Iseult Of Brittany Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Matthew Arnold

Iseult Of Brittany Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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A year had flown and o'er the sea away	A
In Cornwall Tristram and Queen Iseult lay	A
In King Marc's chapel in Tyntagel old	B
There in a ship they bore those lovers cold	B
The young surviving Iseult one bright day	A
Had wander'd forth Her children were at play	A
In a green circular hollow in the heath	C
Which borders the sea shore a country path	D
Creeps over it from the till'd fields behind	E
The hollow's grassy banks are soft inclined	E
And to one standing on them far and near	F
The lone unbroken view spreads bright and clear	F
Over the waste This cirque of open ground	G
Is light and green the heather which all round	G
Creeps thickly grows not here but the pale grass	H
Is strewn with rocks and many a shiver'd mass	H
Of vein'd white gleaming quartz and here and there	I
Dotted with holly trees and juniper	J
In the smooth centre of the opening stood	K
Three hollies side by side and made a screen	L
Warm with the winter sun of burnish'd green	L
With scarlet berries gemm'd the fell fare's food	M
Under the glittering hollies Iseult stands	N
Watching her children play their little hands	N
Are busy gathering spars of quartz and streams	O
Of stagshorn for their hats anon with screams	O
Of mad delight they drop their spoils and bound	G
Among the holly clumps and broken ground	G
Racing full speed and startling in their rush	P
The fell fares and the speckled missel thrush	P
Out of their glossy coverts but when now	Q
Their cheeks were flush'd and over each hot brow	Q
Under the feather'd hats of the sweet pair	I
In blinding masses shower'd the golden hair	I
Then Iseult call'd them to her and the three	R
Cluster'd under the holly screen and she	R
Told them an old world Breton history	R
	-
Warm in their mantles wrapt the three stood there	I
Under the hollies in the clear still air	I
Mantles with those rich furs deep glistering	S
Which Venice ships do from swart Egypt bring	S
Long they stay'd still then pacing at their ease	T
Moved up and down under the glossy trees	T
But still as they pursued their warm dry road	U
From Iseult's lips the unbroken story flow'd	U
And still the children listen'd their blue eyes	V
Fix'd on their mother's face in wide surprise	V
Nor did their looks stray once to the sea side	W
Nor to the brown heaths round them bright and wide	W
Nor to the snow which though 'twas all away	A
From the open heath still by the hedgerows lay	A
Nor to the shining sea fowl that with screams	O
Bore up from where the bright Atlantic gleams	O
Swooping to landward nor to where quite clear	F
The fell fares settled on the thickets near	F
And they would still have listen'd till dark night	X
Came keen and chill down on the heather bright	X
But when the red glow on the sea grew cold	B
And the grey turrets of the castle old	B
Look'd sternly through the frosty evening air	I
Then Iseult took by the hand those children fair	I
And brought her tale to an end and found the path	D
And led them home over the darkening heath	C
	-
And is she happy Does she see unmov'd	Y
The days in which she might have lived and loved	Z
Slip without bringing bliss slowly away	A
One after one to morrow like to day	A
Joy has not found her yet nor ever will	A2
Is it this thought which makes her mien so still	A2
Her features so fatigued her eyes though sweet	B2
So sunk so rarely lifted save to meet	B2
Her children's She moves slow her voice alone	C2
Hath yet an infantine and silver tone	C2
But even that comes languidly in truth	D2
She seems one dying in a mask of youth	D2
And now she will go home and softly lay	A
Her laughing children in their beds and play	A
Awhile with them before they sleep and then	E2
She'll light her silver lamp which fishermen	F2
Dragging their nets through the rough waves afar	G2
Along this iron coast know like a star	G2
And take her broidery frame and there she'll sit	H2
Hour after hour her gold curls sweeping it	H2
Lifting her soft bent head only to mind	E
Her children or to listen to the wind	E
And when the clock peals midnight she will move	I2
Her work away and let her fingers rove	J2
Across the shaggy brows of Tristram's hound	G
Who lies guarding her feet along the ground	G
Or else she will fall musing her blue eyes	V
Fixt her slight hands clasp'd on her lap then rise	V
And at her prie dieu kneel until she have told	B
Her rosary beads of ebony tipp'd with gold	B
Then to her soft sleep and to morrow'll be	R
To day's exact repeated effigy	R
	-
Yes it is lonely for her in her hall	K2
The children and the grey hair'd seneschal	K2
Her women and Sir Tristram's aged hound	G
Are there the sole companions to be found	G
But these she loves and noisier life than this	L2
She would find ill to bear weak as she is	M2
She has her children too and night and day	A
Is with them and the wide heaths where they play	A
The hollies and the cliff and the sea shore	N2
The sand the sea birds and the distant sails	O2
These are to her dear as to them the tales	O2
With which this day the children she beguiled	P2
She gleaned from Breton grandames when a child	P2
In every hut along this sea coast wild	P2
