Lancelot 07 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNHOPQRS TURVWXRYZ A2B2TDTB2CC2D2E2YF2M TZG2TPRTR G2H2I2TJ2ZJ2ZTB2TTZT J2K2L2I2KM2YB2TB2HRN 2J2TTMTO2B2J2TTP2TRQ 2ZJ2B2PB2B2R2B2S2T2B 2 TTJ2TQ2ZJ2 Q2HKTTU2QTV2ZKJ2ZTB2 RTQ2B2RB2 RTW2 RTTTB2RQ2X2K2J2RJ2J2 Q2T MMHY2TMT THHTJ2HJ2HRHRJ2TB2TB 2J2J2J2TTJ2Q2HHTRB2T RP2TZ2RB2J2 CTB2HTB2A3B2I2A3TB2B 2RI2RRB2J2TRRJ2Q2J2T RJ2TJ2TA3RRTTTB2J2I2 TTQ2RTRJ2RO2TTQ2J2I2 RI2RJ2TB3B2B3TI2RB2B 2J2TQ2J2J2C3J2D3TTTT B2TN2TB2J2TN2Q2M I2J2E3TTB2OQ2 TJ2RCI2J2Q2HRK2RF3G3 I2TB2RRJ2B2B3RTRTJ2T RB2I2RI2RTI2TA3TRQ2J 2H3RB2R TRTTI3O2J2B2TORK2RRJ 3TJ2J2RI2J2RTT B2A3CJ2J2RRRRK3B2 RB2TI2B2TJ2J2J2J2L3R T HTB2RRK2M3J2RB2TRHN3 B2H3J2J2J2TJ2J2HRB2T O3P3TQ3O3J2I2K2J2J2J 2QJ2B2RJ2RRTB2R3TTJ2 RTRTB2RJ2RB2TQ2RJ2R S3RTTTO2TRRRHTO2B2T3 B2J2TB2N3RRRB2U3J2RP 2O2B2Q I3J2J2J2J2RRJ2J2J2 TJ2RHB2B2 TJ2TTQ2J2THRRHTTTB2K 2F2A3V3F2RRB2J2T TTB2TRJ2J2J2B2MR

All day the rain came down on Joyous Gard	A
Where now there was no joy and all that night	B
The rain came down Shut in for none to find him	C
Where an unheeded log fire fought the storm	D
With upward swords that flashed along the wall	E
Faint hieroglyphs of doom not his to read	F
Lancelot found a refuge where at last	G
He might see nothing Glad for sight of nothing	H
He saw no more Now and again he buried	I
A lonely thought among the coals and ashes	J
Outside the reaching flame and left it there	K
Quite as he left outside in rainy graves	L
The sacrificial hundreds who had filled them	M
They died Gawaine he said and you live on	N
You and the King as if there were no dying	H
And it was I Gawaine who let you live	O
You and the King For what more length of time	P
I wonder may there still be found on earth	Q
Foot room for four of us We are too many	R
For one world Gawaine and there may be soon	S
For one or other of us a way out	T
As men are listed we are men for men	U
To fear and I fear Modred more than any	R
But even the ghost of Modred at the door	V
The ghost I should have made him would employ	W
For time as hard as this a louder knuckle	X
Assuredly now than that And I would see	R
No mortal face till morning Well are you well	Y
Again Are you as well again as ever	Z
	-
He led her slowly on with a cold show	A2
Of care that was less heartening for the Queen	B2
Than anger would have been into the firelight	T
And there he gave her cushions Are you warm	D
He said and she said nothing Are you afraid	T
He said again are you still afraid of Gawaine	B2
As often as you think of him and hate him	C
Remember too that he betrayed his brothers	C2
To us that he might save us Well he saved us	D2
And Rome whose name to you was never music	E2
Saves you again with heaven alone may tell	Y
What others who might have their time to sleep	F2
In earth out there with the rain falling on them	M
And with no more to fear of wars tonight	T
Than you need fear of Gawaine or of Arthur	Z
The way before you is a safer way	G2
For you to follow than when I was in it	T
We children who forget the whips of Time	P
To live within the hour are slow to see	R
That all such hours are passing They were past	T
When you came here with me	R
	-
She looked away	G2
Seeming to read the firelight on the walls	H2
Before she spoke When I came here with you	I2
And found those eyes of yours I could have wished	T
And prayed it were the end of hours and years	J2
What was it made you save me from the fire	Z
If only out of memories and forebodings	J2
To build around my life another fire	Z
Of slower faggots If you had let me die	T
Those other faggots would be ashes now	B2
And all of me that you have ever loved	T
Would be a few more ashes If I read	T
The past as well as you have read the future	Z
You need say nothing of ingratitude	T
For I say only lies My soul of course	J2
It was you loved You told me so yourself	K2
And that same precious blue veined cream white soul	L2
Will soon be safer if I understand you	I2
In Camelot where the King is than elsewhere	K
On earth What more in faith have I to ask	M2
Of earth or heaven than that Although I fell	Y
When you said Camelot are you to know	B2
