The Troubadour. Canto 4 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABBCDEEFFGGHHIIJJB BEEKK LLMMNNOOBB PPQQRRSSTTUV WWXX YYZZNNA2A2AAB2B2 TTC2C2D2LNN MMLLPPVVWW JJE2E2AAEENNBBRRZZEE F2F2A2A2 QQOORG2D2L NNAATTBBH2H2I2I2NN LLBBXXLXPJ2NND2D2MM OOXXXXK2K2 AAL2M2N2N2XXO2M2P2RB 2B2Q2R2 NNLLNNPPXX NNIIVLB2B2F2F2XXOOBB S2S2XXBBLLBBB XXVVM2L2LL BBXXQ2R2XXBBXXXXNNGIT was a wild and untrain'd bower | A |
Enough to screen from April shower | A |
Or shelter from June's hotter hour | A |
Tapestried with starry jessamines | B |
The summer's gold and silver mines | B |
With a moss seat and its turf set | C |
With crowds of the white violet | D |
And close beside a fountain play'd | E |
Dim cool from its encircling shade | E |
And lemon trees grew round as pale | F |
As never yet to them the gale | F |
Had brought a message from the sun | G |
To say their summer task was done | G |
It was a very solitude | H |
For love in its despairing mood | H |
With just enough of breath and bloom | I |
With just enough of calm and gloom | I |
To suit a heart where love has wrought | J |
His wasting work with saddest thought | J |
Where all its sickly fantasies | B |
May call up suiting images | B |
With flowers like hopes that spring and fade | E |
As only for a mockery made | E |
And shadows of the boughs that fall | K |
Like sorrow drooping over all | K |
- | |
And LEILA loveliest can it be | L |
Such destiny is made for thee | L |
Yes it is written on thy brow | M |
The all thy lip may not avow | M |
All that in woman's heart can dwell | N |
Save by a blush unutterable | N |
Alas that ever RAYMOND came | O |
To light thy cheek and heart to flame | O |
A hidden fire but not the less | B |
Consuming in its dark recess | B |
- | |
She had leant by his couch of pain | P |
When throbbing pulse and bursting vein | P |
Fierce spoke the fever when fate near | Q |
Rode on the tainted atmosphere | Q |
And though that parch'd lip spoke alone | R |
Of other love in fondest tone | R |
And though the maiden knew that death | S |
Might be upon his lightest breath | S |
Yet never by her lover's side | T |
More fondly watch'd affianced bride | T |
With pain or fear more anxious strove | U |
Than LEILA watch'd another's love | V |
- | |
But he was safe that very day | W |
Farewell it had been her's to say | W |
And he was gone to his own land | X |
To seek another maiden's hand | X |
- | |
Who that had look'd on her that morn | Y |
Could dream of all her heart had borne | Y |
Her cheek was red but who could know | Z |
'Twas flushing with the strife below | Z |
Her eye was bright but who could tell | N |
It shone with tears she strove to quell | N |
Her voice was gay her step was light | A2 |
And beaming beautiful and bright | A2 |
It was as if life could confer | A |
Nothing but happiness on her | A |
Ah who could think that all so fair | B2 |
Was semblance and but misery there | B2 |
- | |
'Tis strange with how much power and pride | T |
The softness is of love allied | T |
How much of power to force the breast | C2 |
To be in outward show at rest | C2 |
How much of pride that never eye | D2 |
May look upon its agony | L |
Ah little will the lip reveal | N |
Of all the burning heart can feel | N |
- | |
But this was past and she was now | M |
With clasped hands prest to her brow | M |
And head bow'd down upon her knee | L |
And heart pulse throbbing audibly | L |
And tears that gush'd like autumn rain | P |
The more for that they gush'd in vain | P |
Oh why should woman ever love | V |
Trusting to one false star above | V |
And fling her little chance away | W |
Of sunshine for its treacherous ray | W |
- | |
At first ELVIRA had not sought | J |
To break upon her lonely thought | J |
But it was now the vesper time | E2 |
And she return'd not at the chime | E2 |
Of holy bells she knew the hour | A |
At last they search'd her favourite bower | A |
Beside the fount they found the maid | E |
On head bow'd down as if she pray'd | E |
Her long black hair fell like a veil | N |
Making her pale brow yet more pale | N |
'Twas strange to look upon her face | B |
Then turn and see its shadowy trace | B |
Within the fountain one like stone | R |
So cold so colourless so lone | R |
A statue nymph placed there to show | Z |
How far the sculptor's art could go | Z |
The other and that too the shade | E |
In light and crimson warmth array'd | E |
For the red glow of day declining | F2 |
Was now upon the fountain shining | F2 |
And the shape in its mirror bright | A2 |
Of sparkling waves caught warmth and light | A2 |
- | |
ELVIRA spoke not though so near | Q |
Her words lay mute in their own fear | Q |
At last she whisper'd LEILA'S name | O |
No answer from the maiden came | O |
She took one cold hand in her own | R |
Started and it dropp'd lifeless down | G2 |
She gazed upon the fixed eye | D2 |
