The Zenana Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEE FFGG HHIIJJKKLLMM NNOOPQBRCSTUTUVVMM QPWWBBXXLLBCYYZZA2F A2FWW B2B2YYC2D2E2D2F2F2G2 G2 MM H2H2JI2FFJ2J2K2L2K2L 2OO M2M2N2N2I2JO2O2BC P2P2Q2Q2D2D2 R2R2P2P2H2S2H2S2OOD2 T2U2U2QQV2V2 P2P2W2W2QQX2X2BBW2W2 Y2Y2RZ2RZ2 AAT2A3K2K2P2P2B3B3C3 C3W2XRRFF K2K2 ZP2ZP2J2J2 BP2D3D3P2P2P2P2P2P2B 2B2E3E3P2P2 WWIIF3F3NNP2P2FFQ2Q2 K2K2P2P2 T G3G3P2P2H3H3I3P2I3P2 UJ3F2K3WHAT is there that the world hath not | A |
Gathered in yon enchanted spot | A |
Where pale and with a languid eye | B |
The fair Sultana listlessly | C |
Leans on her silken couch and dreams | D |
Of mountain airs and mountain streams | D |
Sweet though the music float around | E |
It wants the old familiar sound | E |
- | |
And fragrant though the flowers are breathing | F |
From far and near together wreathing | F |
They are not those she used to wear | G |
Upon the midnight of her hair | G |
- | |
She's very young and childhood's days | H |
With all their old remembered ways | H |
The empire of her heart contest | I |
With love that is so new a guest | I |
When blushing with her Murad near | J |
Half timid bliss half sweetest fear | J |
E'en the beloved past is dim | K |
Past present future merge in him | K |
But he the warrior and the chief | L |
His hours of happiness are brief | L |
And he must leave Nadira's side | M |
To woo and win a ruder bride | M |
- | |
Sought sword in hand and spur on heel | N |
The fame that weds with blood and steel | N |
And while from Delhi far away | O |
His youthful bride pines through the day | O |
Weary and sad thus when again | P |
He seeks to bind love's loosen'd chain | Q |
He finds the tears are scarcely dry | B |
Upon a cheek whose bloom is faded | R |
The very flush of victory | C |
Is like the brow he watches shaded | S |
A thousand thoughts are at her heart | T |
His image paramount o'er all | U |
Yet not all his the tears that start | T |
As mournful memories recall | U |
Scenes of another home which yet | V |
That fond young heart can not forget | V |
She thinks upon that place of pride | M |
Which frowned upon the mountain's side | M |
- | |
While round it spread the ancient plain | Q |
Her steps will never cross again | P |
And near those mighty temples stand | W |
The miracles of mortal hand | W |
Where hidden from the common eye | B |
The past's long buried secrets lie | B |
Those mysteries of the first great creed | X |
Whose mystic fancies were the seed | X |
Of every wild and vain belief | L |
That held o'er man their empire brief | L |
And turned beneath a southern sky | B |
All that was faith to poetry | C |
Hence had the Grecian fables birth | Y |
And wandered beautiful o'er earth | Y |
Till every wood and stream and cave | Z |
Shelter to some bright vision gave | Z |
For all of terrible and strange | A2 |
That from those gloomy caverns sprung | F |
- | |
From Greece received a graceful change | A2 |
That spoke another sky and tongue | F |
A finer eye a gentler hand | W |
Than in their native Hindoo land | W |
- | |
'Twas thence Nadira came and still | B2 |
Her memory kept that lofty hill | B2 |
The vale below her place of birth | Y |
That one charmed spot her native earth | Y |
Still haunted by that early love | C2 |
Which youth can feel and youth alone | D2 |
An eager ready tenderness | E2 |
To all its after life unknown | D2 |
When the full heart its magic flings | F2 |
Alike o'er rare and common things | F2 |
The dew of morning's earliest hour | G2 |
Which swells but once from leaf and flower | G2 |
- | |
From the pure life within supplied | M |
A sweet but soon exhausted tide | M |
- | |
There falls a shadow on the gloom | H2 |
There steals a light step through the room | H2 |
Gentle as love that though so near | J |
No sound hath caught the list'ning ear | I2 |
A moment's fond watch o'er her keeping | F |
Murad beholds Nadira weeping | F |
He who to win her lightest smile | J2 |
Had given his heart's best blood the while | J2 |
She turned a beautiful delight | K2 |
Has flushed the pale one into rose | L2 |
Murad her love returned to night | K2 |
Her tears what recks she now of those | L2 |
Dried in the full heart's crimson ray | O |
Ere he can kiss those tears away | O |
- | |
And she is seated at his feet | M2 |
Too timid his dear eyes to meet | M2 |
But happy for she knows whose brow | N2 |
Is bending fondly o'er her now | N2 |
And eager for his sake to hear | I2 |
The records red of sword and spear | J |
For his sake feels the colour rise | O2 |
His spirit kindle in her eyes | O2 |
Till her heart beating joins the cry | B |
Of Murad and of Victory | C |
- | |
City of glories now no more | P2 |
His camp extends by Bejapore | P2 |
Where the Mahratta's haughty race | Q2 |
Has won the Moslem conqueror's place | Q2 |
