Muley Malak Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC DEA FGF FHCIJKLMNMIOF PFQ AIIFFF IRIRSF TPP UFVW XYZ FIA2FRIK B2OC2PJKRID2OE2F2F2G 2CF H2I2J2F2I2 IFF2F| THUNDER of guns and cries banners and spears and blood | A |
| Troops have died where they stood holding the vantage points | B |
| They have raced like waves at a wall and dashed themselves to death | C |
| - | |
| Dawn the fight begin and noon was red with its noon | D |
| The armies stretch afar and the plain of Alcazar | E |
| Is drenched with Moorish blood | A |
| - | |
| On one side Muley the King Muley Malek the Strong | F |
| He had seized the Moorish crown because it would fit his brows | G |
| Hamet the Fair was king but Muley pulled him down because he was strong | F |
| - | |
| The fierce sun glares on the clouds of dust and battlesmoke | F |
| The hoarsened soldiers choke in the blinding heat | H |
| Muley the King is afield but sick to the death | C |
| Borne on a litter he lies his blood on fire his eyes | I |
| Flaming with fever light | J |
| Hamah Tabah the Captain stands by the curtained bed | K |
| Telling him news of the fight how the waves roll and rise and clash and mingle and seethe | L |
| And Hamah bends to the scene He peers under arched hand | M |
| As an eagle he stoops to the field One hand on the hilt | N |
| Is white at the knuckles so fiercely gripped while the hand | M |
| That had parted the curtains before now clutches the silk and wrings | I |
| Hamet's squadrons are moving in mass their lines are circling the plain | O |
| The thousands of Muley stand like bison dazed by an earthquake | F |
| - | |
| They are stunned by the thud of the fight they are deer without a leader | P |
| Their charge has died like the impulse of missiles freed from the sling | F |
| Their spears waver like shaken barley they are dumbstruck and ready to fly | Q |
| - | |
| Hamah Tabah the Captain in words like the pouring of pitch has painted | A |
| The terrible scene for the sick King and terrible answer follows | I |
| Up from the couch of pain disdaining the bonds of weakness | I |
| Flinging aside disease as a wrestler flings his tunic | F |
| Strong with the smothered flre of fever and fiercer far than its flaming | F |
| Rises in mail from the litter Muley Malek the King | F |
| - | |
| Down on his plunging stallion in the eyes of the shuddered troops | I |
| His bent plume like a smoke and his sword like a flame | R |
| Smelting their souls with his courage he rides before his soldiers | I |
| They bend from his face like the sun their eyes are blind with shame | R |
| They thrill as a stricken tiger thrills gathering his limbs from a blow | S |
| They raise their faces and watch him sworded and mailed and strong | F |
| They watch him and shout his name fiercely 'Muley the King ' | - |
| Grimly they close their ranks drinking his face like wine | T |
| Strength to the arm and wrath to the soul and power | P |
| Fuel and fire he was and the battle roared like a crater | P |
| - | |
| Back to the litter his face turned from the lines and fixed | U |
| In a stare like the faces in granite the King | F |
| Rode straight and strong holding his sword | V |
| Soldierly gripped on the thigh grim as a king in iron | W |
| - | |
| Stiff in the saddle stark frowning one hand is raised | X |
| The mailed finger is laid on the mouth | Y |
| 'Silence ' the warning said to Haman Tabah the Captain | Z |
| - | |
| Help from his horse they give moving him still unbending | F |
| Down to the bed and lay him within the curtains | I |
| Mutely they answer his frown like ridges of bronze and sternly | A2 |
| Again is the mailed hand raised and laid on the lips in warning | F |
| ' Silence ' it said and the meaning smote through their blood like flame | R |
| As the tremor passed through his armor and the grayness crept o'er his features | I |
| Muley the King was dead | K |
| - | |
| Furious the struggle and long the armies with teeth aclench | B2 |
| And dripping weapons shortened like athletes whose blows have killed pain | O |
| The soldiers of Hamet were flushed but the spirit of Muley opposed them | C2 |
| The weak of Muley grew strong when they looked at the curtained litter | P |
| Their thought of the King was wine in the thirst of the fight | J |
| They saw that Hamah was there still bending over the bed | K |
| Holding the curtains wide and taking the order that came | R |
| From the burning lips of the King and sending it down to his soldiers | I |
| They knew that Hamah the Captain was telling him of the onset | D2 |
| How they swept like hail on the fields and left them like sickled grain | O |
| Back as the waves in a tempest are flung from a cliff and scattered | E2 |
| Burst and horribly broken and driven beneath with the impact | F2 |
| Shivered for once and forever the conquered forces King Hamet | F2 |
| Was slain by the sword and the foreign monarch who helped him | G2 |
| And the plain was swept by the besom of death | C |
| There never was grander faith in a king | F |
| - | |
| Trophies and victors' crowns bring them to bind his brow | H2 |
| Circle his curtained bed thousands and thousands come | I2 |
| It will cure him and kill his pain we must see him tonight again | J2 |
| One glance of his love and pride for all the hosts that died | F2 |
| To his bedside come | I2 |
| - | |
| Rigid with frowning brow his finger laid on his lips | I |
| They saw him saw him and knew and read the word that he spake | F |
| Stronger than death and they stood in their tears and were silent | F2 |
| Obeying the King | F |
John Boyle O'reilly
(1)
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