Prince Athanase. A Fragment Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCB CDC DED EFE FGF HIG IJI JKJ KLK LML NOM OPO PQR QSQ SAS ATA TUT UVW XYX YZY ZA2Z B2MC2 MD2M E2F2V G2H2I2 H2J2H2 J2K2J2 K2L2K2 L2M2L2 M2N2M2 N2TL TO2B P2ZO2 ZQ2Z Q2R2Q2 R2OR2 OS2O S2H2S2 H2T2H2 T2U2T2 U2V2U2U2 A W2 X2Y2X2 Y2I2Y2 I2H2I2 S2Z2S2 Z2A3 A3H2A3 H2B3H2 C3LB3 LD3L E3Y2F3 Y2G3Y2 G3H2G3 H2H3I3 W2 I2J3I2 J3K3J3 L3E2L3 E2G3E2 G3H2G3 H2H2H2 H2E2H2 E2E2E2 D2ZD2 ZM3Z M3A3G3 A3N3A3 N3I2N3 I2G3I2 G3VG3 VH2X H2O3H2 O3L3O3 L3L3L3 L3I2L3 I2L3I2 L3L3 L3 H2L3H2 L3H2 H2I2H2L3 L3 I2L3I2 L3I2L3 I2P3I2 Q3H2R3 H2I2H2 I2L3I2 L3G3L3 L3 I2I2I2 I2H2I2 H2S3G3 S3G3 H2L3H2 L3L3 L3 G3I2G3 I2L3I2 L3T3L3 T3L3T3 L3U3L3 U3I2U3 I2L3I2 L3G3L3 V3 M3H2H2 H2W3H2 H2G3L3 H2 H2X3H2 EL3E

PART	A
	-
There was a youth who as with toil and travel	B
Had grown quite weak and gray before his time	C
Nor any could the restless griefs unravel	B
	-
Which burned within him withering up his prime	C
And goading him like fiends from land to land	D
Not his the load of any secret crime	C
	-
For nought of ill his heart could understand	D
But pity and wild sorrow for the same	E
Not his the thirst for glory or command	D
	-
Baffled with blast of hope consuming shame	E
Nor evil joys which fire the vulgar breast	F
And quench in speedy smoke its feeble flame	E
	-
Had left within his soul their dark unrest	F
Nor what religion fables of the grave	G
Feared he Philosophy's accepted guest	F
	-
For none than he a purer heart could have	H
Or that loved good more for itself alone	I
Of nought in heaven or earth was he the slave	G
	-
What sorrow strange and shadowy and unknown	I
Sent him a hopeless wanderer through mankind	J
If with a human sadness he did groan	I
	-
He had a gentle yet aspiring mind	J
Just innocent with varied learning fed	K
And such a glorious consolation find	J
	-
In others' joy when all their own is dead	K
He loved and laboured for his kind in grief	L
And yet unlike all others it is said	K
	-
That from such toil he never found relief	L
Although a child of fortune and of power	M
Of an ancestral name the orphan chief	L
	-
His soul had wedded Wisdom and her dower	N
Is love and justice clothed in which he sate	O
Apart from men as in a lonely tower	M
	-
Pitying the tumult of their dark estate	O
Yet even in youth did he not e'er abuse	P
The strength of wealth or thought to consecrate	O
	-
Those false opinions which the harsh rich use	P
To blind the world they famish for their pride	Q
Nor did he hold from any man his dues	R
	-
But like a steward in honest dealings tried	Q
With those who toiled and wept the poor and wise	S
His riches and his cares he did divide	Q
	-
Fearless he was and scorning all disguise	S
What he dared do or think though men might start	A
He spoke with mild yet unaverted eyes	S
	-
Liberal he was of soul and frank of heart	A
And to his many friends all loved him well	T
Whate'er he knew or felt he would impart	A
	-
If words he found those inmost thoughts to tell	T
If not he smiled or wept and his weak foes	U
He neither spurned nor hated though with fell	T
	-
And mortal hate their thousand voices rose	U
They passed like aimless arrows from his ear	V
Nor did his heart or mind its portal close	W
	-
To those or them or any whom life's sphere	X
May comprehend within its wide array	Y
What sadness made that vernal spirit sere	X
	-
He knew not Though his life day after day	Y
Was failing like an unreplenished stream	Z
Though in his eyes a cloud and burthen lay	Y
	-
Through which his soul like Vesper's serene beam	Z
Piercing the chasms of ever rising clouds	A2
Shone softly burning though his lips did seem	Z
	-
Like reeds which quiver in impetuous floods	B2
And through his sleep and o'er each waking hour	M
Thoughts after thoughts unresting multitudes	C2
	-
Were driven within him by some secret power	M
Which bade them blaze and live and roll afar	D2
Like lights and sounds from haunted tower to tower	M
