Queen Mab: Part I. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGH IJKLDJMNOAPQRJIQSJTU VW TJJJXIYZA2YYYYB2 YC2JD2SE2JJBYF2JYG2 H2NF2YI2YJ2F2Y JC2YJJF2K2YNJB CLF2J2ZYYF2CH2L2YYJS YI2JYJ2EF2LH2QF2 J2YYM2LNJN2O2 F2YYJC2IYINP2CJF2JQ2 R2S2 JYF2T2JJYYQ S2IJNYYF2T2NQU2F2SYV 2F2H2J F2BE2YY YSIF2F2 F2QBYTYJSJW2X2Y2S2F2 S2S2YS2S2NF2 S2S2Z2A3B3S2S2C3JS2S 2S2S2S2S2NH2JS2 V2JS2FEV2JF2JD3SE3G2 P2S2 F3G3S2S2JH3EJI3 S2FS2IW2HOW wonderful is Death | A |
Death and his brother Sleep | B |
One pale as yonder waning moon | C |
With lips of lurid blue | D |
The other rosy as the morn | E |
When throned on ocean's wave | F |
It blushes o'er the world | G |
Yet both so passing wonderful | H |
- | |
Hath then the gloomy Power | I |
Whose reign is in the tainted sepulchres | J |
Seized on her sinless soul | K |
Must then that peerless form | L |
Which love and admiration cannot view | D |
Without a beating heart those azure veins | J |
Which steal like streams along a field of snow | M |
That lovely outline which is fair | N |
As breathing marble perish | O |
Must putrefaction's breath | A |
Leave nothing of this heavenly sight | P |
But loathsomeness and ruin | Q |
Spare nothing but a gloomy theme | R |
On which the lightest heart might moralize | J |
Or is it only a sweet slumber | I |
Stealing o'er sensation | Q |
Which the breath of roseate morning | S |
Chaseth into darkness | J |
Will Ianthe wake again | T |
And give that faithful bosom joy | U |
Whose sleepless spirit waits to catch | V |
Light life and rapture from her smile | W |
- | |
Yes she will wake again | T |
Although her glowing limbs are motionless | J |
And silent those sweet lips | J |
Once breathing eloquence | J |
That might have soothed a tiger's rage | X |
Or thawed the cold heart of a conqueror | I |
Her dewy eyes are closed | Y |
And on their lids whose texture fine | Z |
Scarce hides the dark blue orbs beneath | A2 |
The baby Sleep is pillowed | Y |
Her golden tresses shade | Y |
The bosom's stainless pride | Y |
Curling like tendrils of the parasite | Y |
Around a marble column | B2 |
- | |
Hark whence that rushing sound | Y |
'T is like the wondrous strain | C2 |
That round a lonely ruin swells | J |
Which wandering on the echoing shore | D2 |
The enthusiast hears at evening | S |
'T is softer than the west wind's sigh | E2 |
'T is wilder than the unmeasured notes | J |
Of that strange lyre whose strings | J |
The genii of the breezes sweep | B |
Those lines of rainbow light | Y |
Are like the moonbeams when they fall | F2 |
Through some cathedral window but the tints | J |
Are such as may not find | Y |
Comparison on earth | G2 |
- | |
Behold the chariot of the Fairy Queen | H2 |
Celestial coursers paw the unyielding air | N |
Their filmy pennons at her word they furl | F2 |
And stop obedient to the reins of light | Y |
These the Queen of Spells drew in | I2 |
She spread a charm around the spot | Y |
And leaning graceful from the ethereal car | J2 |
Long did she gaze and silently | F2 |
Upon the slumbering maid | Y |
- | |
Oh not the visioned poet in his dreams | J |
When silvery clouds float through the wildered brain | C2 |
When every sight of lovely wild and grand | Y |
Astonishes enraptures elevates | J |
When fancy at a glance combines | J |
The wondrous and the beautiful | F2 |
So bright so fair so wild a shape | K2 |
Hath ever yet beheld | Y |
As that which reined the coursers of the air | N |
And poured the magic of her gaze | J |
Upon the maiden's sleep | B |
- | |
The broad and yellow moon | C |
Shone dimly through her form | L |
That form of faultless symmetry | F2 |
The pearly and pellucid car | J2 |
Moved not the moonlight's line | Z |
'T was not an earthly pageant | Y |
Those who had looked upon the sight | Y |
Passing all human glory | F2 |
Saw not the yellow moon | C |
Saw not the mortal scene | H2 |
Heard not the night wind's rush | L2 |
Heard not an earthly sound | Y |
Saw but the fairy pageant | Y |
Heard but the heavenly strains | J |
That filled the lonely dwelling | S |
- | |
The Fairy's frame was slight yon fibrous cloud | Y |
That catches but the palest tinge of even | I2 |
And which the straining eye can hardly seize | J |
When melting into eastern twilight's shadow | Y |
Were scarce so thin so slight but the fair star | J2 |
That gems the glittering coronet of morn | E |
Sheds not a light so mild so powerful | F2 |
As that which bursting from the Fairy's form | L |
Spread a purpureal halo round the scene | H2 |
Yet with an undulating motion | Q |
Swayed to her outline gracefully | F2 |
- | |
From her celestial car | J2 |
The Fairy Queen descended | Y |
And thrice she waved her wand | Y |
Circled with wreaths of amaranth | M2 |
Her thin and misty form | L |
Moved with the moving air | N |
And the clear silver tones | J |
As thus she spoke were such | N2 |
As are unheard by all but gifted ear | O2 |
- | |
FAIRY | F2 |
'Stars your balmiest influence shed | Y |
Elements your wrath suspend | Y |