Surely the stroke you gave me then was not	T
The measure itself of ecstasy We women	B2
Are such adept inveterates in our swooning	H
That we fall down for joy as easily	R
As we eat one another to show our love	N2
Even horses seeing again their absent masters	J2
Have wept for joy great dogs have died of it	T
Having said as much as that she frowned and held	T
Her small white hands out for the fire to warm them	M
Forward she leaned and forward her thoughts went	T
To Camelot But they were not there long	O2
Her thoughts for soon she flashed her eyes again	B2
And he found in them what he wished were tears	J2
Of angry sorrow for what she had said	T
What are you going to do with me she asked	T
And all her old incisiveness came back	P2
With a new thrust of malice which he felt	T
And feared What are you going to do with me	R
What does a child do with a worn out doll	Q2
I was a child once and I had a father	Z
He was a king and having royal ways	J2
He made a queen of me King Arthur's queen	B2
And if that happened once upon a time	P
Why may it not as well be happening now	B2
That I am not a queen Was I a queen	B2
When first you brought me here with one torn rag	R2
To cover me Was I overmuch a queen	B2
When I sat up at last and in a gear	S2
That would have made a bishop dance to Cardiff	T2
To see me wearing it Was I Queen then	B2
	-
You were the Queen of Christendom he said	T
Not smiling at her whether now or not	T
You deem it an unchristian exercise	J2
To vilipend the wearing of the vanished	T
The women may have reasoned insecurely	Q2
That what one queen had worn would please another	Z
I left them to their ingenuities	J2
	-
Once more he frowned away a threatening smile	Q2
But soon forgot the memory of all smiling	H
While he gazed on the glimmering face and hair	K
Of Guinevere the glory of white and gold	T
That had been his and were for taking of it	T
Still his to cloud with an insidious gleam	U2
Of earth another that was not of earth	Q
And so to make of him a thing of night	T
A moth between a window and a star	V2
Not wholly lured by one or led by the other	Z
The more he gazed upon her beauty there	K
The longer was he living in two kingdoms	J2
Not owning in his heart the king of either	Z
And ruling not himself There was an end	T
Of hours he told her silent face again	B2
In silence On the morning when his fury	R
Wrenched her from that foul fire in Camelot	T
Where blood paid irretrievably the toll	Q2
Of her release the whips of Time had fallen	B2
Upon them both All this to Guinevere	R
He told in silence and he told in vain	B2
	-
Observing her ten fingers variously	R
She sighed as in equivocal assent	T
No two queens are alike	W2
	-
Is that the flower	R
Of all your veiled invention Lancelot said	T
Smiling at last If you say saying all that	T
You are not like Isolt well you are not	T
Isolt was a physician who cured men	B2
Their wounds and sent them rowelling for more	R
Isolt was too dark and too versatile	Q2
She was too dark for Mark if not for Tristram	X2
Forgive me I was saying that to myself	K2
And not to make you shiver No two queens	J2
Was that it are alike A longer story	R
Might have a longer telling and tell less	J2
Your tale's as brief as Pelleas with his vengeance	J2
On Gawaine whom he swore that he would slay	Q2
At once for stealing of the lady Ettard	T
	-
Treasure my scantling wits if you enjoy them	M
Wonder a little too that I conserve them	M
Through the eternal memory of one morning	H
And in these years of days that are the death	Y2
Of men who die for me I should have died	T
I should have died for them	M
You are wrong he said	T
	-
They died because Gawaine went mad with hate	T
For loss of his two brothers and set the King	H
On fire with fear the two of them believing	H
His fear was vengeance when it was in fact	T
A royal desperation They died because	J2
Your world my world and Arthur's world is dying	H
As Merlin said it would No blame is yours	J2
For it was I who led you from the King	H
Or rather to say truth it was your glory	R
That led my love to lead you from the King	H
By flowery ways that always end somewhere	R
