The Lady Of Provence Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAB BACA DDEECFGCHHIIAA JJKLAAMMNNOOPPQQRSSR BBAA TRRUUV PPKLRWXXSSY ZWBW A2A2B2B2KKC2C2BB SSRD2BRE2F2SSG2H2BBI 2I2J2J2 K2K2KKBB KKBBBL2M2JBBKKK2K2EB E LSZN2LS O2O2TTUU P2P2BBQ2Q2AACC RRGGN2N2K2 DR2DR2 BBL2L2 RRSSYYS2S2P2P2CC T2T2CCKCD2BQQ OOEEIIU2U2B2B2CCC2C2 CCV2W2Q EC'Courage was cast about her like a dress | A |
Of solemn comeliness | A |
A gathered mind and an untroubled face | A |
Did give her dangers grace ' Donne | B |
- | |
- | |
The war note of the Saracen | B |
Was on the winds of France | A |
It had stilled the harp of the Troubadour | C |
And the clash of the tourney's lance | A |
- | |
The sounds of the sea and the sounds of the night | D |
And the hollow echoes of charge and flight | D |
Were around Clotilde as she knelt to pray | E |
In a chapel where the mighty lay | E |
On the old Provencal shore | C |
Many a Chatillon beneath | F |
Unstirred by the ringing trumpet's breath | G |
His shroud of armour wore | C |
And the glimpses of moonlight that went and came | H |
Through the clouds like bursts of a dying flame | H |
Gave quivering life to the slumber pale | I |
Of stern forms crouched in their marble mail | I |
At rest on the tombs of the knightly race | A |
The silent throngs of that burial place | A |
- | |
They were imaged there with helm and spear | J |
As leaders in many a bold career | J |
And haughty their stillness looked and high | K |
Like a sleep whose dreams were of victory | L |
But meekly the voice of the lady rose | A |
Through the trophies of their proud repose | A |
Meekly yet fervantly calling down aid | M |
Under their banners of battle she prayed | M |
With her pale fair brow and her eyes of love | N |
Upraised to the Virgin's portrayed above | N |
And her hair flung back till it swept the grave | O |
Of a Chatillon with its gleamy wave | O |
And her fragile frame at every blast | P |
That full of the savage war horn passed | P |
Trembling as trembles a bird's quick heart | Q |
When it vainly strives from its cage to part | Q |
So knelt she in her woe | R |
A weeper alone with the tearless dead | S |
Oh they reck not of tears o'er their quiet shed | S |
Or the dust that stirred below | R |
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Hark a swift step she hath caught its tone | B |
Through the dash of the sea through the wild wind's moan | B |
Is her lord returned with his conquering bands | A |
No a breathless vassal before her stands | A |
'Hast thou been on the field Art thou come from the host ' | - |
'from the slaughter lady All all is lost | T |
Our banners are taken our knights laid low | R |
Our spearmen chased by the Paynim foe | R |
And thy lord ' his voice took a sadder sound | U |
'Thy lord he is not on the bloody ground | U |
There are those who tell that the leader's plume | V |
Was seen on the flight through the gathering gloom ' | - |
A change o'er her mien and her spirit passed | P |
She ruled the heart which had beat so fast | P |
She dashed the tears from her kindling eye | K |
With a glance as of sudden royalty | L |
The proud blood sprang in a fiery flow | R |
Quick o'er bosom and cheek and brow | W |
And her young voice rose till the peasant shook | X |
At the thrilling tone and the falcon look | X |
'dost thou stand by the tombs of the glorious dead | S |
And fear not to say that their son hath fled | S |
Away he is lying by lance and shield | Y |
Point me the path to his battle field ' | - |
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The shadows of the forest | Z |
Are about the lady now | W |
She is hurrying through the midnight on | B |
Beneath the dark pine bough | W |
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There's a murmur of omens in every leaf | A2 |
There's a wail in the stream like the dirge of a chief | A2 |
The branches that rock to the tempest strife | B2 |
Are groaning like things of troubled life | B2 |
The wind from the battle seems rushing by | K |
With a funeral march through the gloomy sky | K |
The pathway is rugged and wild and long | C2 |
But her fame in the daring of love is strong | C2 |
And her soul as on swelling seas upborne | B |
And girded all fearful things to scorn | B |
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And fearful things were around her spread | S |
When she reached the field of the warrior dead | S |
There lay the noble the valiant low | R |
Ay but | D2 |
one | B |
word speaks of deeper woe | R |
There lay the | E2 |
loved | F2 |
on each fallen head | S |
Mothers' vain blessings and tears had shed | S |
Sisters were watching in many a home | G2 |
For the fettered footstep no more to come | H2 |
Names in the prayer of that night were spoken | B |
Whose claim unto kindred prayer was broken | B |
And the fire was heaped and the bright wine poured | I2 |
For those now needing nor hearth nor board | I2 |
Only a requiem a shroud a knell | J2 |
And oh ye beloved of women farewell | J2 |
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Silently with lips compressed | K2 |
