The Shipwreck Of Idomeneus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDECFGHIJKLMNKOPQR STUVWBXYZA2B2C2D2E2F 2G2H2I2J2K2L2ZM2N2O2 P2NQ2R2F2S2E2K2T2A2P U2ZPZPV2PPQ2W2NX2Y2A 2PZ2PA3Q2ZPPKPOM2DB3 C3M2PD3B3M2PNE3PZF3A 2ZB3D3Q2ZPG3H3B3B3ZB 3PQ2B3N I3C2F3PN PZJ3O2B3O2B3Z2PB3QB3 B3B3PPPA3ZTB3KPK3PA2 L3PB3PPM3QPE3 N3PB3O3Q2PM2PPB3PB3F 2P3ZQ3B3PB3B3B3B3R3ZSwept from his fleet upon that fatal night | A |
When great Poseidon's sudden veering wrath | B |
Scattered the happy homeward floating Greeks | C |
Like foam flakes off the waves the King of Crete | D |
Held lofty commune with the dark Sea god | E |
His brows were crowned with victory his cheeks | C |
Were flushed with triumph but the mighty joy | F |
Of Troy's destruction and his own great deeds | G |
Passed for the thoughts of home were dearer now | H |
And sweet the memory of wife and child | I |
And weary now the ten long foreign years | J |
And terrible the doubt of short delay | K |
More terrible O Gods he cried but stopped | L |
Then raised his voice upon the storm and prayed | M |
O thou if injured injured not by me | N |
Poseidon whom sea deities obey | K |
And mortals worship hear me for indeed | O |
It was our oath to aid the cause of Greece | P |
Not unespoused by Gods and most of all | Q |
By thee if gentle currents havens calm | R |
Fair winds and prosperous voyage and the Shape | S |
Impersonate in many a perilous hour | T |
Both in the stately councils of the Kings | U |
And when the husky battle murmured thick | V |
May testify of services performed | W |
But now the seas are haggard with thy wrath | B |
Thy breath is tempest never at the shores | X |
Of hostile Ilium did thy stormful brows | Y |
Betray such fierce magnificence not even | Z |
On that wild day when mad with torch and glare | A2 |
The frantic crowds with eyes like starving wolves | B2 |
Burst from their ports impregnable a stream | C2 |
Of headlong fury toward the hissing deep | D2 |
Where then full armed I stood in guard compact | E2 |
Beside thee and alone with brand and spear | F2 |
We held at bay the swarming brood and poured | G2 |
Blood of choice warriors on the foot ploughed sands | H2 |
Thou meantime dark with conflict as a cloud | I2 |
That thickens in the bosom of the West | J2 |
Over quenched sunset circled round with flame | K2 |
Huge as a billow running from the winds | L2 |
Long distances till with black shipwreck swoln | Z |
It flings its angry mane about the sky | M2 |
And like that billow heaving ere it burst | N2 |
And like that cloud urged by impulsive storm | O2 |
With charge of thunder lightning and the drench | P2 |
Of torrents thou in all thy majesty | N |
Of mightiness didst fall upon the war | Q2 |
Remember that great moment Nor forget | R2 |
The aid I gave thee how my ready spear | F2 |
Flew swiftly seconding thy mortal stroke | S2 |
Where'er the press was hottest never slacked | E2 |
My arm its duty nor mine eye its aim | K2 |
Though terribly they compassed us and stood | T2 |
Thick as an Autumn forest whose brown hair | A2 |
Lustrous with sunlight by the still increase | P |
Of heat to glowing heat conceives like zeal | U2 |
Of radiance till at the pitch of noon | Z |
'Tis seized with conflagration and distends | P |
Horridly over leagues of doom'd domain | Z |
Mingling the screams of birds the cries of brutes | P |
The wail of creatures in the covert pent | V2 |
Howls yells and shrieks of agony the hiss | P |
Of seething sap and crash of falling boughs | P |
Together in its dull voracious roar | Q2 |
So closely and so fearfully they throng'd | W2 |
Savage with phantasies of victory | N |
A sea of dusky shapes for day had passed | X2 |
And night fell on their darkened faces red | Y2 |
With fight and torchflare shrill the resonant air | A2 |
With eager shouts and hoarse with angry groans | P |
While over all the dense and sullen boom | Z2 |
The din and murmur of the myriads | P |
Rolled with its awful intervals as though | A3 |
The battle breathed or as against the shore | Q2 |
Waves gather back to heave themselves anew | Z |
That night sleep dropped not from the dreary skies | P |
Nor could the prowess of our chiefs oppose | P |
That sea of raging men But what were they | K |
Or what is man opposed to thee Its hopes | P |
Are wrecks himself the drowning drifting weed | O |
That wanders on thy waters such as I | M2 |
Who see the scattered remnants of my fleet | D |
Remembering the day when first we sailed | B3 |
Each glad ship shining like the morning star | C3 |
