Zira: In Captivity Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ KKLL MMKK NOKK PPQQ RRSS RRMM TUAA VVWW GGCC KKGG TTXX AAHH| Love me a little Lord or let me go | A |
| I am so weary walking to and fro | A |
| Through all your lonely halls that were so sweet | B |
| Did they but echo to your coming feet | B |
| - | |
| When by the flowered scrolls of lace like stone | C |
| Our women's windows I am left alone | C |
| Across the yellow Desert looking forth | D |
| I see the purple hills towards the north | D |
| - | |
| Behind those jagged Mountains' lilac crest | E |
| Once lay the captive bird's small rifled nest | E |
| There was my brother slain my sister bound | F |
| His blood her tears drunk by the thirsty ground | F |
| - | |
| Then while the burning village smoked on high | G |
| And desecrated all the peaceful sky | G |
| They took us captive us born frank and free | H |
| On fleet strong camels through the sandy sea | H |
| - | |
| Yet when we rested night times on the sand | I |
| By the rare waters of this dreary land | I |
| Our captors ere the camp was wrapped in sleep | J |
| Talked and I listened and forgot to weep | J |
| - | |
| Is he not brave and fair they asked our King | K |
| Slender as one tall palm tree by a spring | K |
| Erect serene with gravely brilliant eyes | L |
| As deeply dark as are these desert skies | L |
| - | |
| Truly no bitter fate they said and smiled | M |
| Awaits the beauty of this captured child | M |
| Then something in my heart began to sing | K |
| And secretly I longed to see the King | K |
| - | |
| Sometimes the other maidens sat in tears | N |
| Sometimes consoled they jested at their fears | O |
| Musing what lovers Time to them would bring | K |
| But I was silent thinking of the King | K |
| - | |
| Till when the weary endless sands were passed | P |
| When far to south the city rose at last | P |
| All speech forsook me and my eyelids fell | Q |
| Since I already loved my Lord so well | Q |
| - | |
| Then the division some were sent away | R |
| To merchants in the city some they say | R |
| To summer palaces beyond the walls | S |
| But me they took straight to the Sultan's halls | S |
| - | |
| Every morning I would wake and say | R |
| Ah sisters shall I see our Lord to day | R |
| The women robed me perfumed me and smiled | M |
| When were his feet unfleet to pleasure child | M |
| - | |
| And tales they told me of his deeds in war | T |
| Of how his name was reverenced afar | U |
| And crouching closer in the lamp's faint glow | A |
| They told me of his beauty speaking low | A |
| - | |
| What need what need the women wasted art | V |
| I love you with every fibre of my heart | V |
| Already My God when did I not love you | W |
| In life in death when shall I not love you | W |
| - | |
| You never seek me All day long I lie | G |
| Watching the changes of the far off sky | G |
| Behind the lattice work of carven stone | C |
| And all night long alas I lie alone | C |
| - | |
| But you come never Ah my Lord the King | K |
| How can you find it well to do this thing | K |
| Come once come only sometimes as I lie | G |
| I doubt if I shall see you first or die | G |
| - | |
| Ah could I hear your footsteps at the door | T |
| Hallow the lintel and caress the floor | T |
| Then I might drink your beauty satisfied | X |
| Die of delight ere you could reach my side | X |
| - | |
| Alas you come not Lord life's flame burns low | A |
| Faint for a loveliness it may not know | A |
| Faint for your face Oh come come soon to me | H |
| Lest though you should not Death should set me free | H |
Laurence Hope (adela Florence Cory Nicolson)
(1)
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