King Harald's Trance Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBC A DEDE A FGFG D HIHI D HDHD D JHJH D HKHK D LMLN F OPOP F BFBF F QFQF F HHHH F HHHH D FRFS D HDHD D HTHS D EUEU D VHVH| I | A |
| - | |
| Sword in length a reaping hook amain | B |
| Harald sheared his field blood up to shank | C |
| 'Mid the swathes of slain | B |
| First at moonrise drank | C |
| - | |
| II | A |
| - | |
| Thereof hunger as for meats the knife | D |
| Pricked his ribs in one sharp spur to reach | E |
| Home and his young wife | D |
| Nigh the sea ford beach | E |
| - | |
| III | A |
| - | |
| After battle keen to feed was he | F |
| Smoking flesh the thresher washed down fast | G |
| Like an angry sea | F |
| Ships from keel to mast | G |
| - | |
| IV | D |
| - | |
| Name us glory singer name us pride | H |
| Matching Harald's in his deeds of strength | I |
| Chiefs wife sword by side | H |
| Foemen stretched their length | I |
| - | |
| V | D |
| - | |
| Half a winter night the toasts hurrahed | H |
| Crowned him clothed him trumpeted him high | D |
| Till awink he bade | H |
| Wife to chamber fly | D |
| - | |
| VI | D |
| - | |
| Twice the sun had mounted twice had sunk | J |
| Ere his ears took sound he lay for dead | H |
| Mountain on his trunk | J |
| Ocean on his head | H |
| - | |
| VII | D |
| - | |
| Clamped to couch his fiery hearing sucked | H |
| Whispers that at heart made iron clang | K |
| Here fool women clucked | H |
| There men held harangue | K |
| - | |
| VIII | D |
| - | |
| Burial to fit their lord of war | L |
| They decreed him hailed the kingling ha | M |
| Hateful but this Thor | L |
| Failed a weak lamb's baa | N |
| - | |
| IX | F |
| - | |
| King they hailed a branchlet shaped to fare | O |
| Weighted so like quaking shingle spume | P |
| When his blood's own heir | O |
| Ripened in the womb | P |
| - | |
| X | F |
| - | |
| Still he heard and doglike hoglike ran | B |
| Nose of hearing till his blind sight saw | F |
| Woman stood with man | B |
| Mouthing low at paw | F |
| - | |
| XI | F |
| - | |
| Woman man they mouthed they spake a thing | Q |
| Armed to split a mountain sunder seas | F |
| Still the frozen king | Q |
| Lay and felt him freeze | F |
| - | |
| XII | F |
| - | |
| Doglike hoglike horselike now he raced | H |
| Riderless in ghost across a ground | H |
| Flint of breast blank faced | H |
| Past the fleshly bound | H |
| - | |
| XIII | F |
| - | |
| Smell of brine his nostrils filled with might | H |
| Nostrils quickened eyelids eyelids hand | H |
| Hand for sword at right | H |
| Groped the great haft spanned | H |
| - | |
| XIV | D |
| - | |
| Wonder struck to ice his people's eyes | F |
| Him they saw the prone upon the bier | R |
| Sheer from backbone rise | F |
| Sword uplifting peer | S |
| - | |
| XV | D |
| - | |
| Sitting did he breathe against the blade | H |
| Standing kiss it for that proof of life | D |
| Strode as netters wade | H |
| Straightway to his wife | D |
| - | |
| XVI | D |
| - | |
| Her he eyed his judgement was one word | H |
| Foulbed and she fell the blow clove two | T |
| Fearful for the third | H |
| All their breath indrew | S |
| - | |
| XVII | D |
| - | |
| Morning danced along the waves to beach | E |
| Dumb his chiefs fetched breath for what might hap | U |
| Glassily on each | E |
| Stared the iron cap | U |
| - | |
| XVIII | D |
| - | |
| Sudden as it were a monster oak | V |
| Split to yield a limb by stress of heat | H |
| Strained he staggered broke | V |
| Doubled at their feet | H |
George Meredith
(1)
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