Lancelot 02 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHAIJKLMNOPQ RSLTUVWXYZA2B2LB2C2C 2B2LLB2 B2RLD2B2LB2B2E2F2LLB 2LG2LH2B2I2UJ2LWK2LG 2WL2CLM2N2A O2WP2B2WB2Q2F2B2LL AB2HAR2B2AE2LARATB2S 2LQ2R2 B2ZT2AB2WLCB2U2LWG2L B2V2V2W2X2Y2Z2LLQ2B2 G2B2WL A3B2G2AAB2WB2B2AUB2 B2TB3C3C3C3AC3D3C3B2 LB2C3B2AC3 C3E3AB2ZC3J2LC3V2J2B 2 B2ZAJ2AC3AJ2B2B2AJ2F 3C3B2B2LALLB2C3B2AB3 C3LC3V2C3B2AB2C3LB2L LC3B3C3G3LB2AC3C3B2C 3B3LC3 C3C3AB2C3B3ALLC3J2C3 J2C3LLB2C3C3C3C3C3LL LB2B2DC3J2 B2H3C3LC3C3C3I3 C3C3AC3C3B3J2J3V2C3V 2V2B3ZJ2K3J2J3J3C3C3 ZL3B3C3 M3H3C3C3C3N3C3J2J2J2 H3J2 C3C3J2C3C3C3J2C3C3J2 C3O3J2C3C3C3C3J2C3P3 J2AC3AJ2F3C3J2Q2Q2 C3C3J2C3V2C3Q3C3C3C3 C3I3C3C3C3C3L3C3C3H3 NC3J2AA2NC3C3C3R3

The flash of oak leaves over Guinevere	A
That afternoon with the sun going down	B
Made memories there for Lancelot although	C
The woman who in silence looked at him	D
Now seemed his inventory of the world	E
That he must lose or suffer to be lost	F
For love of her who sat there in the shade	G
With oak leaves flashing in a golden light	H
Over her face and over her golden hair	A
Gawaine has all the graces yet he knows	I
He knows enough to be the end of us	J
If so he would she said He knows and laughs	K
And we are at the mercy of a man	L
Who if the stars went out would only laugh	M
She looked away at a small swinging blossom	N
And then she looked intently at her fingers	O
While a frown gathered slowly round her eyes	P
And wrinkled her white forehead	Q
	-
Lancelot	R
Scarce knowing whether to himself he spoke	S
Or to the Queen said emptily As for Gawaine	L
My question is if any curious hind	T
Or knight that is alive in Britain breathing	U
Or prince or king knows more of us or less	V
Than Gawaine in his gay complacency	W
Knows or believes he knows There's over much	X
Of knowing in this realm of many tongues	Y
Where deeds are less to those who tell of them	Z
Than are the words they sow and you and I	A2
Are like to yield a granary of such words	B2
For God knows what next harvesting Gawain	L
I fear no more than Gareth or Colgrevance	B2
So far as it is his to be the friend	C2
Of any man so far is he may friend	C2
Till I have crossed him in some enterprise	B2
Unlikely and unborn So fear not Gawaine	L
But let your primal care be now for one	L
Whose name is yours	B2
	-
The Queen with her blue eyes	B2
Too bright for joy still gazed on Lancelot	R
Who stared as if in angry malediction	L
Upon the shorn grass growing at his feet	D2
Why do you speak as if the grass had ears	B2
And I had none What are you saying now	L
So darkly to the grass of knights and hinds	B2
Are you the Lancelot who rode long since	B2
Away from me on that unearthly Quest	E2
Which left no man the same who followed it	F2
Or none save Gawaine who came back so soon	L
That we had hardly missed him Faintly then	L
She smiled a little more in her defence	B2
He knew than for misprision of a man	L
Whom yet she feared Why do you set this day	G2
This golden day when all are not so golden	L
To tell me with your eyes upon the ground	H2
That idle words have been for idle tongues	B2
And ears a moment's idle entertainment	I2
Have I become and all at once a thing	U
So new to courts and to the buzz they make	J2
That I should hear no murmur see no sign	L
Where malice and ambition dwell with envy	W
They go the farthest who believe the least	K2
So let them while I ask of you again	L
Why this day for all this Was yesterday	G2
A day of ouphes and omens Was it Friday	W
I don't remember Days are all alike	L2
When I have you to look on when you go	C
There are no days but hours You might say now	L
What Gawaine said and say it in our language	M2
The sharp light still was in her eyes alive	N2
And anxious with a reminiscent fear	A
	-
Lancelot like a strong man stricken hard	O2
With pain looked up at her unhappily	W
And slowly on a low and final note	P2
Said Gawaine laughs alike at what he knows	B2
And at the loose convenience of his fancy	W
He sees in others what his humor needs	B2
To nourish it and lives a merry life	Q2
Sometimes a random shaft of his will hit	F2