Sleep Ocean in the rocky bounds | J |
That circle thy domain | C2 |
Let not a breath be seen to stir | I |
Around yon grass grown ruin's height | Y |
Let even the restless gossamer | I |
Sleep on the moveless air | N |
Soul of Ianthe thou | P2 |
Judged alone worthy of the envied boon | C |
That waits the good and the sincere that waits | J |
Those who have struggled and with resolute will | F2 |
Vanquished earth's pride and meanness burst the chains | J |
The icy chains of custom and have shone | Q2 |
The day stars of their age Soul of | R2 |
Ianthe | S2 |
Awake arise ' | - |
- | |
Sudden arose | J |
Ianthe's Soul it stood | Y |
All beautiful in naked purity | F2 |
The perfect semblance of its bodily frame | T2 |
Instinct with inexpressible beauty and grace | J |
Each stain of earthliness | J |
Had passed away it reassumed | Y |
Its native dignity and stood | Y |
Immortal amid ruin | Q |
- | |
Upon the couch the body lay | S2 |
Wrapt in the depth of slumber | I |
Its features were fixed and meaningless | J |
Yet animal life was there | N |
And every organ yet performed | Y |
Its natural functions 'twas a sight | Y |
Of wonder to behold the body and the soul | F2 |
The self same lineaments the same | T2 |
Marks of identity were there | N |
Yet oh how different One aspires to Heaven | Q |
Pants for its sempiternal heritage | U2 |
And ever changing ever rising still | F2 |
Wantons in endless being | S |
The other for a time the unwilling sport | Y |
Of circumstance and passion struggles on | V2 |
Fleets through its sad duration rapidly | F2 |
Then like an useless and worn out machine | H2 |
Rots perishes and passes | J |
- | |
FAIRY | F2 |
'Spirit who hast dived so deep | B |
Spirit who hast soared so high | E2 |
Thou the fearless thou the mild | Y |
Accept the boon thy worth hath earned | Y |
Ascend the car with me ' | - |
- | |
SPIRIT | Y |
'Do I dream Is this new feeling | S |
But a visioned ghost of slumber | I |
If indeed I am a soul | F2 |
A free a disembodied soul | F2 |
Speak again to me ' | - |
- | |
FAIRY | F2 |
'I am the Fairy MAB to me 'tis given | Q |
The wonders of the human world to keep | B |
The secrets of the immeasurable past | Y |
In the unfailing consciences of men | T |
Those stern unflattering chroniclers I find | Y |
The future from the causes which arise | J |
In each event I gather not the sting | S |
Which retributive memory implants | J |
In the hard bosom of the selfish man | W2 |
Nor that ecstatic and exulting throb | X2 |
Which virtue's votary feels when he sums up | Y2 |
The thoughts and actions of a well spent day | S2 |
Are unforeseen unregistered by me | F2 |
And it is yet permitted me to rend | S2 |
The veil of mortal frailty that the spirit | S2 |
Clothed in its changeless purity may know | Y |
How soonest to accomplish the great end | S2 |
For which it hath its being and may taste | S2 |
That peace which in the end all life will share | N |
This is the meed of virtue happy Soul | F2 |
Ascend the car with me ' | - |
- | |
The chains of earth's immurement | S2 |
Fell from Ianthe's spirit | S2 |
They shrank and brake like bandages of straw | Z2 |
Beneath a wakened giant's strength | A3 |
She knew her glorious change | B3 |
And felt in apprehension uncontrolled | S2 |
New raptures opening round | S2 |
Each day dream of her mortal life | C3 |
Each frenzied vision of the slumbers | J |
That closed each well spent day | S2 |
Seemed now to meet reality | S2 |
The Fairy and the Soul proceeded | S2 |
The silver clouds disparted | S2 |
And as the car of magic they ascended | S2 |
Again the speechless music swelled | S2 |
Again the coursers of the air | N |
Unfurled their azure pennons and the Queen | H2 |
Shaking the beamy reins | J |
Bade them pursue their way | S2 |
- | |
The magic car moved on | V2 |
The night was fair and countless stars | J |
Studded heaven's dark blue vault | S2 |
Just o'er the eastern wave | F |
Peeped the first faint smile of morn | E |
The magic car moved on | V2 |
From the celestial hoofs | J |
The atmosphere in flaming sparkles flew | F2 |
And where the burning wheels | J |
Eddied above the mountain's loftiest peak | D3 |
Was traced a line of lightning | S |
Now it flew far above a rock | E3 |
The utmost verge of earth | G2 |
The rival of the Andes whose dark brow | P2 |
Lowered o'er the silver sea | S2 |
- | |
Far far below the chariot's path | F3 |
Calm as a slumbering babe | G3 |
Tremendous Ocean lay | S2 |
The mirror of its stillness showed | S2 |
The pale and waning stars | J |
The chariot's fiery track | H3 |
And the gray light of morn | E |
Tinging those fleecy clouds | J |
That canopied the dawn | I3 |
- | |
Seemed it that the chariot's way | S2 |
Lay through the midst of an immense concave | F |
Radiant with million constellations tinged | S2 |
With shades of infinite color | I |
An | W2 |
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1)
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