Rosalind And Helen: A Modern Eclogue Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B CDEFEGGHIHCJJGKKGLMJ JNJOPPPQRSRSLMTCCUJJ GJJVWJJXYYZA2B2B2XJQ C2QC2UC CC2D2E2C2XXBGGXBXD2 GGB JGF2BK CBF2G2 JBJJ CMLKG H2KH2JJB2B2I2I2J F2GGF2HHGGGHJ2HJ2K2K 2L2JM2N2O2N2B2B2GJP2 P2KKM2KCD2GCQQQ2N2Q2 N2JJJF2F2QJQGG GGGGGC2C2M2C2JKJGM2K GGGKJJ J2GBBGMLGR2GJKJH2H2G R2GKGGJJGGKS2S2C2UGU GUN2N2GGGJJC2C2C2GGC 2C2BQQROSALIND HELEN and her Child | A |
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SCENE The Shore of the Lake of Como | B |
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HELEN | C |
Come hither my sweet Rosalind | D |
'T is long since thou and I have met | E |
And yet methinks it were unkind | F |
Those moments to forget | E |
Come sit by me I see thee stand | G |
By this lone lake in this far land | G |
Thy loose hair in the light wind flying | H |
Thy sweet voice to each tone of even | I |
United and thine eyes replying | H |
To the hues of yon fair heaven | C |
Come gentle friend wilt sit by me | J |
And be as thou wert wont to be | J |
Ere we were disunited | G |
None doth behold us now the power | K |
That led us forth at this lone hour | K |
Will be but ill requited | G |
If thou depart in scorn Oh come | L |
And talk of our abandoned home | M |
Remember this is Italy | J |
And we are exiles Talk with me | J |
Of that our land whose wilds and floods | N |
Barren and dark although they be | J |
Were dearer than these chestnut woods | O |
Those heathy paths that inland stream | P |
And the blue mountains shapes which seem | P |
Like wrecks of childhood's sunny dream | P |
Which that we have abandoned now | Q |
Weighs on the heart like that remorse | R |
Which altered friendship leaves I seek | S |
No more our youthful intercourse | R |
That cannot be Rosalind speak | S |
Speak to me Leave me not When morn did come | L |
When evening fell upon our common home | M |
When for one hour we parted do not frown | T |
I would not chide thee though thy faith is broken | C |
But turn to me Oh by this cherished token | C |
Of woven hair which thou wilt not disown | U |
Turn as 't were but the memory of me | J |
And not my scorn d self who prayed to thee | J |
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ROSALIND | G |
Is it a dream or do I see | J |
And hear frail Helen I would flee | J |
Thy tainting touch but former years | V |
Arise and bring forbidden tears | W |
And my o'erburdened memory | J |
Seeks yet its lost repose in thee | J |
I share thy crime I cannot choose | X |
But weep for thee mine own strange grief | Y |
But seldom stoops to such relief | Y |
Nor ever did I love thee less | Z |
Though mourning o'er thy wickedness | A2 |
Even with a sister's woe I knew | B2 |
What to the evil world is due | B2 |
And therefore sternly did refuse | X |
To link me with the infamy | J |
Of one so lost as Helen Now | Q |
Bewildered by my dire despair | C2 |
Wondering I blush and weep that thou | Q |
Shouldst love me still thou only There | C2 |
Let us sit on that gray stone | U |
Till our mournful talk be done | C |
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HELEN | C |
Alas not there I cannot bear | C2 |
The murmur of this lake to hear | D2 |
A sound from there Rosalind dear | E2 |
Which never yet I heard elsewhere | C2 |
But in our native land recurs | X |
Even here where now we meet It stirs | X |
Too much of suffocating sorrow | B |
In the dell of yon dark chestnut wood | G |
Is a stone seat a solitude | G |
Less like our own The ghost of peace | X |
Will not desert this spot To morrow | B |
If thy kind feelings should not cease | X |
We may sit here | D2 |
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ROSALIND | G |
Thou lead my sweet | G |
And I will follow | B |
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HENRY | J |
'T is Fenici's seat | G |
Where you are going This is not the way | F2 |
Mamma it leads behind those trees that grow | B |
Close to the little river | K |
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HELEN | C |
Yes I know | B |
I was bewildered Kiss me and be gay | F2 |
Dear boy why do you sob | G2 |
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HENRY | J |
I do not know | B |
But it might break any one's heart to see | J |
You and the lady cry so bitterly | J |
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HELEN | C |
It is a gentle child my friend Go home | M |
Henry and play with Lilla till I come | L |
We only cried with joy to see each other | K |
We are quite merry now Good night | G |
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The boy | H2 |
Lifted a sudden look upon his mother | K |
And in the gleam of forced and hollow joy | H2 |
Which lightened o'er her face laughed with the glee | J |
Of light and unsuspecting infancy | J |
And whispered in her ear 'Bring home with you | B2 |
That sweet strange lady friend ' Then off he flew | B2 |
But stopped and beckoned with a meaning smile | I2 |
Where the road turned Pale Rosalind the while | I2 |
Hiding her face stood weeping silently | J |
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In silence then they took the way | F2 |
Beneath the forest's solitude | G |
