Tristram And Iseult Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CDCEF F G H G IHHHIHHJHHHHJHJGGKKH HHHIIJJGLMGNJLGJHHOP JPPJJOJPPQRRHHHHJJQS STTGGHHUURRRHH EDEMVNMVJVIJJSSSJJ WWS XXSTSTYYSSPPDDJJSSPP JSSJISSSSIJGSJSGSJZS J JA2JA2EDJJSSJJRRRRSS SSS OSSOS QIIQSSSEXXDSEEB2SSDS DSJJRRSSJSSROOJJRJJS SRRSSJSJSDDSI | A |
TRISTRAM | B |
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Tristram Is she not come The messenger was sure | C |
Prop me upon the pillows once again | D |
Raise me my page this cannot long endure | C |
Christ what a night how the sleet whips the pane | E |
What lights will those out to the northward be | F |
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The Page The lanterns of the fishing boats at sea | F |
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Tristram Soft who is that stands by the dying fire | G |
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The Page Iseult | H |
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Tristram Ah not the Iseult I desire | G |
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What Knight is this so weak and pale | I |
Though the locks are yet brown on his noble head | H |
Propt on pillows in his bed | H |
Gazing seaward for the light | H |
Of some ship that fights the gale | I |
On this wild December night | H |
Over the sick man's feet is spread | H |
A dark green forest dress | J |
A gold harp leans against the bed | H |
Ruddy in the fire's light | H |
I know him by his harp of gold | H |
Famous in Arthur's court of old | H |
I know him by his forest dress | J |
The peerless hunter harper knight | H |
Tristram of Lyoness | J |
What Lady is this whose silk attire | G |
Gleams so rich in the light of the fire | G |
The ringlets on her shoulders lying | K |
In their flitting lustre vying | K |
With the clasp of burnish'd gold | H |
Which her heavy robe doth hold | H |
Her looks are mild her fingers slight | H |
As the driven snow are white | H |
But her cheeks are sunk and pale | I |
Is it that the bleak sea gale | I |
Beating from the Atlantic sea | J |
On this coast of Brittany | J |
Nips too keenly the sweet flower | G |
Is it that a deep fatigue | L |
Hath come on her a chilly fear | M |
Passing all her youthful hour | G |
Spinning with her maidens here | N |
Listlessly through the window bars | J |
Gazing seawards many a league | L |
From her lonely shore built tower | G |
While the knights are at the wars | J |
Or perhaps has her young heart | H |
Felt already some deeper smart | H |
Of those that in secret the heart strings rive | O |
Leaving her sunk and pale though fair | P |
Who is this snowdrop by the sea | J |
I know her by her mildness rare | P |
Her snow white hands her golden hair | P |
I know her by her rich silk dress | J |
And her fragile loveliness | J |
The sweetest Christian soul alive | O |
Iseult of Brittany | J |
Iseult of Brittany but where | P |
Is that other Iseult fair | P |
That proud first Iseult Cornwall's queen | Q |
She whom Tristram's ship of yore | R |
From Ireland to Cornwall bore | R |
To Tyntagel to the side | H |
Of King Marc to be his bride | H |
She who as they voyaged quaff'd | H |
With Tristram that spiced magic draught | H |
Which since then for ever rolls | J |
Through their blood and binds their souls | J |
Working love but working teen | Q |
There were two Iseults who did sway | S |
Each her hour of Tristram's day | S |
But one possess'd his waning time | T |
The other his resplendent prime | T |
Behold her here the patient flower | G |
Who possess'd his darker hour | G |
Iseult of the Snow White Hand | H |
Watches pale by Tristram's bed | H |
She is here who had his gloom | U |
Where art thou who hadst his bloom | U |
One such kiss as those of yore | R |
Might thy dying knight restore | R |
Does the love draught work no more | R |
Art thou cold or false or dead | H |
Iseult of Ireland | H |
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Loud howls the wind sharp patters the rain | E |
And the knight sinks back on his pillows again | D |
He is weak with fever and pain | E |
And his spirit is not clear | M |
Hark he mutters in his sleep | V |
As he wanders far from here | N |
Changes place and time of year | M |
And his clos d eye doth sweep | V |
O'er some fair unwintry sea | J |
Not this fierce Atlantic deep | V |
While he mutters brokenly | I |
Tristram The calm sea shines loose hang the vessel's sails | J |
Before us are the sweet green fields of Wales | J |
And overhead the cloudless sky of May | S |
'Ah would I were in those green fields at play | S |
Not pent on ship board this delicious day | S |
Tristram I pray thee of thy courtesy | J |
Reach me my golden phial stands by thee | J |
But pledge me in it first for courtesy ' | - |
Ha dost thou start are thy lips blanch'd like mine | W |
