The Prisoner. A Fragment Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEE FFG HHII JJK LIMM NNOO PPQ IIOO RST URVV WWOO XXYY OOZA2 B2C2D2 B2B2E2E2 T F2

In the dungeon crypts idly did I strayA
Reckless of the lives wasting there awayA
'Draw the ponderous bars open Warder stern 'B
He dare not say me nay the hinges harshly turnC
'Our guests are darkly lodged ' I whispered gazing throughD
The vault whose grated eye showed heaven more grey than blueD
This was when glad spring laughed in awaking prideE
'Aye darkly lodged enough ' returned my sullen guideE
-
Then God forgive my youth forgive my careless tongueF
I scoffed as the chill chains on the damp flagstones rungF
'Confined in triple walls art thou so much to fearG
That we must bind thee down and clench thy fetters here '-
-
The captive raised her face it was as soft and mildH
As sculptured marble saint or slumbering unweaned 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 long '-
-
Hoarse laughed the jailor grim 'Shall I be won to hearL
Dost think fond dreaming wretch that I shall grant thy prayerI
Or better still wilt melt my master's heart with groansM
Ah sooner might the sun thaw down these granite stonesM
-
'My master's voice is low his aspect bland and kindN
But hard as hardest flint the soul that lurks behindN
And I am rough and rude yet not more rough to seeO
Than is the hidden ghost which has its home in meO
-
About her lips there played a smile of almost scornP
'My friend ' she gently said 'you have not heard me mournP
When you my parents' lives my lost life can restoreQ
Then may I weep and sue but never Friend before '-
-
'Yet tell them Julian all I am not doomed to wearI
Year after year in gloom and desolate despairI
A messenger of Hope comes every night to meO
And offers for short life eternal libertyO
-
He comes with western winds with evening's wandering airsR
With that clear dusk of heaven that brings the thickest starsS
Winds take a pensive tone and stars a tender fire And visions rise and change which kill me with desireT
-
'Desire for nothing known in my maturer yearsU
When joy grew mad with awe at counting future tearsR
When if my spirit's sky was full of flashes warmV
I knew not whence they came from sun or thunderstormV
-
'But first a hush of peace a soundless calm descendsW
The struggle of distress and fierce impatience endsW
Mute music soothes my breast unuttered harmonyO
That I could never dream till earth was lost to meO
-
'Then dawns the Invisible the Unseen its truth revealsX
My outward sense is gone my inward essence feelsX
Its wings are almost free its home its harbour foundY
Measuring the gulf it stoops and dares the final boundY
-
'Oh dreadful is the check intense the agonyO
When the ear begins to hear and the eye begins to seeO
When the pulse begins to throb the brain to think againZ
The soul to feel the flesh and the flesh to feel the chainA2
-
'Yet I would lose no sting would wish no torture less goB2
The more that anguish racks the earlier it will blessC2
And robed in fires of Hell or bright with heavenly shineD2
If it but herald Death the vision is divine '-
-
She ceased to speak and we unanswering turned to goB2
We had no further power to work the captive woeB2
Her cheek he gleaming eye declared that man had givenE2
A sentence unapproved and overruled by HeavenE2
-
-
OctoberT
-
This poem is part of a larger Gondal poem which Emily revised for publication in She cut lines and She added the concluding stanza which starts with 'She ceased to speak ' The original title of the poem is 'Julian M and A G Rochelle ' the names of two lovers in the Gondal sagaF2

Emily Jane Bronta<<



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