She herself loves them still and when they are told	B
Can forget all to hear them as of old	B
	-
Dear saints it is not sorrow as I hear	Q2
Not suffering which shuts up eye and ear	Q2
To all that has delighted them before	N2
And lets us be what we were once no more	N2
No we may suffer deeply yet retain	R2
Power to be moved and soothed for all our pain	R2
By what of old pleased us and will again	E2
No 'tis the gradual furnace of the world	S2
In whose hot air our spirits are upcurl'd	S2
Until they crumble or else grow like steel	K2
Which kills in us the bloom the youth the spring	S
Which leaves the fierce necessity to feel	K2
But takes away the power this can avail	K2
By drying up our joy in everything	S
To make our former pleasures all seem stale	K2
This or some tyrannous single thought some fit	S2
Of passion which subdues our souls to it	S2
Till for its sake alone we live and move	I2
Call it ambition or remorse or love	T2
This too can change us wholly and make seem	U2
All which we did before shadow and dream	U2
	-
And yet I swear it angers me to see	R
How this fool passion gulls men potently	K2
Being in truth but a diseased unrest	S2
And an unnatural overheat at best	S2
How they are full of languor and distress	V2
Not having it which when they do possess	V2
They straightway are burnt up with fume and care	I
And spend their lives in posting here and there	I
Where this plague drives them and have little ease	T
Are furious with themselves and hard to please	T
Like that bald Caesar the famed Roman wight	S2
Who wept at reading of a Grecian knight	S2
Who made a name at younger years than he	R
Or that renown'd mirror of chivalry	R
Prince Alexander Philip's peerless son	W2
Who carried the great war from Macedon	W2
Into the Soudan's realm and thundered on	W2
To die at thirty five in Babylon	W2
	-
What tale did Iseult to the children say	A
Under the hollies that bright winter's day	A
	-
She told them of the fairy haunted land	S2
Away the other side of Brittany	W2
Beyond the heaths edged by the lonely sea	W2
Of the deep forest glades of Broceliande	S2
Through whose green boughs the golden sunshine creeps	X2
Where Merlin by the enchanted thorn tree sleeps	X2
For here he came with the fay Vivian	W2
One April when the warm days first began	W2
He was on foot and that false fay his friend	S2
On her white palfrey here he met his end	S2
In these lone sylvan glades that April day	S2
This tale of Merlin and the lovely fay	S2
Was the one Iseult chose and she brought clear	F
Before the children's fancy him and her	J
	-
Blowing between the stems the forest air	I
Had loosen'd the brown locks of Vivian's hair	I
Which play'd on her flush'd cheek and her blue eyes	V
Sparkled with mocking glee and exercise	V
Her palfrey's flanks were mired and bathed in sweat	S2
For they had travell'd far and not stopp'd yet	S2
A brier in that tangled wilderness	Y2
Had scored her white right hand which she allows	Z2
To rest ungloved on her green riding dress	V2
The other warded off the drooping boughs	Z2
But still she chatted on with her blue eyes	V
Fix'd full on Merlin's face her stately prize	V
Her 'haviour had the morning's fresh clear grace	A3
The spirit of the woods was in her face	A3
She look'd so witching fair that learned wight	S2
Forgot his craft and his best wits took flight	S2
And he grew fond and eager to obey	S2
His mistress use her empire as she may	S2
	-
They came to where the brushwood ceased and day	S2
Peer'd 'twixt the stems and the ground broke away	S2
In a sloped sward down to a brawling brook	S
And up as high as where they stood to look	S
On the brook's farther side was clear but then	W2
The underwood and trees began again	W2
This open glen was studded thick with thorns	B3
Then white with blossom and you saw the horns	B3
Through last year's fern of the shy fallow deer	F
Who come at noon down to the water here	Q2
You saw the bright eyed squirrels dart along	S
Under the thorns on the green sward and strong	S
The blackbird whistled from the dingles near	F
And the weird chipping of the woodpecker	J
Rang lonelily and sharp the sky was fair	I
And a fresh breath of spring stirr'd everywhere	I
Merlin and Vivian stopp'd on the slope's brow	Q
To gaze on the light sea of leaf and bough	Q
Which glistering plays all round them lone and mild	S2
As if to itself the quiet forest smiled	S2
Upon the brow top grew a thorn and here	Q2
The grass was dry and moss'd and you saw clear	F
Across the hollow white anemonies	B3
Starr'd the cool turf and clumps of primroses	B3
Ran out from the dark underwood behind	S2
No fairer resting place a man could find	S2
Here let us halt said Merlin then and she	W2
Nodded and tied her palfrey to a tree	W2
	-
They sate them down together and a sleep	C3
Fell upon Merlin more like death so deep	C3
Her finger on her lips then Vivian rose	B3
And from her brown lock'd head the wimple throws	B3
And takes it in her hand and waves it over	J
The blossom'd thorn tree and her sleeping lover	J
Nine times she waved the fluttering wimple round	S2
And made a little plot of magic ground	S2
And in that daisied circle as men say	B3
Is Merlin prisoner till the judgment day	B3
But she herself whither she will can rove	J2
For she was passing weary of his love	T2