Child 'tis no true draught this 'tis poison'd wine | W |
Iseult | S |
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Ah sweet angels let him dream | X |
Keep his eyelids let him seem | X |
Not this fever wasted wight | S |
Thinn'd and paled before his time | T |
But the brilliant youthful knight | S |
In the glory of his prime | T |
Sitting in the gilded barge | Y |
At thy side thou lovely charge | Y |
Bending gaily o'er thy hand | S |
Iseult of Ireland | S |
And she too that princess fair | P |
If her bloom be now less rare | P |
Let her have her youth again | D |
Let her be as she was then | D |
Let her have her proud dark eyes | J |
And her petulant quick replies | J |
Let her sweep her dazzling hand | S |
With its gesture of command | S |
And shake back her raven hair | P |
With the old imperious air | P |
As of old so let her be | J |
That first Iseult princess bright | S |
Chatting with her youthful knight | S |
As he steers her o'er the sea | J |
Quitting at her father's will | I |
The green isle where she was bred | S |
And her bower in Ireland | S |
For the surge beat Cornish strand | S |
Where the prince whom she must wed | S |
Dwells on loud Tyntagel's hill | I |
High above the sounding sea | J |
And that potion rare her mother | G |
Gave her that her future lord | S |
Gave her that King Marc and she | J |
Might drink it on their marriage day | S |
And for ever love each other | G |
Let her as she sits on board | S |
Ah sweet saints unwittingly | J |
See it shine and take it up | Z |
And to Tristram laughing say | S |
'Sir Tristram of thy courtesy | J |
Pledge me in my golden cup ' | - |
Let them drink it let their hands | J |
Tremble and their cheeks be flame | A2 |
As they feel the fatal bands | J |
Of a love they dare not name | A2 |
With a wild delicious pain | E |
Twine about their hearts again | D |
Let the early summer be | J |
Once more round them and the sea | J |
Blue and o'er its mirror kind | S |
Let the breath of the May wind | S |
Wandering through their drooping sails | J |
Die on the green fields of Wales | J |
Let a dream like this restore | R |
What his eye must see no more | R |
Tristram Chill blows the wind the pleasaunce walks are drear | R |
Madcap what jest was this to meet me here | R |
Were feet like those made for so wild a way | S |
The southern winter parlour by my fay | S |
Had been the likeliest trysting place to day | S |
'Tristram nay nay thou must not take my hand | S |
Tristram sweet love we are betray'd out plann'd | S |
Fly save thyself save me I dare not stay ' | - |
One last kiss first ''Tis vain to horse away ' | - |
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Ah sweet saints his dream doth move | O |
Faster surely than it should | S |
From the fever in his blood | S |
All the spring time of his love | O |
Is already gone and past | S |
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And instead thereof is seen | Q |
Its winter which endureth still | I |
Tyntagel on its surge beat hill | I |
The pleasaunce walks the weeping queen | Q |
The flying leaves the straining blast | S |
And that long wild kiss their last | S |
And this rough December night | S |
And his burning fever pain | E |
Mingle with his hurrying dream | X |
Till they rule it till he seem | X |
The press'd fugitive again | D |
The love desperate banish'd knight | S |
With a fire in his brain | E |
Flying o'er the stormy main | E |
Whither does he wander now | B2 |
Haply in his dreams the wind | S |
Wafts him here and lets him find | S |
The lovely orphan child again | D |
In her castle by the coast | S |
The youngest fairest chatelaine | D |
Whom this realm of France can boast | S |
Our snowdrop by the Atlantic sea | J |
Iseult of Brittany | J |
And for through the haggard air | R |
The stain'd arms the matted hair | R |
Of that stranger knight ill starr'd | S |
There gleam'd something which recall'd | S |
The Tristram who in better days | J |
Was Launcelot's guest at Joyous Gard | S |
Welcomed here and here install'd | S |
Tended of his fever here | R |
Haply he seems again to move | O |
His young guardian's heart with love | O |
In his exiled loneliness | J |
In his stately deep distress | J |
Without a word without a tear | R |
Ah 'tis well he should retrace | J |
His tranquil life in this lone place | J |
His gentle bearing at the side | S |
Of his timid youthful bride | S |
His long rambles by the shore | R |
On winter evenings when the roar | R |
Of the near waves came sadly grand | S |
Through the dark up the drown'd sand | S |
Or his endless reveries | J |
In the woods where the gleams play | S |
On the grass under the trees | J |
Passing the long summer's day | S |
Idle as a mossy stone | D |
In the forest depths alone | D |
The chase neglected and his hound | S |
Co | - |
Matthew Arnold
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