The Belfrey Of Bruges Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AA BB CC DD EE FF GG EE HI EE BB GG BB JJ BB BB BB BB EE EE| In the market place of Bruges stands the belfrey old and brown | A |
| Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded still it watches o'er the town | A |
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| As the summer morn was breaking on that lofty tower I stood | B |
| And the world through off the darkness like the weeds of widowhood | B |
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| Thick with towns and hamlets studded and with streams and vapors gray | C |
| Like a shield embossed with silver round and vast the landscape lay | C |
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| At my feet the city slumbered From its chimneys here and there | D |
| Wreathes of snow white smoke ascending vanished ghost like into the air | D |
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| Not a sound rose from the city at that early morning hour | E |
| But I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower | E |
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| From their nests beneath the rafters sang the swollows wild and high | F |
| And the world beneath me sleeping seemed more distant than the sky | F |
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| Then most musical and solemn bringing back the olden times | G |
| With their strange unearthly changes rang the melancholy chimes | G |
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| Like the psalms from some old cloister when the nuns sing in the choir | E |
| And the great bell tolled among them like the chanting of a friar | E |
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| Visions of the days departed shadowy phantoms filled my brain | H |
| They who live in history only seemed to walk the earth again | I |
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| All the foresters of Flanders mighty Baldwin Bras de Fer | E |
| Lyderick du Bucq and Cressy Philip Guy du Dampierre | E |
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| I beheld the pageants splended that adorned those days of old | B |
| Stately dames like queens attended knights who bore the Fleece of Gold | B |
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| Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep laden argosies | G |
| Ministers from twenty nations more than royal pomp and ease | G |
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| I beheld proud Maximilian kneeling humbly on the ground | B |
| I behed the gentle Mary hunting with her hawk and hound | B |
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| And her lighted bridal chamber where a duke slept with the queen | J |
| And the arm egrave d guard around them and the sword unsheathed between | J |
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| I beheld the flemish weavers with Namur and Juliers bold | B |
| Marching homeward from the bloody battle of the Spurs of Gold | B |
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| Saw the fight at Minnewater saw the White Hoods moving west | B |
| Saw great Artevelde victorious scale the Golden Dragon's nest | B |
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| And again the whiskered Spaniard all the land with terror smote | B |
| And again the wild alarum sounded from the tocsin's throat | B |
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| Till the bells of Ghent resounded o'er lagoons and dike of sand | B |
| I am Roland I am Roland there is victory in the land | B |
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| Then the sound of drums aroused me The awakened city's roar | E |
| Chased the phantoms I had summoned back into their graves once more | E |
| - | |
| Hours had passed away like minutes and before I was aware | E |
| Lo the shadow of the belfry crossed the sun illumined square | E |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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