Lohengrin Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CDEFGHHIJBKFLMNOPB FQ EH HEROSTU VHPWXGY ZA2H B2AC2 D2E2F2WG2EH2WHWI2WWJ 2K2HWHL2XEM2HL2N2HO2 ZP2Q2R2A2W S2 Q2 T2U2V2W2HX2EHY2Z2 A3XB3C3X2YED3HHE3WL2 W2F3G3H3HFID3E3F2I3O VVA3YQ2HQ2W2J3U2YK3Y HHWYL3YYQ2M3YYN3Q2Q2 O2O3WL2YYYL2P3Q3YR3Y S3YYT3WHQ2VYHVI2WU3Q 2YHYV3WA2THE holy bell untouched by human hands | A |
Clanged suddenly and tolled with solemn knell | B |
- | |
Between the massive blazoned temple doors | C |
Thrown wide to let the summer morning in | D |
Sir Lohengrin the youngest of the knights | E |
Had paused to taste the sweetness of the air | F |
All sounds came up the mountain side to him | G |
Softened to music noise of laboring men | H |
The cheerful cock crow and the low of kine | H |
Bleating of sheep and twittering of the birds | I |
Commingled into murmurous harmonies | J |
When harsh and near and clamorous tolled the bell | B |
He started with his hand upon his sword | K |
His face an instant since serene and fair | F |
And simple with the beauty of a boy | L |
Heroic flushed expectant all at once | M |
The lovely valley stretching out beneath | N |
Was now a painted picture nothing more | O |
All music of the mountain or the vale | P |
Rang meaningless to him who heard the bell | B |
'I stand upon the threshold and am called ' | - |
His clear young voice shrilled gladly through the air | F |
And backward through the sounding corridors | Q |
- | |
'And have ye heard the bell my brother knights | E |
Untouched by human hands or winds of heaven | H |
It called me yea it called my very name ' | - |
So breathing still of morning Lohengrin | H |
Sprang 'midst the gathering circle of the knights | E |
Eager exalted 'Nay it called us all | R |
It rang as it hath often rung before | O |
Because the good cause somewhere on the earth | S |
Requires a champion ' with a serious smile | T |
An older gravely answered 'Where to go | U |
We know not and we know not whom to serve ' | - |
Then spake Sir Percivale their holiest knight | V |
And father of the young Sir Lohengrin | H |
'All that to us seems old familiar stale | P |
Unto the boy is vision miracle | W |
Cross him not brethren in his first desire | X |
I will dare swear the summons rang to him | G |
Not sternly solemn as it tolled to us | Y |
But gracious sweet and gay as marriage bells ' | - |
His pious hands above the young man's head | Z |
Wandered in blessing lightly touching it | A2 |
As fondly as a mother 'Lohengrin | H |
My son farewell God send thee faith and strength ' | - |
' God send me patience and humility ' | - |
Murmured the boyish knight from contrite heart | B2 |
With head downcast for those anointing hands | A |
Then raising suddenly wide innocent eyes | C2 |
'Father my faith is boundless as God's love ' | - |
- | |
Complete in glittering silver armor clad | D2 |
With silver maiden shield blank of device | E2 |
Sir Lohengrin rode down the Montsalvatsch | F2 |
With Percivale and Tristram Frimutelle | W |
And Eliduc to speed him on his quest | G2 |
They fared in silence for the elder knights | E |
Were filled with grave misgivings solemn thoughts | H2 |
Of fate and sorrow and they heard the bell | W |
Tolling incessant while Sir Lohengrin | H |
Buoyant with hope and dreaming like a girl | W |
With wild blood dancing in his veins had made | I2 |
The journey down the mount unconsciously | W |
Surprised to find that he had reached the vale | W |
Distinct and bowered in green the mountain loomed | J2 |
Topped with the wondrous temple with its cross | K2 |
Smitten to splendor by the eastern sun | H |
Around them lay the valley beautiful | W |
Imparadised with flowers and light of June | H |
And through the valley flowed a willowy stream | L2 |
Golden and gray at this delicious hour | X |
With purity and sunshine Here the knights | E |
Irresolute gave pause which path to choose | M2 |
'God lead me right ' said meek Sir Lohengrin | H |
And as he spoke afar upon the stream | L2 |
He saw a shining swan approaching them | N2 |
Full breasted with the current it sailed down | H |
Dazzling in sun and shadow air and wave | O2 |
With unseen movement wings a little spread | Z |
Their downy under feathers fluttering | P2 |
Stirred by its stately progress in its beak | Q2 |
It held a silver chain and drew thereby | R2 |
A dainty carven shallop after it | A2 |
Embossed with silver and with ivory | W |
'Lead ye my charger up the mount again ' | - |
Cried Lohengrin and leaped unto the ground | S2 |
'For I will trust my guidance to the swan ' | - |
' Nay hold Sir Lohengrin ' said Eliduc | Q2 |
' Thou hast not made provision for this quest ' | - |
