |
And if his City held control | E |
To cast the body forth to rove | F |
The soul could soar from earth's vain throng | G |
And Heaven and Hell fulfil the song | G |
Follow his feet's appointed way | H |
But little light we find that clears | A |
The darkness of the exiled years | A |
Follow his spirit's journey nay | H |
What fires are blent what winds are blown | I |
On paths his feet may tread alone | I |
Yet of the twofold life he led | J |
In chainless thought and fettered will | K |
Some glimpses reach us somewhat still | K |
Of the steep stairs and bitter bread | J |
Of the soul's quest whose stern avow | L |
For years had made him haggard now | L |
Alas the Sacred Song whereto | J |
Both heaven and earth had set their hand | J |
Not only at Fame's gate did stand | J |
Knocking to claim the passage through | M |
But toiled to ope that heavier door | N |
Which Florence shut for evermore | N |
Shall not his birth's baptismal Town | O |
One last high presage yet fulfil | K |
And at that font in Florence still | K |
His forehead take the laurel crown | O |
O God or shall dead souls deny | P |
The undying soul its prophecy | A |
Aye 'tis their hour Not yet forgot | J |
The bitter words he spoke that day | J |
When for some great charge far away | J |
Her rulers his acceptance sought | J |
And if I go who stays so rose | A |
His scorn and if I stay who goes | A |
Lo thou art gone now and we stay | J |
The curled lips mutter and no star | Q |
Is from thy mortal path so far | Q |
As streets where childhood knew the way | J |
To Heaven and Hell thy feet may win | R |
But thine own house they come not in | R |
Therefore the loftier rose the song | G |
To touch the secret things of God | J |
The deeper pierced the hate that trod | J |
On base men's track who wrought the wrong | G |
Till the soul's effluence came to be | A |
Its own exceeding agony | A |
Arriving only to depart | J |
From court to court from land to land | J |
Like flame within the naked hand | J |
His body bore his burning heart | J |
That still on Florence strove to bring | S |
God's fire for a burnt offering | S |
Even such was Dante's mood when now | L |
Mocked for long years with Fortune's sport | J |
He dwelt at yet another court | J |
There where Verona's knee did bow | L |
And her voice hailed with all acclaim | T |
Can Grande della Scala's name | T |
As that lord's kingly guest awhile | K |
His life we follow through the days | A |
Which walked in exile's barren ways | A |
The nights which still beneath one smile | K |
Heard through all spheres one song increase | A |
Even I even I am Beatrice | A |
At Can La Scala's court no doubt | J |
Due reverence did his steps attend | J |
The ushers on his path would bend | J |
At ingoing as at going out | J |
The penmen waited on his call | K |
At council board the grooms in hall | K |
And pages hushed their laughter down | O |
And gay squires stilled the merry stir | U |
When he passed up the dais chamber | U |
With set brows lordlier than a frown | O |
And tire maids hidden among these | A |
Drew close their loosened bodices | A |
Perhaps the priests exact to span | V |
All God's circumference if at whiles | A |
They found him wandering in their aisles | A |
Grudged ghostly greeting to the man | V |
By whom though not of ghostly guild | J |
With Heaven and Hell men's hearts were fill'd | J |
And the court poets he forsooth | W |
A whole world's poet strayed to court | J |
Had for his scorn their hate's retort | J |
He'd meet them flushed with easy youth | W |
Hot on their errands Like noon flies | A |
They vexed him in the ears and eyes | A |
But at this court peace still must wrench | X |
Her chaplet from the teeth of war | N |
By day they held high watch afar | Q |
At night they cried across the trench | X |
And still in Dante's path the fierce | A |
Gaunt soldiers wrangled o'er their spears | A |
But vain seemed all the strength to him | Y |
As golden convoys sunk at sea | A |
Whose wealth might root out penury | A |
Because it was not limb with limb | Y |
Knit like his heart strings round the wall | K |
Of Florence that ill pride might fall | K |
Yet in the tiltyard when the dust | J |
Cleared from the sundered press of knights | A |
Ere yet again it swoops and smites | A |
He almost deemed his longing must | J |
Find force to yield that multitude | J |
