The Revolt Of Islam. - Canto 10 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDDEDEE FGHGGIGII JKLKKMKMM NONOOPQPP RSRSSTSTT EUVUUWUWW XYXYYZA2B2B2 C2D2C2D2D2E2D2E2E2 F2G2F2G2H2I2H2VV J2TJ2TTK2TK2K2 A2L2A2A2M2A2M2M2 N2O2P2O2O2FO2HH Q2RDRRO2RO2O2 O2C2O2C2C2R2C2S2S2 T2U2T2U2U2O2U2O2O2 V2W2V2W2W2O2W2O2O2 X2EY2EEYEYY Z2A2DA2A2O2A2O2O2 U2O2U2O2O2A3O2B3A3 C3D3C3D3 O2D3O2O2 W2RE3RRF3RF3F3 F3O2G3O2O2O2O2O2 O2EO2EEF3EF3F3 NH3NH3H3C2H3G3C2 O2O2O2O2O2W2O2W2W2 YO2YO2O2A3O2A3A3 O2RO2RRIRII YA3YA3B3O2A3O2O2 O2R2O2R2R2RS2R F3O2F3O2O2W2O2W2W2 O2R2O2S2S2I3R2I3J3 RO2RO2O2O2O2O2O2 O2VO2VI2Z2EDD YF3YF3F3O2F3O2O2 O2S2O2S2R2O2S2O2O2 O2F3O2F3F3A3F3A3A3 W2CW2CQ2O2CO2O2 K3R2K3S2S2R2S2R2O2 YO2L3O2O2O2O2O2O2 E3IE3DDO2DO2O2 M3O2L2O2O2NO2N F2S2F2S2S2O2S2O2O2 N3F2N3F2F2O3F2E3O3 F3UF3UUVUV NO2NO2O2F3O2F3F3 P3VP3VVVVVV F2O2F2O2O2O2O2O2O2 RF2RF2F2O2F2O2O2

	A
Was there a human spirit in the steed	B
That thus with his proud voice ere night was gone	C
He broke our linked rest or do indeed	B
All living things a common nature own	D
And thought erect an universal throne	D
Where many shapes one tribute ever bear	E
And Earth their mutual mother does she groan	D
To see her sons contend and makes she bare	E
Her breast that all in peace its drainless stores may share	E
	-
	-
I have heard friendly sounds from many a tongue	F
Which was not human the lone nightingale	G
Has answered me with her most soothing song	H
Out of her ivy bower when I sate pale	G
With grief and sighed beneath from many a dale	G
The antelopes who flocked for food have spoken	I
With happy sounds and motions that avail	G
Like man's own speech and such was now the token	I
Of waning night whose calm by that proud neigh was broken	I
	-
	-
Each night that mighty steed bore me abroad	J
And I returned with food to our retreat	K
And dark intelligence the blood which flowed	L
Over the fields had stained the courser's feet	K
Soon the dust drinks that bitter dew then meet	K
The vulture and the wild dog and the snake	M
The wolf and the hyaena gray and eat	K
The dead in horrid truce their throngs did make	M
Behind the steed a chasm like waves in a ship's wake	M
	-
	-
For from the utmost realms of earth came pouring	N
The banded slaves whom every despot sent	O
At that throned traitor's summons like the roaring	N
Of fire whose floods the wild deer circumvent	O
In the scorched pastures of the South so bent	O
The armies of the leagued Kings around	P
Their files of steel and flame the continent	Q
Trembled as with a zone of ruin bound	P
Beneath their feet the sea shook with their Navies' sound	P
	-
	-
From every nation of the earth they came	R
The multitude of moving heartless things	S
Whom slaves call men obediently they came	R
Like sheep whom from the fold the shepherd brings	S
To the stall red with blood their many kings	S
Led them thus erring from their native land	T
Tartar and Frank and millions whom the wings	S
Of Indian breezes lull and many a band	T
The Arctic Anarch sent and Idumea's sand	T
	-
	-
Fertile in prodigies and lies so there	E
Strange natures made a brotherhood of ill	U
The desert savage ceased to grasp in fear	V
His Asian shield and bow when at the will	U
Of Europe's subtler son the bolt would kill	U
Some shepherd sitting on a rock secure	W
But smiles of wondering joy his face would fill	U
And savage sympathy those slaves impure	W
Each one the other thus from ill to ill did lure	W
	-
	-
For traitorously did that foul Tyrant robe	X
His countenance in lies even at the hour	Y
When he was snatched from death then o'er the globe	X
With secret signs from many a mountain tower	Y
With smoke by day and fire by night the power	Y
Of Kings and Priests those dark conspirators	Z
He called they knew his cause their own and swore	A2
Like wolves and serpents to their mutual wars	B2
Strange truce with many a rite which Earth and Heaven abhors	B2
	-
	-
Myriads had come millions were on their way	C2
The Tyrant passed surrounded by the steel	D2
Of hired assassins through the public way	C2
Choked with his country's dead his footsteps reel	D2
On the fresh blood he smiles 'Ay now I feel	D2
I am a King in truth ' he said and took	E2