Nearer the mark than one a wise man aims	B2
With infinite address and reservation	L
So has it come to pass this afternoon	L
	-
Blood left the quivering cheeks of Guinevere	A
As color leaves a cloud and where white was	B2
Before there was a ghostliness not white	H
But gray and over it her shining hair	A
Coiled heavily its mocking weight of gold	R2
The pride of her forlorn light heartedness	B2
Fled like a storm blown feather and her fear	A
Possessing her was all that she possessed	E2
She sought for Lancelot but he seemed gone	L
There was a strong man glowering in a chair	A
Before her but he was not Lancelot	R
Or he would look at her and say to her	A
That Gawaine's words were less than chaff in the wind	T
A nonsense about exile birds and bones	B2
Born of an indolence of empty breath	S2
Say what has come to pass this afternoon	L
She said or I shall hear you all my life	Q2
Not hearing what it was you might have told	R2
	-
He felt the trembling of her slow last words	B2
And his were trembling as he answered them	Z
Why this day why no other So you ask	T2
And so must I in honor tell you more	A
For what end I have yet no braver guess	B2
Than Modred has of immortality	W
Or you of Gawaine Could I have him alone	L
Between me and the peace I cannot know	C
My life were like the sound of golden bells	B2
Over still fields at sunset where no storm	U2
Should ever blast the sky with fire again	L
Or thunder follow ruin for you and me	W
As like it will if I for one more day	G2
Assume that I see not what I have seen	L
See now and shall see There are no more lies	B2
Left anywhere now for me to tell myself	V2
That I have not already told myself	V2
And overtold until today I seem	W2
To taste them as I might the poisoned fruit	X2
That Patrise had of Mador and so died	Y2
And that same apple of death was to be food	Z2
For Gawaine but he left it and lives on	L
To make his joy of living your confusion	L
His life is his religion he loves life	Q2
With such a manifold exuberance	B2
That poison shuns him and seeks out a way	G2
To wreak its evil upon innocence	B2
There may be chance in this there may be	W
Be what there be I do not fear Gawaine	L
	-
The Queen with an indignant little foot	A3
Struck viciously the unoffending grass	B2
And said Why not let Gawaine go his way	G2
I'll think of him no more fear him no more	A
And hear of him no more I'll hear no more	A
Of any now save one who is or was	B2
All men to me And he said once to me	W
That he would say why this day of all days	B2
Was more mysteriously felicitous	B2
For solemn commination than another	A
Again she smiled but her blue eyes were telling	U
No more their story of old happiness	B2
	-
For me today is not as other days	B2
He said because it is the first I find	T
That has empowered my will to say to you	B3
What most it is that you must hear and heed	C3
When Arthur with a faith unfortified	C3
Sent me alone of all he might have sent	C3
That May day to Leodogran your father	A
I went away from him with a sore heart	C3
For in my heart I knew that I should fail	D3
My King who trusted me too far beyond	C3
The mortal outpost of experience	B2
And this was after Merlin's admonition	L
Which Arthur in his passion took for less	B2
Than his inviolable majesty	C3
When I rode in between your father's guards	B2
And heard his trumpets blown for my loud honor	A
I sent my memory back to Camelot	C3
And said once to myself God save the king '	-
But the words tore my throat and were like blood	C3
Upon my tongue Then a great shout went up	E3
From shining men around me everywhere	A
And I remember more fair women's eyes	B2
Than there are stars in autumn all of them	Z
Thrown on me for a glimpse of that high knight	C3
Sir Lancelot Sir Lancelot of the Lake	J2
I saw their faces and I saw not one	L
To sever a tendril of my integrity	C3
But I thought once again to make myself	V2
Believe a silent lie God save the King'	J2
I saw your face and there were no more kings	B2
	-
The sharp light softened in the Queen's blue eyes	B2