To fire and fright and exile and release	J2
And if you bid your memory now to blot	T
Your story from the book of what has been	B2
Your phantom happiness were a ghost indeed	T
And I the least of weasels among men	B2
Too false to manhood and your sacrifice	J2
To merit a niche in hell If that were so	J2
I'd swear there was no light for me to follow	J2
Save your eyes to the grave and to the last	T
I might not know that all hours have an end	T
I might be one of those who feed themselves	J2
By grace of God on hopes dryer than hay	Q2
Enjoying not what they eat yet always eating	H
The Vision shattered a man's love of living	H
Becomes at last a trap and a sad habit	T
More like an ailing dotard's love of liquor	R
That ails him than a man's right love of woman	B2
Or of his God There are men enough like that	T
And I might come to that Though I see far	R
Before me now could I see looking back	P2
A life that you could wish had not been lived	T
I might be such a man Could I believe	Z2
Our love was nothing mightier then than we were	R
I might be such a man a living dead man	B2
One of these days	J2
	-
Guinevere looked at him	C
And all that any woman has not said	T
Was in one look Why do you stab me now	B2
With such a needless then' If I am going	H
And I suppose I am are the words all lost	T
That men have said before to dogs and children	B2
To make them go away Why use a knife	A3
When there are words enough without your then'	B2
To cut as deep as need be What I ask you	I2
Is never more to ask me if my life	A3
Be one that I could wish had not been lived	T
And that you never torture it again	B2
To make it bleed and ache as you do now	B2
Past all indulgence or necessity	R
Were you to give a lonely child who loved you	I2
One living thing to keep a bird may be	R
Before you went away from her forever	R
Would you for surety not to be forgotten	B2
Maim it and leave it bleeding on her fingers	J2
And would you leave the child alone with it	T
Alone and too bewildered even to cry	R
Till you were out of sight Are you men never	R
To know what words are Do you doubt sometimes	J2
A Vision that lets you see so far away	Q2
That you forget so lightly who it was	J2
You must have cared for once to be so kind	T
Or seem so kind when she and for that only	R
Had that been all would throw down crowns and glories	J2
To share with you the last part of the world	T
And even the queen in me would hardly go	J2
So far off as to vanish If I were patched	T
And scrapped in what the sorriest fisher wife	A3
In Orkney might give mumbling to a beggar	R
I doubt if oafs and yokels would annoy me	R
More than I willed they should Am I so old	T
And dull so lean and waning or what not	T
That you must hurry away to grasp and hoard	T
The small effect of time I might have stolen	B2
From you and from a Light that where it lives	J2
Must live for ever Where does history tell you	I2
The Lord himself would seem in so great haste	T
As you for your perfection If our world	T
Your world and mine and Arthur's as you say	Q2
Is going out now to make way for another	R
Why not before it goes and I go with it	T
Have yet one morsel more of life together	R
Before death sweeps the table and our few crumbs	J2
Of love are a few last ashes on a fire	R
That cannot hurt your Vision or burn long	O2
You cannot warm your lonely fingers at it	T
For a great waste of time when I am dead	T
When I am dead you will be on your way	Q2
With maybe not so much as one remembrance	J2
Of all I was to follow you and torment you	I2
Some word of Bors may once have given color	R
To some few that I said but they were true	I2
Whether Bors told them first to me or whether	R
I told them first to Bors The Light you saw	J2
Was not the Light of Rome the word you had	T
Of Rome was not the word of God though Rome	B3
Has refuge for the weary and heavy laden	B2
Were I to live too long I might seek Rome	B3
Myself and be the happier when I found it	T
Meanwhile am I to be no more to you	I2
Than a moon shadow of a lonely stranger	R
Somewhere in Camelot And is there no region	B2
In this poor fading world of Arthur's now	B2