' God will provide ' the pious knight replied | T2 |
Then Percival 'Be faithful to thy vows | U2 |
Bethink thee of thine oath when thou art asked | V2 |
Thy mission in the temple or thy race | W2 |
Farewell farewell ' 'Farewell ' cried Lohengrin | H |
And sprang into the shallop as it passed | X2 |
And waved farewells unto his brother knights | E |
Until they saw the white and silver shine | H |
Of boat and swan and armor less and less | Y2 |
Till in the willowy distance they were lost | Z2 |
- | |
Skirting the bases of the rolling hills | A3 |
He glided on the river hour by hour | X |
All through the endless summer day At first | B3 |
On either side the willows brushed his boat | C3 |
Then underneath their sweeping arch he passed | X2 |
Into a rich enchanted wilderness | Y |
Cool full of mystic shadows and rare lights | E |
Wherein the very river changed its hue | D3 |
Reflecting tender shades of waving green | H |
And mossy undergrowth of grass and fern | H |
Here yellow lilies floated 'midst broad leaves | E3 |
Upon their reedy stalks and far below | W |
Beneath the flags and rushes coppery bream | L2 |
Sedately sailed and flickering perch and dace | W2 |
With silvery lustres caught the glancing rays | F3 |
Of the June sun upon their mottled scales | G3 |
'Midst the close sedge the bright eyed water mouse | H3 |
Nibbled its food while overhead its kin | H |
The squirrel frisked among the trees The air | F |
Was full of life and sound of restless birds | I |
Darting with gayer tints of red and blue | D3 |
And speckled plumage 'mid gray willow leaves | E3 |
And sober alders and light foliaged birch | F2 |
Unnumbered insects fluttered o'er the banks | I3 |
Some dimpling the smooth river's slippery floor | O |
Leaping from point to point Then passed the knight | V |
'Twixt broad fields basking in excess of light | V |
And girt around by range on range of hills | A3 |
Green umber purple waving limitless | Y |
Unto the radiant crystal of the sky | Q2 |
Through unfamiliar solitudes the swan | H |
Still led him and he saw no living thing | Q2 |
Save creatures of the wood no human face | W2 |
Nor sign of human dwelling But he sailed | J3 |
Holding high thoughts and vowing valorous vows | U2 |
Filled with vast wonder and keen happiness | Y |
At the world's very beauty and his life | K3 |
Opened in spacious vistas measureless | Y |
As lovely as the stream that bore him on | H |
So dazzled was the boyish Lohengrin | H |
By all the vital beauty of the real | W |
And the yet wilder beauty of his dreams | Y |
That he had lost all sense of passing time | L3 |
And woke as from a trance of centuries | Y |
To find himself within the heart of hills | Y |
The river widened to an ample lake | Q2 |
And the swan faring towards a narrow gorge | M3 |
That seemed to lead him to the sunset clouds | Y |
Suffused with color were the extremest heights | Y |
The river rippled in a glassy flood | N3 |
Glorying in the glory of the sky | Q2 |
O what a moment for a man to take | Q2 |
Down with him in his memory to the grave | O2 |
Life at that hour appeared as infinite | O3 |
As expectation sacred wonderful | W |
A vision and a privilege The stream | L2 |
Lessened to force its way through rocky walls | Y |
Then swerved and flowed a purple brook through woods | Y |
Dewy with evening sunless odorous | Y |
There Lohengrin with eyes upon the stream | L2 |
Now brighter than the earth saw deep and clear | P3 |
The delicate splendor of the earliest star | Q3 |
All night too full of sweet expectancy | Y |
Too reverent of the loveliness for sleep | R3 |
He watched the rise and setting of the stars | Y |
All things were new upon that magic day | S3 |
Suggesting nobler possibilities | Y |
For a life passed in wise serenity | Y |
Confided with sublimely simple faith | T3 |
Unto the guidance of the higher will | W |
In the still heavens hung the large round moon | H |
White on the blue black ripples glittering | Q2 |
And rolled soft floods of slumberous misty light | V |
Over dim fields and colorless huge hills | Y |
But the pure swan still bore its burden on | H |
The ivory shallop and the silver knight | V |
Pale faced in that white lustre neither made | I2 |
For any port but seemed to float at will | W |
Aimlessly in a strange unpeopled land | U3 |
So passed the short fair night and morning broke | Q2 |
Upon the river where it flowed through flats | Y |
Wide fresh and vague in gray uncertain dawn | H |
With cool air sweet from leagues of dewy grass | Y |
Then 'midst the flush and beauty of the east | V3 |
The risen sun made all the river flow | W |
Smitten wit | A2 |
Emma Lazarus
(1)
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