	-
O'er castled mountains borne when tempest's war	E2
Is levied by the night contending winds	F2
And the pale dalesmen watch with eager ear	V
	-
Though such were in his spirit as the fiends	G2
Which wake and feed an everliving woe	H2
What was this grief which ne'er in other minds	I2
	-
A mirror found he knew not none could know	H2
But on whoe'er might question him he turned	J2
The light of his frank eyes as if to show	H2
	-
He knew not of the grief within that burned	J2
But asked forbearance with a mournful look	K2
Or spoke in words from which none ever learned	J2
	-
The cause of his disquietude or shook	K2
With spasms of silent passion or turned pale	L2
So that his friends soon rarely undertook	K2
	-
To stir his secret pain without avail	L2
For all who knew and loved him then perceived	M2
That there was drawn an adamantine veil	L2
	-
Between his heart and mind both unrelieved	M2
Wrought in his brain and bosom separate strife	N2
Some said that he was mad others believed	M2
	-
That memories of an antenatal life	N2
Made this where now he dwelt a penal hell	T
And others said that such mysterious grief	L
	-
From God's displeasure like a darkness fell	T
On souls like his which owned no higher law	O2
Than love love calm steadfast invincible	B
	-
By mortal fear or supernatural awe	P2
And others ''Tis the shadow of a dream	Z
Which the veiled eye of Memory never saw	O2
	-
'But through the soul's abyss like some dark stream	Z
Through shattered mines and caverns underground	Q2
Rolls shaking its foundations and no beam	Z
	-
'Of joy may rise but it is quenched and drowned	Q2
In the dim whirlpools of this dream obscure	R2
Soon its exhausted waters will have found	Q2
	-
'A lair of rest beneath thy spirit pure	R2
O Athanase in one so good and great	O
Evil or tumult cannot long endure	R2
	-
So spake they idly of another's state	O
Babbling vain words and fond philosophy	S2
This was their consolation such debate	O
	-
Men held with one another nor did he	S2
Like one who labours with a human woe	H2
Decline this talk as if its theme might be	S2
	-
Another not himself he to and fro	H2
Questioned and canvassed it with subtlest wit	T2
And none but those who loved him best could know	H2
	-
That which he knew not how it galled and bit	T2
His weary mind this converse vain and cold	U2
For like an eyeless nightmare grief did sit	T2
	-
Upon his being a snake which fold by fold	U2
Pressed out the life of life a clinging fiend	V2
Which clenched him if he stirred with deadlier hold	U2
And so his grief remained let it remain untold	U2
	-
	-
PART	A
	-
FRAGMENT	W2
	-
Prince Athanase had one beloved friend	X2
An old old man with hair of silver white	Y2
And lips where heavenly smiles would hang and blend	X2
	-
With his wise words and eyes whose arrowy light	Y2
Shone like the reflex of a thousand minds	I2
He was the last whom superstition's blight	Y2
	-
Had spared in Greece the blight that cramps and blinds	I2
And in his olive bower at Oenoe	H2
Had sate from earliest youth Like one who finds	I2
	-
A fertile island in the barren sea	S2
One mariner who has survived his mates	Z2
Many a drear month in a great ship so he	S2
	-
With soul sustaining songs and sweet debates	Z2
Of ancient lore there fed his lonely being	A3
'The mind becomes that which it contemplates '	-
	-
And thus Zonoras by for ever seeing	A3
Their bright creations grew like wisest men	H2
And when he heard the crash of nations fleeing	A3
	-
A bloodier power than ruled thy ruins then	H2
O sacred Hellas many weary years	B3
He wandered till the path of Laian's glen	H2
	-
Was grass grown and the unremembered tears	C3
Were dry in Laian for their honoured chief	L
Who fell in Byzant pierced by Moslem spears	B3
	-
And as the lady looked with faithful grief	L
From her high lattice o'er the rugged path	D3
Where she once saw that horseman toil with brief	L
	-
And blighting hope who with the news of death	E3
