Mycerinus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCD EFEGHH IJIJCC KLKLHH MNMMHH HHHHCD IOIODD HMHMPP DKDKQQ RJRJSS ETEUVV HJHJWW XYXYH ZHA2HJMB2HC2HD2E2F2Z G2QH2MSMI2 YHJ2K2HYSCL2M2JMN2QH 2MMHMYXH MMO2XHY'Not by the justice that my father spurn'd | A |
Not for the thousands whom my father slew | B |
Altars unfed and temples overturn'd | A |
Cold hearts and thankless tongues where thanks are due | B |
Fell this dread voice from lips that cannot lie | C |
Stern sentence of the Powers of Destiny | D |
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'I will unfold my sentence and my crime | E |
My crime that rapt in reverential awe | F |
I sate obedient in the fiery prime | E |
Of youth self govern'd at the feet of Law | G |
Ennobling this dull pomp the life of kings | H |
By contemplation of diviner things | H |
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'My father loved injustice and lived long | I |
Crown'd with grey hairs he died and full of sway | J |
I loved the good he scorn'd and hated wrong | I |
The Gods declare my recompense to day | J |
I look'd for life more lasting rule more high | C |
And when six years are measured lo I die | C |
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'Yet surely O my people did I deem | K |
Man's justice from the all just Gods was given | L |
A light that from some upper fount did beam | K |
Some better archetype whose seat was heaven | L |
A light that shining from the blest abodes | H |
Did shadow somewhat of the life of Gods | H |
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'Mere phantoms of man's self tormenting heart | M |
Which on the sweets that woo it dares not feed | N |
Vain dreams which quench our pleasures then depart | M |
When the duped soul self master'd claims its meed | M |
When on the strenuous just man Heaven bestows | H |
Crown of his struggling life an unjust close | H |
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'Seems it so light a thing then austere Powers | H |
To spurn man's common lure life's pleasant things | H |
Seems there no joy in dances crown'd with flowers | H |
Love free to range and regal banquetings | H |
Bend ye on these indeed an unmoved eye | C |
Not Gods but ghosts in frozen apathy | D |
- | |
'Or is it that some Force too wise too strong | I |
Even for yourselves to conquer or beguile | O |
Sweeps earth and heaven and men and Gods along | I |
Like the broad volume of the insurgent Nile | O |
And the great powers we serve themselves may be | D |
Slaves of a tyrannous necessity | D |
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'Or in mid heaven perhaps your golden cars | H |
Where earthly voice climbs never wing their flight | M |
And in wild hunt through mazy tracts of stars | H |
Sweep in the sounding stillness of the night | M |
Or in deaf ease on thrones of dazzling sheen | P |
Drinking deep draughts of joy ye dwell serene | P |
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'Oh wherefore cheat our youth if thus it be | D |
Of one short joy one lust one pleasant dream | K |
Stringing vain words of powers we cannot see | D |
Blind divinations of a will supreme | K |
Lost labour when the circumambient gloom | Q |
But hides if Gods Gods careless of our doom | Q |
- | |
'The rest I give to joy Even while I speak | R |
My sand runs short and as yon star shot ray | J |
Hemm'd by two banks of cloud peers pale and weak | R |
Now as the barrier closes dies away | J |
Even so do past and future intertwine | S |
Blotting this six years' space which yet is mine | S |
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'Six years six little years six drops of time | E |
Yet suns shall rise and many moons shall wane | T |
And old men die and young men pass their prime | E |
And languid pleasure fade and flower again | U |
And the dull Gods behold ere these are flown | V |
Revels more deep joy keener than their own | V |
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'Into the silence of the groves and woods | H |
I will go forth though something would I say | J |
Something yet what I know not for the Gods | H |
The doom they pass revoke not nor delay | J |
And prayers and gifts and tears are fruitless all | W |
And the night waxes and the shadows fall | W |
- | |
'Ye men of Egypt ye have heard your king | X |
I go and I return not But the will | Y |
Of the great Gods is plain and ye must bring | X |
Ill deeds ill passions zealous to fulfil | Y |
Their pleasure to their feet and reap their praise | H |
The praise of Gods rich boon and length of days ' | - |
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So spake he half in anger half in scorn | Z |
And one loud cry of grief and of amaze | H |
Broke from his sorrowing people so he spake | A2 |
And turning left them there and with brief pause | H |
Girt with a throng of revellers bent his way | J |
To the cool region of the groves he loved | M |
There by the river banks he wander'd on | B2 |
From palm grove on to palm grove happy trees | H |
Their smooth tops shining sunward and beneath | C2 |
Burying their unsunn'd stems in grass and flowers | H |
Where in one dream the feverish time of youth | D2 |
Might fade in slumber and the feet of joy | E2 |
Might wander all day long and never tire | F2 |
Here came the king holding high feast at morn | Z |
Rose crown'd and ever when the sun went down | G2 |
A hundred lamps beam'd in the tranquil gloom | Q |
From tree to tree all through the twinkling grove | H2 |
Revealing all the tumult of the feast | M |
Flush'd guests and golden goblets foam'd with wine | S |
While the deep burnish'd foliage overhead | M |
Splinter'd the silver arrows of the moon | I2 |
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It may be that sometimes his wondering soul | Y |
From the loud joyful laughter of his lips | H |
Might shrink half startled like a guilty man | J2 |
Who wrestles with his dream as some pale shape | K2 |
Gliding half hidden through the dusky stems | H |
Would thrust a hand before the lifted bowl | Y |
Whispering A little space and thou art mine | S |
It may be on that joyless feast his eye | C |
Dwelt with mere outward seeming he within | L2 |
Took measure of his soul and knew its strength | M2 |
And by that silent knowledge day by day | J |
Was calm'd ennobled comforted sustain'd | M |
It may be but not less his brow was smooth | N2 |
And his clear laugh fled ringing through the gloom | Q |
And his mirth quail'd not at the mild reproof | H2 |
Sigh'd out by winter's sad tranquillity | M |
Nor pall'd with its own fulness ebb'd and died | M |
In the rich languor of long summer days | H |
Nor wither'd when the palm tree plumes that roof'd | M |
With their mild dark his grassy banquet hall | Y |
Bent to the cold winds of the showerless spring | X |
No nor grew dark when autumn brought the clouds | H |
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So six long years he revell'd night and day | M |
And when the mirth wax'd loudest with dull sound | M |
Sometimes from the grove's centre echoes came | O2 |
To tell his wondering people of their king | X |
In the still night across the steaming flats | H |
Mix'd with the murmur of the moving Nile | Y |
Matthew Arnold
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