And for a moment there was joy in them	Z
Was I so menacing to the peace I wonder	A
Of anyone else alive But why go back	J2
I tell you that I fear Gawaine no more	A
And if you fear him not and I fear not	C3
What you fear not what have we then to fear	A
Fatigued a little with her reasoning	J2
She waited longer than a woman waits	B2
Without a cloudy sign for Lancelot's	B2
Unhurried answer Whether or not you fear	A
Know always that I fear for me no stroke	J2
Maturing for the joy of any knave	F3
Who sees the world with me alive in it	C3
A place too crowded for the furtherance	B2
Of his inflammatory preparations	B2
But Lot of Orkney had a wife a dark one	L
And rumor says no man who gazed at her	A
Attentively might say his prayers again	L
Without a penance or an absolution	L
I know not about that but the world knows	B2
That Arthur prayed in vain once if he prayed	C3
Or we should have no Modred watching us	B2
Know then that what you fear to call my fear	A
Is all for you and what is all for you	B3
Is all for love which were the same to me	C3
As life had I not seen what I have seen	L
But first I am to tell you what I see	C3
And what I mean by fear It is yourself	V2
That I see now and if I saw you only	C3
I might forego again all other service	B2
And leave to Time who is Love's almoner	A
The benefaction of what years or days	B2
Remaining might be found unchronicled	C3
For two that have not always watched or seen	L
The sands of gold that flow for golden hours	B2
If I saw you alone But I know now	L
That you are never more to be alone	L
The shape of one infernal foul attendant	C3
Will be for ever prowling after you	B3
To leer at me like a damned thing whipped out	C3
Of the last cave in hell You know his name	G3
Over your shoulder I could see him now	L
Adventuring his misbegotten patience	B2
For one destroying word in the King's ear	A
The word he cannot whisper there quite yet	C3
Not having it yet to say If he should say it	C3
Then all this would be over and our days	B2
Of life your days and mine be over with it	C3
No day of mine that were to be for you	B3
Your last would light for me a longer span	L
Than for yourself and there would be no twilight	C3
	-
The Queen's implacable calm eyes betrayed	C3
The doubt that had as yet for what he said	C3
No healing answer If I fear no more	A
Gawaine I fear your Modred even less	B2
Your fear you say is for an end outside	C3
Your safety and as much as that I grant you	B3
And I believe in your belief moreover	A
That some far off unheard of retribution	L
Hangs over Camelot even as this oak bough	L
That I may almost reach hangs overhead	C3
All dark now Only a small time ago	J2
The light was falling through it and on me	C3
Another light a longer time ago	J2
Was living in your eyes and we were happy	C3
Yet there was Modred then as he is now	L
As much a danger then as he is now	L
And quite as much a nuisance Let his eyes	B2
Have all the darkness in them they may hold	C3
And there will be less left of it outside	C3
For fear to grope and thrive in Lancelot	C3
I say the dark is not what you fear most	C3
There is a Light that you fear more today	C3
Than all the darkness that has ever been	L
Yet I doubt not that your Light will burn on	L
For some time yet without your ministration	L
I'm glad for Modred though I hate his eyes	B2
That he should hold me nearer to your thoughts	B2
Than I should hold myself I fear without him	D
I'm glad for Gawaine also who you tell me	C3
Misled my fancy with his joy of living	J2
	-
Incredulous of her voice and of her lightness	B2
He saw now in the patience of her smile	H3
A shining quiet of expectancy	C3
That made as much of his determination	L
As he had made of giants and Sir Peris	C3
But I have more to say than you have heard	C3
He faltered though God knows what you have heard	C3
Should be enough	I3
	-
I see it now she said	C3
I see it now as always women must	C3
Who cannot hold what holds them any more	A
If Modred's hate were now the only hazard	C3
The only shadow between you and me	C3
How long should I be saying all this to you	B3
