Orlando Furioso Canto 18 Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Ludovico Ariosto

Orlando Furioso Canto 18 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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ARGUMENT	A
Gryphon is venged Sir Mandricardo goes	B
In search of Argier's king Charles wins the fight	C
Marphisa Norandino's men o'erthrows	B
Due pains Martano's cowardice requite	C
A favouring wind Marphisa's gallery blows	B
For France with Gryphon bound and many a knight	C
The field Medoro and Cloridano tread	C
And find their monarch Dardinello dead	C
	-
I	-
High minded lord your actions evermore	D
I have with reason lauded and still laud	C
Though I with style inapt and rustic lore	D
You of large portion of your praise defraud	C
But of your many virtues one before	D
All others I with heart and tongue applaud	C
That if each man a gracious audience finds	B
No easy faith your equal judgment blinds	B
	-
II	-
Often to shield the absent one from blame	E
I hear you this or other thing adduce	B
Or him you let at least an audience claim	E
Where still one ear is open to excuse	B
And before dooming men to scaith and shame	E
To see and hear them ever is your use	B
And ere you judge another many a day	C
And month and year your sentence to delay	C
	-
III	-
Had Norandine been with your care endued	C
What he by Gryphon did he had not done	F
Profit and fame have from your rule accrued	C
A stain more black than pitch he cast upon	G
His name through him his people were pursued	C
And put to death by Olivero's son	F
Who at ten cuts or thrusts in fury made	C
Some thirty dead about the waggon laid	C
	-
IV	-
Whither fear drives in rout the others all	H
Some scattered here some there on every side	C
Fill road and field to gain the city wall	H
Some strive and smothered in the mighty tide	C
One on another in the gateway fall	H
Gryphon all thought of pity laid aside	C
Threats not nor speaks but whirls his sword about	C
Well venging on the crowd their every flout	C
	-
V	-
Of those who to the portal foremost fleed	C
The readiest of the crowd their feet to ply	-
Part more intent upon their proper need	C
Than their friends' peril raise the draw bridge high	-
Part weeping and with deathlike visage speed	C
Nor turn their eyes behind them as they fly	-
While through the ample city outcry loud	C
And noise and tumult rises from the crowd	C
	-
VI	-
Two nimble Gryphon seizes mid the train	I
When to their woe the bridge is raised of one	F
Upon the field the warrior strews the brain	I
Which he bears out on a hard grinding stone	J
Seized by the breast the other of the twain	I
Over the city wall by him is thrown	J
Fear chills the townsmen's marrow when they spy	-
The luckless wretch descending from the sky	-
	-
VII	-
Many there were who feared in their alarms	B
Lest o'er the wall Sir Gryphon would have vaulted	C
Nor greater panic seized upon those swarms	B
Than if the soldan had the town assaulted	C
The sound of running up and down of arms	B
Of cry of Muezzins on high exalted	C
Of drums and trumpets heaven 'twould seem rebounded	C
And that the world was by the noise confounded	C
	-
VIII	-
But I will to another time delay	C
What chanced on this occasion to recount	C
'Tis meet I follow Charles upon his way	C
Hurrying in search of furious Rodomont	C
Who did the monarch's suffering people slay	C
I said with him the danger to affront	C
Went Namus Oliver the Danish peer	K
Avino Avolio Otho and Berlinghier	K
	-
IX	B
Eight lances' shock that eight such warriors guide	C
Which all at once against the king they rest	C
Endured the stout and scaly serpent's hide	C
In which the cruel Moor his limbs had drest	C
As a barque rights itself the sheet untied	C
Which held its sail by growing wind opprest	C
So speedily Sir Rodomont arose	B
Though a hill had been uprooted by the blows	B
	-
X	B
Rainier and Guido Richard Salomon	F
Ivan Ughetto Turpin and the twain	I
Angiolin Angelier false Ganellon	I
And Mark and Matthew from St Michael's plain	I
With the eight of whom I spake all set upon	I
The foe with Edward and Sir Arimane	I
Who leading succours from the English shore	K
Had lodged them in the town short time before	K
	-
XI	B
Not so well keyed into the solid stone	I