And read in it mortality | L |
- | |
And lingers yet that maiden's tale | N |
A legend of the lemon vale | N |
They say that never from that hour | A |
Has flourish'd there a single flower | A |
The jasmine droop'd the violets died | T |
Nothing grew by that fountain side | T |
Save the pale pining lemon trees | B |
And the dark weeping cypresses | B |
And now when to the twilight star | H2 |
The lover wakes his lone guitar | H2 |
Or maiden bids a song impart | I2 |
All that is veil'd in her own heart | I2 |
The wild and mournful tale they tell | N |
Of her who loved alas too well | N |
- | |
And where was RAYMOND where was he | L |
Borne homeward o'er the rapid sea | L |
While sunny days and favouring gales | B |
Brought welcome speed to the white sails | B |
With bended knee and upraised hand | X |
He stood upon his native land | X |
With all that happiness can be | L |
When resting on futurity | X |
On on he went and o'er the plain | P |
He rode an armed knight again | J2 |
He urged his steed with hand and heel | N |
It bounded concious of the steel | N |
And never yet to RAYMOND'S eye | D2 |
Spread such an earth shone such a sky | D2 |
Blew such sweet breezes o'er his brow | M |
As those his native land had now | M |
- | |
He thought upon young EVA'S name | O |
And felt that she was still the same | O |
He thought on AMIRALD his child | X |
Had surely his dark cares beguiled | X |
He thought upon the welcome sweet | X |
It would be his so soon to meet | X |
And never had the star of hope | K2 |
Shone on a lovelier horoscope | K2 |
- | |
And evening shades were on the hour | A |
When RAYMOND rode beneath the tower | A |
Remember'd well for ADELINE | L2 |
Had there been his heart's summer queen | M2 |
Could this be it he knew the heath | N2 |
Which lake like spread its walls beneath | N2 |
He saw the dark old chesnut wood | X |
Which had for ages by it stood | X |
And but for these the place had been | O2 |
As one that he had never seen | M2 |
The walls were rent the gates were gone | P2 |
No red light from the watch tower shone | R |
He enter'd and the hall was bare | B2 |
It show'd the spoiler had been there | B2 |
Even upon the very hearth | Q2 |
The green grass found a place of birth | R2 |
- | |
Oh vanity that the stone wall | N |
May sooner than a blossom fall | N |
The tower in its strength may be | L |
Laid low before the willow tree | L |
There stood the wood subject to all | N |
The autumn wind the winter fall | N |
There stood the castle which the rain | P |
And wind had buffetted in vain | P |
But one in ruins stood beside | X |
The other green in its spring pride | X |
- | |
And RAYMOND paced the lonely hall | N |
As if he feared his own footfall | N |
It is the very worst the gloom | I |
Of a deserted banquet room | I |
To see the spider's web outvie | V |
The torn and faded tapestry | L |
To shudder at the cold damp air | B2 |
Then think how once were burning there | B2 |
The incense vase with odour glowing | F2 |
The silver lamp its softness throwing | F2 |
O'er cheeks as beautiful and bright | X |
As roses bathed in summer light | X |
How through the portals sweeping came | O |
Proud cavalier and high born dame | O |
With gems like stars 'mid raven curls | B |
And snow white plumes and wreathed pearls | B |
Gold cups whose lighted flames made dim | S2 |
The sparkling stones around the brim | S2 |
Soft voices answering to the lute | X |
The swelling harp the sigh waked flute | X |
The glancing lightness of the dance | B |
Then starting sudden from thy trance | B |
Gaze round the lonely place and see | L |
Its silence and obscurity | L |
Then commune with thine heart and say | B |
These are the foot prints of decay | B |
And I even thus shall pass away | B |
- | |
And RAYMOND turn'd him to depart | X |
With darken'd brow and heavy heart | X |
Can outrage or can time remove | V |
The sting the scar of slighted love | V |
He could not look upon the scene | M2 |
And not remember ADELINE | L2 |
Fair queen of gone festivity | L |
Oh where was it and where was she | L |
- | |
At distance short a village lay | B |
And thither RAYMOND took his way | B |
And in its hostel shelter found | X |
While the dark night was closing round | X |
It was a cheerful scene the hearth | Q2 |
Was bright with wood fire and with mirth | R2 |
And in the midst a harper bent | X |
O'er his companion instrument | X |
'Twas an old man his hair was grey | B |
For winter tracks in snow its way | B |
But yet his dark keen eye was bright | X |
With somewhat of its youthful light | X |
Like one whose path of life had made | X |
Its course through mingled sheen and shade | X |
But one whose buoyant spirit still | N |
Pass'd lightly on through good or ill | N |
One | G |
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
(1)
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