Ogrin The Hermit Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABC DEFGHIJKL MNOPQRS MTUUVWXYZDA2 B2C2D2E2F2BG2RH2I2K J2K2L2M2N2O2P2Q2R2S2 T2MU2V2M2W2X2Y2X2Z2A 3B3C3Q2D3E3F3MG3 SH3I3V2X J3K3L3J3M3O2N3LO3P3P 3P3P3P3Q3L3D2P3R3Z2S 3AT3B3LU3V3V2W3X3Y3D Z3A4 B4XQ3T2P3C4D4M D3P3LE4F4D2P3P3G4H4H A4S2P3X2I4D2A3J4P3X2 D2D2P3 K4U3L4Z2P3X2P3 MP3P3X2P3J4L4L4L4QP3 D4L4L4P3 DP3LL4M4

Ogrin the Hermit in old age set forthA
This tale to them that sought him in the extremeB
Ancient grey wood where he and silence housedC
-
Long years ago when yet my sight was keenD
My hearing knew the word of wind in boughE
And all the low fore runners of the stormF
There reached me where I sat beneath my thatchG
A crash as of tracked quarry in the brakeH
And storm flecked fugitive with straining breastsI
And backward eyes and hands inseparableJ
Tristan and Iseult swooning at my feetK
Sought hiding from their hunters Here they layL
-
For pity of their great extremityM
Their sin abhorring yet not them with itN
I nourished hid and suffered them to buildO
Their branched hut in sight of this grey crossP
That haply falling on their guilty sleepQ
Its shadow should part them like the blade of GodR
And they should shudder at each other's eyesS
-
So dwelt they in this solitude with meM
And daily Tristan forth upon the chaseT
The tender Iseult sought my door and heardU
The words of holiness Abashed she heardU
Like one in wisdom nurtured from a childV
Yet in whose ears an alien language dwellsW
Of some far country whence the traveller bringsX
Magical treasure and still imagesY
Of gods forgotten and the scent of grovesZ
That sleep by painted rivers As I have seenD
Oft times returning pilgrims with the spellA2
-
Of these lost lands upon their lids she movedB2
Among familiar truths accustomed sightsC2
As she to them were strange not they to herD2
And often reasoning with her have I feltE2
Some ancient lore was in her dimly drawnF2
From springs of life beyond the four fold streamB
That makes a silver pale to ParadiseG2
For she was calm as some forsaken godR
Who knows not that his power is passed from himH2
But sees with tranced eyes rich pilgrim trainsI2
In sands the desert blows about his feetK
-
Abhorring first I heard her yet her speechJ2
Warred not with pity or the contrite heartK2
Or hatred of things evil rather seemedL2
The utterance of some world where these are notM2
And the heart lives in heathen innocenceN2
With earth's innocuous creatures For she saidO2
'Love is not as the shallow adage goesP2
A witch's filter brewed to trick the bloodQ2
The cup we drank of on the flying deckR2
Was the blue vault of air the round world's lipS2
Brimmed with life's hydromel and pressed to oursT2
By myriad hands of wind and sun and seaM
For these are all the cup bearers of youthU2
That bend above it at the board of lifeV2
Solicitous accomplices there's notM2
A leaf on bough a foam flash on the waveW2
So brief and glancing but it serves them tooX2
No scent the pale rose spends upon the nightY2
Nor sky lark's rapture trusted to the blueX2
But these from the remotest tides of airZ2
Brought in mysterious salvage breathe and singA3
In lovers' lips and eyes and two that drinkB3
Thus onely of the strange commingled cupC3
Of mortal fortune shall into their bloodQ2
Take magic gifts Upon each others' heartsD3
They shall surprise the heart beat of the worldE3
And feel a sense of life in things inertF3
For as love's touch upon the yielded bodyM
Is a diviner's wand and where it fallsG3
-
A hidden treasure trembles so their eyesS
Falling upon the world of clod and bruteH3
And cold hearts plotting evil shall discernI3
The inextinguishable flame of lifeV2
That girdles the remotest frame of thingsX
With influences older than the stars '-
-
So spake Iseult and thus her passion foundJ3
Far flying words like birds against the sunsetK3
That look on lands we see not Yet I knowL3
It was not any argument she foundJ3
But that she was the colour that life tookM3
About her that thus reasoned in her steadO2