With promise for the world Oh such as I | M2 |
Thus darkly drifting on the drowning waves | P |
O God of waters 'tis a dreadful thing | D3 |
To suffer for an evil unrevealed | B3 |
Dreadful it is to hear the perishing cry | M2 |
Of those we love the silence that succeeds | P |
How dreadful Still my trust is fixed on thee | N |
For those that still remain and for myself | E3 |
And if I hear thy swift foam snorting steeds | P |
Drawing thy dusky chariot as in | Z |
The pauses of the wind I seem to hear | F3 |
Deaf thou art not to my entreating prayer | A2 |
Haste then to give us help for closely now | Z |
Crete whispers in my ears and all my blood | B3 |
Runs keen and warm for home and I have yearning | D3 |
Such yearning as I never felt before | Q2 |
To see again my wife my little son | Z |
My Queen my pretty nursling of five years | P |
The darling of my hopes our dearest pledge | G3 |
Of marriage and our brightest prize of love | H3 |
Whose parting cry rings clearest in my heart | B3 |
O lay this horror much offended God | B3 |
And making all as fair and firm as when | Z |
We trusted to thy mighty depths of old | B3 |
I vow to sacrifice the first whom Zeus | P |
Shall prompt to hail us from the white seashore | Q2 |
And welcome our return to royal Crete | B3 |
An offering Poseidon unto thee | N |
- | |
Amid the din of elemental strife | I3 |
No voice may pierce but Deity supreme | C2 |
And Deity supreme alone can hear | F3 |
Above the hurricane's discordant shrieks | P |
The cry of agonized humanity | N |
- | |
Not unappeased was He who smites the waves | P |
When to his stormy ears the warrior's vow | Z |
Entered and from his foamy pinnacle | J3 |
Tumultuous he beheld the prostrate form | O2 |
And knew the mighty heart Awhile he gazed | B3 |
As doubtful of his purpose and the storm | O2 |
Conscious of that divine debate withheld | B3 |
Its fierce emotion in the luminous gloom | Z2 |
Of those so dark irradiating eyes | P |
Beneath whose wavering lustre shone revealed | B3 |
The tumult of the purpling deeps and all | Q |
The throbbing of the tempest as it paused | B3 |
Slowly subsiding seeming to await | B3 |
The sudden signal as a faithful hound | B3 |
Pants with the forepaws stretched before its nose | P |
Athwart the greensward after an eager chase | P |
Its hot tongue thrust to cool its foamy jaws | P |
Open to let the swift breath come and go | A3 |
Its quick interrogating eyes fixed keen | Z |
Upon the huntsman's countenance and ever | T |
Lashing its sharp impatient tail with haste | B3 |
Prompt at the slightest sign to scour away | K |
And hang itself afresh by the bleeding fangs | P |
Upon the neck of some death singled stag | K3 |
Whose royal antlers eyes and stumbling knees | P |
Will supplicate the Gods in mute despair | A2 |
This time not mute nor yet in vain this time | L3 |
For still the burden of the earnest voice | P |
And all the vivid glories it revoked | B3 |
Sank in the God with that absorbed suspense | P |
Felt only by the Olympians whose minds | P |
Unbounded like our mortal brain perceive | M3 |
All things complete the end the aim of all | Q |
To whom the crown and consequence of deeds | P |
Are ever present with the deed itself | E3 |
- | |
And now the pouring surges vast and smooth | N3 |
Grew weary of restraint and heaved themselves | P |
Headlong beneath him breaking at his feet | B3 |
With wild importunate cries and angry wail | O3 |
Like crowds that shout for bread and hunger more | Q2 |
And now the surface of their rolling backs | P |
Was ridged with foam topt furrows rising high | M2 |
And dashing wildly like to fiery steeds | P |
Fresh from the Thracian or Thessalian plains | P |
High blooded mares just tempering to the bit | B3 |
Whose manes at full speed stream upon the winds | P |
And in whose delicate nostrils when the gust | B3 |
Breathes of their native plains they ramp and rear | F2 |
Frothing the curb and bounding from the earth | P3 |
As though the Sun god's chariot alone | Z |
Were fit to follow in their flashing track | Q3 |
Anon with gathering stature to the height | B3 |
Of those colossal giants doomed long since | P |
To torturous grief and penance that assailed | B3 |
The sky throned courts of Zeus and climbing dared | B3 |
For once in a world the Olympic wrath and braved | B3 |
The electric spirit which from his clenching hand | B3 |
Pierces the dark veined earth and with a touch | R3 |
Is death to mortals fearfully they grew | Z |
George Meredith
(1)
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