Or you be listening No Lancelot no	J2
I knew it coming for a longer time	J3
Than you fared for the Grail You told yourself	V2
When first that wild light came to make men mad	C3
Round Arthur's Table as Gawaine told himself	V2
And many another tired man told himself	V2
That it was God not something new that called you	B3
Well God was something new to most of them	Z
And so they went away But you were changing	J2
Long before you or Bors or Percival	K3
Or Galahad rode away or poor Gawaine	J2
Who came back presently and for a time	J3
Before you went albeit for no long time	J3
I may have made for your too loyal patience	C3
A jealous exhibition of my folly	C3
All for those two Elaines and one of them	Z
Is dead poor child for you How do you feel	L3
You men when women die for you They do	B3
Sometimes you know Not often but sometimes	C3
	-
Discomfiture beginning with a scowl	M3
And ending in a melancholy smile	H3
Crept over Lancelot's face the while he stared	C3
More like a child than like the man he was	C3
At Guinevere's demure serenity	C3
Before him in the shadow soon to change	N3
Into the darkness of a darker night	C3
Than yet had been since Arthur was a king	J2
What seizure of an unrelated rambling	J2
Do you suppose it was that had you then	J2
He said and with a frown that had no smile	H3
Behind it he sat brooding	J2
	-
The Queen laughed	C3
And looked at him again with lucent eyes	C3
That had no sharpness in them they were soft now	J2
And a blue light made wet with happiness	C3
Distilled from pain into abandonment	C3
Shone out of them and held him while she smiled	C3
Although they trembled with a questioning	J2
Of what his gloom foretold All that I saw	C3
Was true and I have paid for what I saw	C3
More than a man may know Hear me and listen	J2
You cannot put me or the truth aside	C3
With half told words that I could only wish	O3
No man had said to me not you of all men	J2
If there were only Modred in the way	C3
Should I see now from here and in this light	C3
So many furrows over your changed eyes	C3
Why do you fear for me when all my fears	C3
Are for the needless burden you take on	J2
To put me far away and your fears with me	C3
Were surely no long toil had you the will	P3
To say what you have known and I have known	J2
Longer than I dare guess Have little fear	A
Never shall I become for you a curse	C3
Laid on your conscience to be borne for ever	A
Nor shall I be a weight for you to drag	J2
On always after you as a poor slave	F3
Drags iron at his heels Therefore today	C3
These ominous reassurances of mine	J2
Would seem to me to be a waste of life	Q2
And more than life	Q2
	-
Lancelot's memory wandered	C3
Into the blue and wistful distances	C3
That her soft eyes unveiled He knew their trick	J2
As he knew the great love that fostered it	C3
And the wild passionate fate that hid itself	V2
In all the perilous calm of white and gold	C3
That was her face and hair and might as well	Q3
Have been of gold and marble for the world	C3
And for the King Before he knew she stood	C3
Behind him with her warm hands on his cheeks	C3
And her lips on his lips and though he heard	C3
Not half of what she told he heard enough	I3
To make as much of it or so it seemed	C3
As man was ever told or should be told	C3
Or need be until everything was told	C3
And all the mystic silence of the stars	C3
Had nothing more to keep or to reveal	L3
If there were only Modred in the way	C3
She murmured would you come to me tonight	C3
The King goes to Carleon or Carlisle	H3
Or some place where there's hunting Would you come	N
If there were only Modred in the way	C3
She felt his hand on hers and laid her cheek	J2
Upon his forehead where the furrows were	A
All these must go away and so must I	A2
Before there are more shadows You will come	N
And you may tell me everything you must	C3
That I must hear you tell me if I must	C3
Of bones and horrors and of horrid waves	C3
That break for ever on the world's last edge	R3

Edwin Arlington Robinson

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