Where I may be again what I was once	J2
Before I die Should I live to be old	T
I shall have been long since too far away	Q2
For you to hate me then and I shall know	J2
How old I am by seeing it in your eyes	J2
Her misery told itself in a sad laugh	C3
And in a rueful twisting of her face	J2
That only beauty's perilous privilege	D3
Of injury would have yielded or suborned	T
As hope's infirm accessory while she prayed	T
Through Lancelot to heaven for Lancelot	T
She looked away If I were God she said	T
I should say Let them be as they have been	B2
A few more years will heap no vast account	T
Against eternity and all their love	N2
Was what I gave them They brought on the end	T
Of Arthur's empire which I wrought through Merlin	B2
For the world's knowing of what kings and queens	J2
Are made for but they knew not what they did	T
Save as a price and as a fear that love	N2
Might end in fear It need not end that way	Q2
And they need fear no more for what I gave them	M
For it was I who gave them to each other '	-
If I were God I should say that to you	I2
He saw tears quivering in her pleading eyes	J2
But through them she could see with a wild hope	E3
That he was fighting When he spoke he smiled	T
Much as he might have smiled at her she thought	T
Had she been Gawaine Gawaine having given	B2
To Lancelot who yet would have him live	O
An obscure wound that would not heal or kill	Q2
	-
My life was living backward for the moment	T
He said still burying in the coals and ashes	J2
Thoughts that he would not think His tongue was dry	R
And each dry word he said was choking him	C
As he said on I cannot ask of you	I2
That you be kind to me but there's a kindness	J2
That is your proper debt Would you cajole	Q2
Your reason with a weary picturing	H
On walls or on vain air of what your fancy	R
Like firelight makes of nothing but itself	K2
Do you not see that I go from you only	R
Because you go from me because our path	F3
Led where at last it had an end in havoc	G3
As long we knew it must as Arthur too	I2
And Merlin knew it must as God knew it must	T
A power that I should not have said was mine	B2
That was not mine and is not mine avails me	R
Strangely tonight although you are here with me	R
And I see much in what has come to pass	J2
That is to be The Light that I have seen	B2
As you say true is not the light of Rome	B3
Albeit the word of Rome that set you free	R
Was more than mine or the King's To flout that word	T
Would sound the preparation of a terror	R
To which a late small war on our account	T
Were a king's pastime and a queen's annoyance	J2
And that for the good fortune of a world	T
As yet not over fortuned may not be	R
There may be war to come when you are gone	B2
For I doubt yet Gawaine but Rome will hold you	I2
Hold you in Camelot If there be more war	R
No fire of mine shall feed it nor shall you	I2
Be with me to endure it You are free	R
And free you are going home to Camelot	T
There is no other way than one for you	I2
Nor is there more than one for me We have lived	T
And we shall die I thank you for my life	A3
Forgive me if I say no more tonight	T
He rose half blind with pity that was no longer	R
The servant of his purpose or his will	Q2
To grope away somewhere among the shadows	J2
For wine to drench his throat and his dry tongue	H3
That had been saying he knew not what to her	R
For whom his life devouring love was now	B2
A scourge of mercy	R
	-
Like a blue eyed Medea	T
Of white and gold broken with grief and fear	R
And fury that shook her speechless while she waited	T
Yet left her calm enough for Lancelot	T
To see her without seeing she stood up	I3
To breathe and suffer Fury could not live long	O2
With grief and fear like hers and love like hers	J2
When speech came back No other way now than one	B2
Free Do you call me free Do you mean by that	T
There was never woman alive freer to live	O
Than I am free to die Do you call me free	R
Because you are driven so near to death yourself	K2
With weariness of me and the sight of me	R
That you must use a crueller knife than ever	R
And this time at my heart for me to watch	J3