Groans upon Alpine height the castle good	C
When by rude Boreas' rage or Eurus' strown	I
Uptorn are ash and fir in mountain wood	C
As groans Sir Rodomont with pride o'erblown	I
Inflamed with anger and with thirst of blood	C
And as the thunder and the lightning's fire	K
Fly coupled such his vengeance and his ire	K
	-
XII	B
He at his head took aim who stood most nigh	-
Ughetto was the miserable wight	C
Whom to the teeth he clove and left to die	-
Though of good temper was his helmet bright	C
As well the others many strokes let fly	-
At him himself which all the warrior smite	C
But harm so hard the dragon's hide no more	K
Than needle can the solid anvil score	K
	-
XIII	B
All the defences round abandoned are	K
The unpeopled city is abandoned all	H
For where the danger is the greater there	K
The many give their aid at Charles' call	H
Through every street they hurry to the square	K
Since flying nought avails from work and wall	H
Their bosoms so the monarch's presence warms	B
That each again takes courage each takes arms	B
	-
XIV	-
As when within the closely fastened cage	L
Of an old lioness well used to fight	C
An untamed bull is prisoned to engage	L
The savage monster for the mob's delight	C
The cubs who see him cresting in his rage	L
And round the den loud bellowing to the sight	C
Of the huge beast's enormous horns unused	C
Cower at a distance timid and confused	C
	-
XV	-
But if the mother spring at him and hang	M
Fixing her cruel tusks into his ear	K
Her whelps as well will blood their greedy fang	M
And bold in her defence assail the steer	K
One bites his paunch and one his back so sprang	M
That band upon the paynim cavalier	K
From roof and window and from place more nigh	-
Poured in a ceaseless shower the weapons fly	-
	-
XVI	-
Of cavaliers and footmen such the squeeze	B
That hardly can the place the press contain	I
They cluster there as thick as swarming bees	B
Who thither from each passage troop amain	I
So that were they unarmed and with more ease	B
Than stalks or turnips he could cleave the train	I
Ill Rodomont in twenty days would clear	K
The gathering crowd united far and near	K
	-
XVII	-
Unknowing how himself from thence to free	B
The paynim by this game is angered sore	K
Who little thins the gathering rabblery	K
Staining the ground with thousands slain or more	K
And all the while in his extremity	B
Finds that his breath comes thicker than before	K
And sees he cannot pierce the hostile round	C
Unless he thence escape while strong and sound	C
	-
XVIII	-
The monarch rolls about his horrid eyes	B
And sees that foes all outlets barricade	C
But at the cost of countless enemies	B
A path shall quickly by his hand be made	C
Where Fury calls him lo the felon hies	B
And brandishes on high his trenchant blade	C
To assail the newly entered British band	C
Which Edward and Sir Ariman command	C
	-
XIX	B
He who has seen the fence in well thonged square	K
Against whose stakes the eddying crowd is born	I
By wild bull broken that has had to bear	K
Through the long day dogs blows and ceaseless scorn	I
Who hunts the scattered people here and there	K
And this or that now hoists upon his horn	I
Let him as such or fiercer yet account	C
When he breaks forth the cruel Rodomont	C
	-
XX	B
At one cross blow fifteen or twenty foes	B
He hews as many leaves without a bead	C
At cross or downright stroke as if he rows	B
Trashes in vineyard or in willow bed	C
At last all smeared with blood the paynim goes	B
Safe from the place which he has heaped with dead	C
And wheresoe'er he turns his steps are left	C
Heads arms and other members maimed and cleft	C
	-
XXI	B
He from the square retires in such a mode	C
None can perceive that danger him appals	B
But during this what were the safest road	C
By which to sally he to thought recals	B
He comes at last to where the river flowed	C
Below the isle and past without the walls	B
In daring men at arms and mob increase	B
Who press him sore nor let him part in peace	B
	-
XXII	B
As the high couraged beast whom hunters start	C
In the wild Nomade or Massilian chace	B
Who even in flying shows his noble heart	C
And threatening seeks his lair with sluggish pace	B
From that strange wood of sword and spear	K