Struck body and soul as with a mortal blight	Y2
She saw between the chestnuts far beneath	F3
	-
An old man toiling up a weary wight	Y2
And soon within her hospitable hall	G3
She saw his white hairs glittering in the light	Y2
	-
Of the wood fire and round his shoulders fall	G3
And his wan visage and his withered mien	H2
Yet calm and gentle and majestical	G3
	-
And Athanase her child who must have been	H2
Then three years old sate opposite and gazed	H3
In patient silence	I3
	-
	-
FRAGMENT	W2
	-
Such was Zonoras and as daylight finds	I2
One amaranth glittering on the path of frost	J3
When autumn nights have nipped all weaker kinds	I2
	-
Thus through his age dark cold and tempest tossed	J3
Shone truth upon Zonoras and he filled	K3
From fountains pure nigh overgrown and lost	J3
	-
The spirit of Prince Athanase a child	L3
With soul sustaining songs of ancient lore	E2
And philosophic wisdom clear and mild	L3
	-
And sweet and subtle talk they evermore	E2
The pupil and the master shared until	G3
Sharing that undiminishable store	E2
	-
The youth as shadows on a grassy hill	G3
Outrun the winds that chase them soon outran	H2
His teacher and did teach with native skill	G3
	-
Strange truths and new to that experienced man	H2
Still they were friends as few have ever been	H2
Who mark the extremes of life's discordant span	H2
	-
So in the caverns of the forest green	H2
Or on the rocks of echoing ocean hoar	E2
Zonoras and Prince Athanase were seen	H2
	-
By summer woodmen and when winter's roar	E2
Sounded o'er earth and sea its blast of war	E2
The Balearic fisher driven from shore	E2
	-
Hanging upon the peaked wave afar	D2
Then saw their lamp from Laian's turret gleam	Z
Piercing the stormy darkness like a star	D2
	-
Which pours beyond the sea one steadfast beam	Z
Whilst all the constellations of the sky	M3
Seemed reeling through the storm They did but seem	Z
	-
For lo the wintry clouds are all gone by	M3
And bright Arcturus through yon pines is glowing	A3
And far o'er southern waves immovably	G3
	-
Belted Orion hangs warm light is flowing	A3
From the young moon into the sunset's chasm	N3
'O summer eve with power divine bestowing	A3
	-
'On thine own bird the sweet enthusiasm	N3
Which overflows in notes of liquid gladness	I2
Filling the sky like light How many a spasm	N3
	-
'Of fevered brains oppressed with grief and madness	I2
Were lulled by thee delightful nightingale	G3
And these soft waves murmuring a gentle sadness	I2
	-
'And the far sighings of yon piny dale	G3
Made vocal by some wind we feel not here	V
I bear alone what nothing may avail	G3
	-
'To lighten a strange load ' No human ear	V
Heard this lament but o'er the visage wan	H2
Of Athanase a ruffling atmosphere	X
	-
Of dark emotion a swift shadow ran	H2
Like wind upon some forest bosomed lake	O3
Glassy and dark And that divine old man	H2
	-
Beheld his mystic friend's whole being shake	O3
Even where its inmost depths were gloomiest	L3
And with a calm and measured voice he spake	O3
	-
And with a soft and equal pressure pressed	L3
That cold lean hand 'Dost thou remember yet	L3
When the curved moon then lingering in the west	L3
	-
'Paused in yon waves her mighty horns to wet	L3
How in those beams we walked half resting on the sea	I2
'Tis just one year sure thou dost not forget	L3
	-
'Then Plato's words of light in thee and me	I2
Lingered like moonlight in the moonless east	L3
For we had just then read thy memory	I2
	-
'Is faithful now the story of the feast	L3
And Agathon and Diotima seemed	L3
From death and dark forgetfulness released '	-
	-
	-
FRAGMENT	L3
	-
And when the old man saw that on the green	H2
Leaves of his opening a blight had lighted	L3
He said 'My friend one grief alone can wean	H2
	-
A gentle mind from all that once delighted	L3
Thou lovest and thy secret heart is laden	H2
With feelings which should not be unrequited '	-
	-
And Athanase then smiled as one o'erladen	H2