Before you drive it home For God's sake drive it	T
Drive it as often as you have the others	J2
And let the picture of each wound it makes	J2
On me be shown to women and men for ever	R
And the good few that know let them reward you	I2
I hear them in such low and pitying words	J2
As only those who know and are not many	R
Are used to say The good knight Lancelot	T
It was who drove the knife home to her heart	T
Rather than drive her home to Camelot '	-
Home Free Would you let me go there again	B2
To be at home be free To be his wife	A3
To live in his arms always and so hate him	C
That I could heap around him the same faggots	J2
That you put out with blood Go home you say	J2
Home where I saw the black post waiting for me	R
That morning saw those good men die for me	R
Gareth and Gaheris Lamorak's brother Tor	R
And all the rest Are men to die for me	R
For ever Is there water enough do you think	K3
Between this place and that for me to drown in	B2
	-
There is time enough I think between this hour	R
And some wise hour tomorrow for you to sleep in	B2
When you are safe again in Camelot	T
The King will not molest you or pursue you	I2
The King will be a suave and chastened man	B2
In Camelot you shall have no more to dread	T
Than you shall hear then of this rain that roars	J2
Tonight as if it would be roaring always	J2
I do not ask you to forgive the faggots	J2
Though I would have you do so for your peace	J2
Only the wise who know may do so much	L3
And they as you say truly are not many	R
And I would say no more of this tonight	T
	-
Then do not ask me for the one last thing	H
That I shall give to God I thought I died	T
That morning Why am I alive again	B2
To die again Are you all done with me	R
Is there no longer something left of me	R
That made you need me Have I lost myself	K2
So fast that what a mirror says I am	M3
Is not what is but only what was once	J2
Does half a year do that with us I wonder	R
Or do I still have something that was mine	B2
That afternoon when I was in the sunset	T
Under the oak and you were looking at me	R
Your look was not all sorrow for your going	H
To find the Light and leave me in the dark	N3
But I am the daughter of Leodogran	B2
And you are Lancelot and have a tongue	H3
To say what I may not Why must I go	J2
To Camelot when your kinsmen hold all France	J2
Why is there not some nook in some old house	J2
Where I might hide myself with you or not	T
Is there no castle or cabin or cave in the woods	J2
Yes I could love the bats and owls in France	J2
A lifetime sooner than I could the King	H
That I shall see in Camelot waiting there	R
For me to cringe and beg of him again	B2
The dust of mercy calling it holy bread	T
I wronged him but he bought me with a name	O3
Too large for my king father to relinquish	P3
Though I prayed him and I prayed God aloud	T
To spare that crown I called it crown enough	Q3
To be my father's child until you came	O3
And then there were no crowns or kings or fathers	J2
Under the sky I saw nothing but you	I2
And you would whip me back to bury myself	K2
In Camelot with a few slave maids and lackeys	J2
To be my grovelling court and even their faces	J2
Would not hide half the story Take me to France	J2
To France or Egypt anywhere else on earth	Q
Than Camelot Is there not room in France	J2
For two more dots of mortals or for one	B2
For me alone Let Lionel go with me	R
Or Bors Let Bors go with me into France	J2
And leave me there And when you think of me	R
Say Guinevere is in France where she is happy	R
And you may say no more of her than that	T
Why do you not say something to me now	B2
Before I go Why do you look and look	R3
Why do you frown as if you thought me mad	T
I am not mad but I shall soon be mad	T
If I go back to Camelot where the King is	J2
Lancelot Is there nothing left of me	R
Nothing of what you called your white and gold	T
And made so much of Has it all gone by	R
He must have been a lonely God who made	T
Man in his image and then made only a woman	B2
Poor fool she was Poor Queen Poor Guinevere	R
There were kings and bishops once under her window	J2