Making her like a lifted lantern borneN3
Through midnight thickets where the flitting rayL
Momently from inscrutable darkness drawsO3
A myriad veined branch and its shy nestP3
Quivering with startled life so moved IseultP3
And all about her this deep solitudeP3
Stirred with responsive motions Oft I kneltP3
In night long vigil while the lovers sleptP3
Under their outlawed thatch and with long prayersQ3
Sought to disarm the indignant heavens but loL3
Thus kneeling in the intertidal hourD2
'Twixt dark and dawning have mine eyes beheldP3
How the old gods that hide in these hoar woodsR3
And were to me but shapings of the airZ2
And flit and murmur of the breathing treesS3
Or slant of moon on pools how these stole forthA
Grown living presences yet not of baleT3
But innocent eyed as fawns that come to drinkB3
Thronging the threshold where the lovers layL
In service of the great god housed withinU3
Who hides in his breast beneath his mighty plumesV3
The purposes and penalties of lifeV2
Or in yet deeper hours when all was stillW3
And the hushed air bowed over them aloneX3
Such music of the heart as lovers hearY3
When close as lips lean lean the thoughts betweenD
When the cold world no more a lonely orbZ3
Circling the unimagined track of TimeA4
-
Is like a beating heart within their handsB4
A numb bird that they warm and feel its wingsX
Such music have I heard and through the prayersQ3
Wherewith I sought to shackle their desiresT2
And bring them humbled to the feet of GodP3
Caught the loud quiring of the fruitful yearC4
The leap of springs the throb of loosened earthD4
And the sound of all the streams that seek the seaM
-
So fell it that when pity moved their heartsD3
And those high lovers one unto the endP3
Bowed to the sundering will and each his wayL
Went through a world that could not make them twainE4
Knowing that a great vision passing byF4
Had swept mine eye lids with its fringe of fireD2
I with the wonder of it on my headP3
And with the silence of it in my heartP3
Forth to Tintagel went by secret waysG4
A long lone journey and from them that looseH4
Their spiced bales upon the wharves and shakeH
Strange silks to the sun or covertly unbosomA4
Rich hoard of pearls and amber or let dripS2
Through swarthy fingers links of sinuous goldP3
Chose their most delicate treasures Though I knewX2
No touch more silken than this knotted gownI4
My hands grown tender with the sense of herD2
Discerned the airiest tissues light to clingA3
As shower loosed petals veils like meadow smokeJ4
Fur soft as snow amber like sun congealedP3
Pearls pink as may buds in an orb of dewX2
And laden with these wonders that to herD2
Were natural as the vesture of a flowerD2
Fared home to lay my booty at her feetP3
-
And she consenting nor with useless wordsK4
Proving my purpose robed herself thereinU3
To meet her lawful lord but while she thusL4
Prisoned the wandering glory of her hairZ2
Dimmed her bright breast with jewels and subduedP3
Her light to those dull splendours well she knewX2
The lord that I adorned her thus to meetP3
-
Was not Tintagel's shadowy King but heM
That other lord beneath whose plumy feetP3
The currents of the seas of life run goldP3
As from eternal sunrise well she knewX2
That when I laid my hands upon her headP3
Saying 'Fare forth forgiven ' the words I spokeJ4
Were the breathings of his pity who beholdsL4
How swept on his inexorable wingsL4
Too far beyond the planetary firesL4
On the last coasts of darkness plunged too deepQ
In light ineffable the heart amazedP3
Swoons of its glory and dropping back to earthD4
Craves the dim shelter of familiar soundsL4
The rain on the roof the noise of flocks that passL4
And the slow world waking to its daily roundP3
-
And thus as one who speeds a banished queenD
I set her on my mule and hung aboutP3
With royal ornament she went her wayL
For meet it was that this great Queen should passL4
Crowned and forgiven from the face of LoveM4

Edith Wharton



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