His royal seat and bade the torturing wheel	D2
Be brought and fire and pincers and the hook	E2
And scorpions that his soul on its revenge might look	E2
	-
	-
'But first go slay the rebels why return	F2
The victor bands ' he said 'millions yet live	G2
Of whom the weakest with one word might turn	F2
The scales of victory yet let none survive	G2
But those within the walls each fifth shall give	H2
The expiation for his brethren here	I2
Go forth and waste and kill ' 'O king forgive	H2
My speech ' a soldier answered 'but we fear	V
The spirits of the night and morn is drawing near	V
	-
	-
'For we were slaying still without remorse	J2
And now that dreadful chief beneath my hand	T
Defenceless lay when on a hell black horse	J2
An Angel bright as day waving a brand	T
Which flashed among the stars passed ' 'Dost thou stand	T
Parleying with me thou wretch ' the king replied	K2
'Slaves bind him to the wheel and of this band	T
Whoso will drag that woman to his side	K2
That scared him thus may burn his dearest foe beside	K2
	-
	-
'And gold and glory shall be his Go forth '	-
They rushed into the plain Loud was the roar	A2
Of their career the horsemen shook the earth	L2
The wheeled artillery's speed the pavement tore	A2
The infantry file after file did pour	A2
Their clouds on the utmost hills Five days they slew	M2
Among the wasted fields the sixth saw gore	A2
Stream through the city on the seventh the dew	M2
Of slaughter became stiff and there was peace anew	M2
	-
	-
Peace in the desert fields and villages	N2
Between the glutted beasts and mangled dead	O2
Peace in the silent streets save when the cries	P2
Of victims to their fiery judgement led	O2
Made pale their voiceless lips who seemed to dread	O2
Even in their dearest kindred lest some tongue	F
Be faithless to the fear yet unbetrayed	O2
Peace in the Tyrant's palace where the throng	H
Waste the triumphal hours in festival and song	H
	-
	-
Day after day the burning sun rolled on	Q2
Over the death polluted land it came	R
Out of the east like fire and fiercely shone	D
A lamp of Autumn ripening with its flame	R
The few lone ears of corn the sky became	R
Stagnate with heat so that each cloud and blast	O2
Languished and died the thirsting air did claim	R
All moisture and a rotting vapour passed	O2
From the unburied dead invisible and fast	O2
	-
	-
First Want then Plague came on the beasts their food	O2
Failed and they drew the breath of its decay	C2
Millions on millions whom the scent of blood	O2
Had lured or who from regions far away	C2
Had tracked the hosts in festival array	C2
From their dark deserts gaunt and wasting now	R2
Stalked like fell shades among their perished prey	C2
In their green eyes a strange disease did glow	S2
They sank in hideous spasm or pains severe and slow	S2
	-
	-
The fish were poisoned in the streams the birds	T2
In the green woods perished the insect race	U2
Was withered up the scattered flocks and herds	T2
Who had survived the wild beasts' hungry chase	U2
Died moaning each upon the other's face	U2
In helpless agony gazing round the City	O2
All night the lean hyaenas their sad case	U2
Like starving infants wailed a woeful ditty	O2
And many a mother wept pierced with unnatural pity	O2
	-
	-
Amid the aereal minarets on high	V2
The Ethiopian vultures fluttering fell	W2
From their long line of brethren in the sky	V2
Startling the concourse of mankind Too well	W2
These signs the coming mischief did foretell	W2
Strange panic first a deep and sickening dread	O2
Within each heart like ice did sink and dwell	W2
A voiceless thought of evil which did spread	O2
With the quick glance of eyes like withering lightnings shed	O2
	-
	-
Day after day when the year wanes the frosts	X2
Strip its green crown of leaves till all is bare	E
So on those strange and congregated hosts	Y2
Came Famine a swift shadow and the air	E
Groaned with the burden of a new despair	E
Famine than whom Misrule no deadlier daughter	Y
Feeds from her thousand breasts though sleeping there	E
With lidless eyes lie Faith and Plague and Slaughter	Y
A ghastly brood conceived of Lethe's sullen water	Y
	-
	-
There was no food the corn was trampled down	Z2
