Prisoner, The - (a Fragment) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFG HHII JJKK GILL MMNN OOPP IINN QRSS TQUU VVNN WWXX NNYZ A2A2B2B2 C2C2D2D2

In the dungeon crypts idly did I strayA
Reckless of the lives wasting there awayA
Draw the ponderous bars open Warder sternB
He dared not say me nay the hinges harshly turnB
-
Our guests are darkly lodged I whisper'd gazing throughC
The vault whose grated eye showed heaven more grey than blueC
This was when glad spring laughed in awaking prideD
Aye darkly lodged enough returned my sullen guideD
-
Then God forgive my youth forgive my careless tongueE
I scoffed as the chill chains on the damp flag stones rungE
Confined in triple walls art thou so much to fearF
That we must bind thee down and clench thy fetters hereG
-
The captive raised her face it was as soft and mildH
As sculpted marble saint or slumbering unwean'd childH
It was so soft and mild it was so sweet and fairI
Pain could not trace a line nor grief a shadow thereI
-
The captive raised her hand and pressed it to her browJ
I have been struck she said and I am suffering nowJ
Yet these are little worth your bolts and irons strongK
And were they forged in steel they could not hold me longK
-
Hoarse laughed the jailor grim Shall I be won to hearG
Dost think fond dreaming wretch that I shall grant thy prayerI
Or better still wilt melt my master's heart with groansL
Ah sooner might the sun thaw down these granite stonesL
-
My master's voice is low his aspect bland and kindM
But hard as hardest flint the soul that lurks behindM
And I am rough and rude yet not more rough to seeN
Than is the hidden ghost that has its home in meN
-
About her lips there played a smile of almost scornO
My friend she gently said you have not heard me mournO
When you my kindred's lives my lost life can restoreP
Then I may weep and sue but never friend beforeP
-
Still let my tyrants know I am not doom'd to wearI
Year after year in gloom and desolate despairI
A messenger of Hope comes every night to meN
And offers for short life eternal libertyN
-
He comes with western winds with evening's wandering airsQ
With that clear dusk of heaven that brings the thickest starsR
Winds take a pensive tone and stars a tender fireS
And visions rise and change that kill me with desireS
-
Desire for nothing known in my maturer yearsT
When Joy grew mad with awe at counting future tearsQ
When if my spirit's sky was full of flashes warmU
I knew not whence they came from sun or thunder stormU
-
But first a hush of peace a soundless calm descendsV
The struggle of distress and fierce impatience endsV
Mute music soothes my breast unuttered harmonyN
That I could never dream till Earth was lost to meN
-
Then dawns the Invisible the Unseen its truth revealsW
My outward sense is gone my inward essence feelsW
Its wings are almost free its home its harbour foundX
Measuring the gulph it stoops and dares the final boundX
-
-
Oh dreadful is the check intense the agonyN
When the ear begins to hear and the eye begins to seeN
When the pulse begins to throb the brain to think againY
The soul to feel the flesh and the flesh to feel the chainZ
-
-
Yet I would lose no sting would wish no torture lessA2
The more that anguish racks the earlier it will blessA2
And robed in fires of hell or bright with heavenly shineB2
If it but herald death the vision is divineB2
-
-
She ceased to speak and we unanswering turned to goC2
We had no further power to work the captive woeC2
Her cheek her gleaming eye declared that man had givenD2
A sentence unapproved and overruled by HeavenD2

Emily Jane Bronta<<



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