And hurl that strength the way he would | J |
How should he move them fame and gain | Z |
On all hands calling them at strife | A2 |
He still might find but his one life | A2 |
To give by Florence counted vain | Z |
One heart the false hearts made her doubt | J |
One voice she heard once and cast out | J |
Oh if his Florence could but come | B2 |
A lily sceptred damsel fair | C2 |
As her own Giotto painted her | U |
On many shields and gates at home | D2 |
A lady crowned at a soft pace | A |
Riding the lists round to the dais | A |
Till where Can Grande rules the lists | A |
As young as Truth as calm as Force | A |
She draws her rein now while her horse | A |
Bows at the turn of the white wrists | A |
And when each knight within his stall | K |
Gives ear she speaks and tells them all | K |
All the foul tale truth sworn untrue | M |
And falsehood's triumph All the tale | K |
Great God and must she not prevail | K |
To fire them ere they heard it through | M |
And hand achieve ere heart could rest | J |
That high adventure of her quest | J |
How would his Florence lead them forth | W |
Her bridle ringing as she went | J |
And at the last within her tent | J |
'Neath golden lilies worship worth | W |
How queenly would she bend the while | K |
And thank the victors with her smile | K |
Also her lips should turn his way | J |
And murmur O thou tried and true | M |
With whom I wept the long years through | M |
What shall it profit if I say | J |
Thee I remember Nay through thee | A |
All ages shall remember me | A |
Peace Dante peace The task is long | G |
The time wears short to compass it | J |
Within thine heart such hopes may flit | J |
And find a voice in deathless song | G |
But lo as children of man's earth | W |
Those hopes are dead before their birth | W |
Fame tells us that Verona's court | J |
Was a fair place The feet might still | K |
Wander for ever at their will | K |
In many ways of sweet resort | J |
And still in many a heart around | J |
The Poet's name due honour found | J |
Watch we his steps He comes upon | E2 |
The women at their palm playing | S |
The conduits round the gardens sing | S |
And meet in scoops of milk white stone | I |
Where wearied damsels rest and hold | J |
Their hands in the wet spurt of gold | J |
One of whom knowing well that he | A |
By some found stern was mild with them | F2 |
Would run and pluck his garment's hem | F2 |
Saying Messer Dante pardon me | A |
Praying that they might hear the song | G |
Which first of all he made when young | G2 |
Donne che avete Thereunto | J |
Thus would he murmur having first | J |
Drawn near the fountain while she nurs'd | J |
His hand against her side a few | M |
Sweet words and scarcely those half said | J |
Then turned and changed and bowed his head | J |
For then the voice said in his heart | J |
Even I even I am Beatrice | A |
And his whole life would yearn to cease | A |
Till having reached his room apart | J |
Beyond vast lengths of palace floor | N |
He drew the arras round his door | N |
At such times Dante thou hast set | J |
Thy forehead to the painted pane | Z |
Full oft I know and if the rain | Z |
Smote it outside her fingers met | J |
Thy brow and if the sun fell there | C2 |
Her breath was on thy face and hair | C2 |
Then weeping I think certainly | A |
Thou hast beheld past sight of eyne | Z |
Within another room of thine | Z |
Where now thy body may not be | A |
But where in thought thou still remain'st | J |
A window often wept against | J |
The window thou a youth hast sought | J |
Flushed in the limpid eventime | A |
Ending with daylight the day's rhyme | A |
Of her where oftenwhiles her thought | J |
Held thee the lamp untrimmed to write | J |
In joy through the blue lapse of night | J |
At Can La Scala's court no doubt | J |
Guests seldom wept It was brave sport | J |
No doubt at Can La Scala's court | J |
Within the palace and without | J |
Where music set to madrigals | A |
Loitered all day through groves and halls | A |
Because Can Grande of his life | A2 |
Had not had six and twenty years | A |
As yet And when the chroniclers | A |
Tell you of that Vicenza strife | A2 |
And of strifes elsewhere you must not | J |
Conceive for church sooth he had got | J |
Just nothing in his wits but | J |
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(1)
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