Pale hands clasped above her breast | K2 |
Stately brow of anguish high | K |
Deathlike cheek but dauntless eye | K |
Silently o'er that red plain | B |
Moved the lady 'midst the slain | B |
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Sometimes it seemed as a charging cry | K |
Or the ringing tramp of a steed came nigh | K |
Sometimes a blast of the Paynim horn | B |
Sudden and shrill from the mountain's borne | B |
And her maidens trembled but on | B |
her | L2 |
ear | M2 |
No meaning fell with those sounds of fear | J |
They had less of mastery to shake her now | B |
Than the quivering erewhile of an aspen bough | B |
She searched into many an unclosed eye | K |
That looked without soul to the starry sky | K |
She bowed down o'er many a shattered breast | K2 |
She lifted up helmet and cloven crest | K2 |
Not there not there he lay | E |
'Lead where the most hath been dared and done | B |
Where the heart of the battle hath bled lead on ' | - |
And the vassal took the way | E |
- | |
He turned to a dark and lonely tree | L |
That waved o'er a fountain red | S |
Oh swiftest | Z |
there | N2 |
had the currents free | L |
From noble veins been shed | S |
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Thickest there the spear heads gleamed | O2 |
And the scattered plumage streamed | O2 |
And the broken shields were tossed | T |
And the shivered lances crossed | T |
And the mail clad sleepers round | U |
Made the harvest of that ground | U |
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He was there the leader amidst his band | P2 |
Where the faithful had made their last vain stand | P2 |
He was there but affection's glance alone | B |
The darkly changed in that hour had known | B |
With the falchion yet in his cold hand grasped | Q2 |
And a banner of France to his bosom clasped | Q2 |
And the form that of conflict bore fearful trace | A |
And the face oh speak not of that dead face | A |
As it lay to answer love's look no more | C |
Yet never so proudly loved before | C |
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She quelled in her soul the deep floods of woe | R |
The time was not yet for their waves to flow | R |
She felt the full presence the might of death | G |
Yet there came no sob with her struggling breath | G |
And a proud smile shone o'er her pale despair | N2 |
As she turned to his follower 'Your lord is there | N2 |
Look on him know him by scarf and crest | K2 |
Bear him away with his sires to rest ' | - |
- | |
Another day another night | D |
And the sailor on the deep | R2 |
Hears the low chant of a funeral rite | D |
From the lordly chapel sweep | R2 |
- | |
It comes with a broken and muffled tone | B |
As if that rite were in terror done | B |
Yet the song 'midst the seas hath a thrilling power | L2 |
And he knows 'tis a chieftain's burial hour | L2 |
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Hurriedly in fear and woe | R |
Through the aisle the mourners go | R |
With a hushed and stealthy tread | S |
Bearing on the noble dead | S |
Sheathed in armour of the field | Y |
Only his wan face revealed | Y |
Whence the still and solemn gleam | S2 |
Doth a strange sad contrast seem | S2 |
To the anxious eyes of that pale band | P2 |
With torches wavering in every hand | P2 |
For they dread each moment the shout of war | C |
And the burst of the Moslem scimitar | C |
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There is no plumed head o'er the bier to bend | T2 |
No brother of battle no princely friend | T2 |
No sound comes back like the sounds of yore | C |
Unto sweeping swords from the marble floor | C |
By the red fountain the valiant lie | K |
The flower of Provencal chivalry | C |
But | D2 |
one | B |
free step and one lofty heart | Q |
Bear through that scene to the last their part | Q |
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She hath led the death train of the brave | O |
To the verge of his own ancestral grave | O |
She hath held o'er her spirit long rigid sway | E |
But the struggling passion must now have way | E |
In the cheek half seen through her mourning veil | I |
By turns does the swift blood flush and fail | I |
The pride on the lip is lingering still | U2 |
But it shakes as a flame to the blast might thrill | U2 |
Anguish and triumph are met at strife | B2 |
Rending the cords of her frail young life | B2 |
And she sinks at last on her warrior's bier | C |
Lifting her voice as if death might hear | C |
'I have won thy fame from the breath of wrong | C2 |
My soul hath risen for thy glory strong | C2 |
Now call me hence by thy side to be | C |
The world thou leavest has no place for me | C |
The light goes with thee the joy the worth | V2 |
Faithful and tender Oh call me forth | W2 |
Give me my home on thy noble heart | Q |
Well have we loved let us both depart ' | - |
And pale on the breast of the dead she lay | E |
The living c | C |
Felicia Dorothea Hemans
(1)
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