Like children and all scrambling for a flower	R
Time was God help me what am I saying now	B2
Does a Queen's memory wither away to that	T
Am I so dry as that Am I a shell	Q2
Have I become so cheap as this I wonder	R
Why the King cared She fell down on her knees	J2
Crying and held his knees with hungry fear	R
	-
Over his folded arms as over the ledge	S3
Of a storm shaken parapet he could see	R
Below him like a tumbling flood of gold	T
The Queen's hair with a crumpled foam of white	T
Around it Do you ask as a child would	T
For France because it has a name How long	O2
Do you conceive the Queen of the Christian world	T
Would hide herself in France were she to go there	R
How long should Rome require to find her there	R
And how long Rome or not would such a flower	R
As you survive the unrooting and transplanting	H
That you commend so ingenuously tonight	T
And if we shared your cave together how long	O2
And in the joy of what obscure seclusion	B2
If I may say it were Lancelot of the Lake	T3
And Guinevere an unknown man and woman	B2
For no eye to see twice There are ways to France	J2
But why pursue them for Rome's interdict	T
And for a longer war Your path is now	B2
As open as mine is dark or would be dark	N3
Without the Light that once had blinded me	R
To death had I seen more I shall see more	R
And I shall not be blind I pray moreover	R
That you be not so now You are a Queen	B2
And you may be no other You are too brave	U3
And kind and fair for men to cheer with lies	J2
We cannot make one world of two nor may we	R
Count one life more than one Could we go back	P2
To the old garden we should not stay long	O2
The fruit that we should find would all be fallen	B2
And have the taste of earth	Q
	-
When she looked up	I3
A tear fell on her forehead Take me away	J2
She cried Why do you do this Why do you say this	J2
If you are sorry for me take me away	J2
From Camelot Send me away drive me away	J2
Only away from there The King is there	R
And I may kill him if I see him there	R
Take me away take me away to France	J2
And if I cannot hide myself in France	J2
Then let me die in France	J2
	-
He shook his head	T
Slowly and raised her slowly in his arms	J2
Holding her there and they stood long together	R
And there was no sound then of anything	H
Save a low moaning of a broken woman	B2
And the cold roaring down of that long rain	B2
	-
All night the rain came down on Joyous Gard	T
And all night there before the crumbling embers	J2
That faded into feathery death like dust	T
Lancelot sat and heard it He saw not	T
The fire that died but he heard rain that fell	Q2
On all those graves around him and those years	J2
Behind him and when dawn came he was cold	T
At last he rose and for a time stood seeing	H
The place where she had been She was not there	R
He was not sure that she had ever been there	R
He was not sure there was a Queen or a King	H
Or a world with kingdoms on it He was cold	T
He was not sure of anything but the Light	T
The Light he saw not And I shall not see it	T
He thought so long as I kill men for Gawaine	B2
If I kill him I may as well kill myself	K2
And I have killed his brothers He tried to sleep	F2
But rain had washed the sleep out of his life	A3
And there was no more sleep When he awoke	V3
He did not know that he had been asleep	F2
And the same rain was falling At some strange hour	R
It ceased and there was light And seven days after	R
With a cavalcade of silent men and women	B2
The Queen rode into Camelot where the King was	J2
And Lancelot rode grimly at her side	T
	-
When he rode home again to Joyous Gard	T
The storm in Gawaine's eyes and the King's word	T
Of banishment attended him Gawaine	B2
Will give the King no peace Lionel said	T
And Lancelot said after him Therefore	R
The King will have no peace And so it was	J2
That Lancelot with many of Arthur's knights	J2
That were not Arthur's now sailed out one day	J2
From Cardiff to Bayonne where soon Gawaine	B2
The King and the King's army followed them	M
For longer sorrow and for longer war	R

Edwin Arlington Robinson

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