It was a vast and antique wood | G |
Through which they took their way | F2 |
And the gray shades of evening | H |
O'er that green wilderness did fling | H |
Still deeper solitude | G |
Pursuing still the path that wound | G |
The vast and knotted trees around | G |
Through which slow shades were wandering | H |
To a deep lawny dell they came | J2 |
To a stone seat beside a spring | H |
O'er which the columned wood did frame | J2 |
A roofless temple like the fane | K2 |
Where ere new creeds could faith obtain | K2 |
Man's early race once knelt beneath | L2 |
The overhanging deity | J |
O'er this fair fountain hung the sky | M2 |
Now spangled with rare stars The snake | N2 |
The pale snake that with eager breath | O2 |
Creeps here his noontide thirst to slake | N2 |
Is beaming with many a mingled hue | B2 |
Shed from yon dome's eternal blue | B2 |
When he floats on that dark and lucid flood | G |
In the light of his own loveliness | J |
And the birds that in the fountain dip | P2 |
Their plumes with fearless fellowship | P2 |
Above and round him wheel and hover | K |
The fitful wind is heard to stir | K |
One solitary leaf on high | M2 |
The chirping of the grasshopper | K |
Fills every pause There is emotion | C |
In all that dwells at noontide here | D2 |
Then through the intricate wild wood | G |
A maze of life and light and motion | C |
Is woven But there is stillness now | Q |
Gloom and the trance of Nature now | Q |
The snake is in his cave asleep | Q2 |
The birds are on the branches dreaming | N2 |
Only the shadows creep | Q2 |
Only the glow worm is gleaming | N2 |
Only the owls and the nightingales | J |
Wake in this dell when daylight fails | J |
And gray shades gather in the woods | J |
And the owls have all fled far away | F2 |
In a merrier glen to hoot and play | F2 |
For the moon is veiled and sleeping now | Q |
The accustomed nightingale still broods | J |
On her accustomed bough | Q |
But she is mute for her false mate | G |
Has fled and left her desolate | G |
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This silent spot tradition old | G |
Had peopled with the spectral dead | G |
For the roots of the speaker's hair felt cold | G |
And stiff as with tremulous lips he told | G |
That a hellish shape at midnight led | G |
The ghost of a youth with hoary hair | C2 |
And sate on the seat beside him there | C2 |
Till a naked child came wandering by | M2 |
When the fiend would change to a lady fair | C2 |
A fearful tale the truth was worse | J |
For here a sister and a brother | K |
Had solemnized a monstrous curse | J |
Meeting in this fair solitude | G |
For beneath yon very sky | M2 |
Had they resigned to one another | K |
Body and soul The multitude | G |
Tracking them to the secret wood | G |
Tore limb from limb their innocent child | G |
And stabbed and trampled on its mother | K |
But the youth for God's most holy grace | J |
A priest saved to burn in the market place | J |
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Duly at evening Helen came | J2 |
To this lone silent spot | G |
From the wrecks of a tale of wilder sorrow | B |
So much of sympathy to borrow | B |
As soothed her own dark lot | G |
Duly each evening from her home | M |
With her fair child would Helen come | L |
To sit upon that antique seat | G |
While the hues of day were pale | R2 |
And the bright boy beside her feet | G |
Now lay lifting at intervals | J |
His broad blue eyes on her | K |
Now where some sudden impulse calls | J |
Following He was a gentle boy | H2 |
And in all gentle sorts took joy | H2 |
Oft in a dry leaf for a boat | G |
With a small feather for a sail | R2 |
His fancy on that spring would float | G |
If some invisible breeze might stir | K |
Its marble calm and Helen smiled | G |
Through tears of awe on the gay child | G |
To think that a boy as fair as he | J |
In years which never more may be | J |
By that same fount in that same wood | G |
The like sweet fancies had pursued | G |
And that a mother lost like her | K |
Had mournfully sate watching him | S2 |
Then all the scene was wont to swim | S2 |
Through the mist of a burning tear | C2 |
For many months had Helen known | U |
This scene and now she thither turned | G |
Her footsteps not alone | U |
The friend whose falsehood she had mourned | G |
Sate with her on that seat of stone | U |
Silent they sate for evening | N2 |
And the power its glimpses bring | N2 |
Had with one awful shadow quelled | G |
The passion of their grief They sate | G |
With link d hands for unrepelled | G |
Had Helen taken Rosalind's | J |
Like the autumn wind when it unbinds | J |
The tangled locks of the nightshade's hair | C2 |
Which is twined in the sultry summer air | C2 |
Round the walls of an outworn sepulchre | C2 |
Did the voice of Helen sad and sweet | G |
And the sound of her heart that ever beat | G |
As with sighs and words she breathed on her | C2 |
Unbind the knots of her friend's despair | C2 |
Till her thoughts were free to float and flow | B |
And from her laboring bosom now | Q |
Like the bursting of a prisone | Q |
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1)
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