A bolder prince now fills the throne | D2 |
And he will struggle for his own | D2 |
- | |
'And yet ' he said 'when evening falls | R2 |
Solemn above those mouldering walls | R2 |
Where the mosques cleave the starry air | P2 |
Deserted at their hour of prayer | P2 |
And rises Ibrahim's lonely tomb | H2 |
'Mid weed grown shrines and ruined towers | S2 |
All marked with that eternal gloom | H2 |
Left by the past to present hours | S2 |
When human pride and human sway | O |
Have run their circle of decay | O |
And mocking the funereal stone | D2 |
Alone attests its builder gone | T2 |
Oh vain such temple o'er the sleep | U2 |
Which none remain to watch or weep | U2 |
I could not choose but think how vain | Q |
The struggle fierce for worthless gain | Q |
And calm and bright the moon looked down | V2 |
O'er the white shrines of that fair town | V2 |
- | |
While heavily the cocoa tree | P2 |
Drooped o'er the walls its panoply | P2 |
A warrior proud whose crested head | W2 |
Bends mournful o'er the recent dead | W2 |
And shadows deep athwart the plain | Q |
Usurp the silver moonbeam's reign | Q |
For every ruined building cast | X2 |
Shadows like memories of the past | X2 |
And not a sound the wind brought nigh | B |
Save the far jackal's wailing cry | B |
And that came from the field now red | W2 |
With the fierce banquet I had spread | W2 |
Accursed and unnatural feast | Y2 |
For worm and fly and bird and beast | Y2 |
While round me earth and heaven recorded | R |
The folly of life's desperate game | Z2 |
And the cold justice still awarded | R |
By time which makes all lots the same | Z2 |
- | |
Slayer or slain it matters not | A |
We struggle perish are forgot | A |
The earth grows green above the gone | T2 |
And the calm heaven looks sternly on | A3 |
'Twas folly this the gloomy night | K2 |
Fled before morning's orient light | K2 |
City and river owned its power | P2 |
And I too gladdened with the hour | P2 |
I saw my own far tents extend | B3 |
My own proud crescent o'er them bend | B3 |
I heard the trumpet's glorious voice | C3 |
Summon the warriors of my choice | C3 |
Again impatient on to lead | W2 |
I sprang upon my raven steed | X |
Again I felt my father's blood | R |
Pour through my veins its burning flood | R |
My scimetar around I swung | F |
Forth to the air its lightning sprung | F |
- | |
A beautiful and fiery light | K2 |
The meteor of the coming fight | K2 |
- | |
'I turned from each forgotten grave | Z |
To others which the name they bear | P2 |
Will long from old oblivion save | Z |
The heroes of the race I share | P2 |
I thought upon the lonely isle | J2 |
Where sleeps the lion king the while | J2 |
- | |
Who looked on death yet paused to die | B |
Till comraded by Victory | P2 |
And he fire noblest of my line | D3 |
Whose tomb is now the warrior's shrine | D3 |
Where I were well content to be | P2 |
So that such fame might live with me | P2 |
The light of peace the storm of war | P2 |
Lord of the earth our proud Akbar | P2 |
'What though our passing day but be | P2 |
A bubble on eternity | P2 |
Small though the circle is yet still | B2 |
'Tis ours to colour at our will | B2 |
Mine be that consciousness of life | E3 |
Which has its energies from strife | E3 |
Which lives its utmost knows its power | P2 |
Claims from the mind its utmost dower | P2 |
- | |
With fiery pulse and ready hand | W |
That wills and willing wins command | W |
That boldly takes from earth its best | I |
To whom the grave can be but rest | I |
Mine the fierce free existence spent | F3 |
Mid meeting ranks and armed tent | F3 |
Save the few moments which I steal | N |
At thy beloved feet to kneel | N |
And own the warrior's wild career | P2 |
Has no such joy as waits him here | P2 |
When all that hope can dream is hung | F |
Upon the music of thy tongue | F |
Ah never is that cherished face | Q2 |
Banished from its accustomed place | Q2 |
It shines upon my weariest night | K2 |
It leads me on in thickest fight | K2 |
All that seems most opposed to be | P2 |
Is yet associate with thee | P2 |
- | |
Together life and thee depart | T |
Dream idol treasure of my heart ' | - |
- | |
Again again Murad must wield | G3 |
His scimetar in battle field | G3 |
And must he leave his lonely flower | P2 |
To pine in solitary bower | P2 |
Has power no aid has wealth no charm | H3 |
The weight of absence to disarm | H3 |
Alas she will not touch her lute | I3 |
What sing and not for Murad's ear | P2 |
The echo of the heart is mute | I3 |
And that alone makes music dear | P2 |
In vain in vain that royal hall | U |
Is decked as for a festival | J3 |
The sunny birds whose shining wings | F2 |
Seem as | K3 |
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Zenana poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Best Poems of Letitia Elizabeth Landon