With iron chains might smile to talk of bands	I2
Twined round her lover's neck by some blithe maiden	H2
And said	L3
	-
	-
FRAGMENT	L3
	-
'Twas at the season when the Earth upsprings	I2
From slumber as a sphered angel's child	L3
Shadowing its eyes with green and golden wings	I2
	-
Stands up before its mother bright and mild	L3
Of whose soft voice the air expectant seems	I2
So stood before the sun which shone and smiled	L3
	-
To see it rise thus joyous from its dreams	I2
The fresh and radiant Earth The hoary grove	P3
Waxed green and flowers burst forth like starry beams	I2
	-
The grass in the warm sun did start and move	Q3
And sea buds burst under the waves serene	H2
How many a one though none be near to love	R3
	-
Loves then the shade of his own soul half seen	H2
In any mirror or the spring's young minions	I2
The winged leaves amid the copses green	H2
	-
How many a spirit then puts on the pinions	I2
Of fancy and outstrips the lagging blast	L3
And his own steps and over wide dominions	I2
	-
Sweeps in his dream drawn chariot far and fast	L3
More fleet than storms the wide world shrinks below	G3
When winter and despondency are past	L3
	-
	-
FRAGMENT	L3
	-
'Twas at this season that Prince Athanase	I2
Passed the white Alps those eagle baffling mountains	I2
Slept in their shrouds of snow beside the ways	I2
	-
The waterfalls were voiceless for their fountains	I2
Were changed to mines of sunless crystal now	H2
Or by the curdling winds like brazen wings	I2
	-
Which clanged along the mountain's marble brow	H2
Warped into adamantine fretwork hung	S3
And filled with frozen light the chasms below	G3
	-
Vexed by the blast the great pines groaned and swung	S3
Under their load of snow	G3
	-
	-
Such as the eagle sees when he dives down	H2
From the gray deserts of wide air beheld	L3
Prince Athanase and o'er his mien was thrown	H2
	-
The shadow of that scene field after field	L3
Purple and dim and wide	L3
	-
	-
FRAGMENT	L3
	-
Thou art the wine whose drunkenness is all	G3
We can desire O Love and happy souls	I2
Ere from thy vine the leaves of autumn fall	G3
	-
Catch thee and feed from their o'erflowing bowls	I2
Thousands who thirst for thine ambrosial dew	L3
Thou art the radiance which where ocean rolls	I2
	-
Investeth it and when the heavens are blue	L3
Thou fillest them and when the earth is fair	T3
The shadow of thy moving wings imbue	L3
	-
Its deserts and its mountains till they wear	T3
Beauty like some light robe thou ever soarest	L3
Among the towers of men and as soft air	T3
	-
In spring which moves the unawakened forest	L3
Clothing with leaves its branches bare and bleak	U3
Thou floatest among men and aye implorest	L3
	-
That which from thee they should implore the weak	U3
Alone kneel to thee offering up the hearts	I2
The strong have broken yet where shall any seek	U3
	-
A garment whom thou clothest not the darts	I2
Of the keen winter storm barbed with frost	L3
Which from the everlasting snow that parts	I2
	-
The Alps from Heaven pierce some traveller lost	L3
In the wide waved interminable snow	G3
Ungarmented	L3
	-
	-
ANOTHER FRAGMENT A	V3
	-
Yes often when the eyes are cold and dry	M3
And the lips calm the Spirit weeps within	H2
Tears bitterer than the blood of agony	H2
	-
Trembling in drops on the discoloured skin	H2
Of those who love their kind and therefore perish	W3
In ghastly torture a sweet medicine	H2
	-
Of peace and sleep are tears and quietly	H2
Them soothe from whose uplifted eyes they fall	G3
But	L3
	-
	-
ANOTHER FRAGMENT B	H2
	-
Her hair was brown her sphered eyes were brown	H2
And in their dark and liquid moisture swam	X3
Like the dim orb of the eclipsed moon	H2
	-
Yet when the spirit flashed beneath there came	E
The light from them as when tears of delight	L3
Double the western planet's serene flame	E

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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