The flocks and herds had perished on the shore	A2
The dead and putrid fish were ever thrown	D
The deeps were foodless and the winds no more	A2
Creaked with the weight of birds but as before	A2
Those winged things sprang forth were void of shade	O2
The vines and orchards Autumn's golden store	A2
Were burned so that the meanest food was weighed	O2
With gold and Avarice died before the god it made	O2
	-
	-
There was no corn in the wide market place	U2
All loathliest things even human flesh was sold	O2
They weighed it in small scales and many a face	U2
Was fixed in eager horror then his gold	O2
The miser brought the tender maid grown bold	O2
Through hunger bared her scorned charms in vain	A3
The mother brought her eldest born controlled	O2
By instinct blind as love but turned again	B3
And bade her infant suck and died in silent pain	A3
	-
	-
Then fell blue Plague upon the race of man	C3
'O for the sheathed steel so late which gave	D3
Oblivion to the dead when the streets ran	C3
With brothers' blood O that the earthquake's grave	D3
Would gape or Ocean lift its stifling wave '	-
Vain cries throughout the streets thousands pursued	O2
Each by his fiery torture howl and rave	D3
Or sit in frenzy's unimagined mood	O2
Upon fresh heaps of dead a ghastly multitude	O2
	-
	-
It was not hunger now but thirst Each well	W2
Was choked with rotting corpses and became	R
A cauldron of green mist made visible	E3
At sunrise Thither still the myriads came	R
Seeking to quench the agony of the flame	R
Which raged like poison through their bursting veins	F3
Naked they were from torture without shame	R
Spotted with nameless scars and lurid blains	F3
Childhood and youth and age writhing in savage pains	F3
	-
	-
It was not thirst but madness Many saw	F3
Their own lean image everywhere it went	O2
A ghastlier self beside them till the awe	G3
Of that dread sight to self destruction sent	O2
Those shrieking victims some ere life was spent	O2
Sought with a horrid sympathy to shed	O2
Contagion on the sound and others rent	O2
Their matted hair and cried aloud 'We tread	O2
On fire the avenging Power his hell on earth has spread '	-
	-
	-
Sometimes the living by the dead were hid	O2
Near the great fountain in the public square	E
Where corpses made a crumbling pyramid	O2
Under the sun was heard one stifled prayer	E
For life in the hot silence of the air	E
And strange 'twas amid that hideous heap to see	F3
Some shrouded in their long and golden hair	E
As if not dead but slumbering quietly	F3
Like forms which sculptors carve then love to agony	F3
	-
	-
Famine had spared the palace of the king	N
He rioted in festival the while	H3
He and his guards and priests but Plague did fling	N
One shadow upon all Famine can smile	H3
On him who brings it food and pass with guile	H3
Of thankful falsehood like a courtier gray	C2
The house dog of the throne but many a mile	H3
Comes Plague a winged wolf who loathes alway	G3
The garbage and the scum that strangers make her prey	C2
	-
	-
So near the throne amid the gorgeous feast	O2
Sheathed in resplendent arms or loosely dight	O2
To luxury ere the mockery yet had ceased	O2
That lingered on his lips the warrior's might	O2
Was loosened and a new and ghastlier night	O2
In dreams of frenzy lapped his eyes he fell	W2
Headlong or with stiff eyeballs sate upright	O2
Among the guests or raving mad did tell	W2
Strange truths a dying seer of dark oppression's hell	W2
	-
	-
The Princes and the Priests were pale with terror	Y
That monstrous faith wherewith they ruled mankind	O2
Fell like a shaft loosed by the bowman's error	Y
On their own hearts they sought and they could find	O2
No refuge 'twas the blind who led the blind	O2
So through the desolate streets to the high fane	A3
The many tongued and endless armies wind	O2
In sad procession each among the train	A3
To his own Idol lifts his supplications vain	A3
	-
	-
'O God ' they cried 'we know our secret pride	O2
Has scorned thee and thy worship and thy name	R
Secure in human power we have defied	O2
Thy fearful might we bend in fear and shame	R
Before thy presence with the dust we claim	R
Kindred be merciful O King of Heaven	I
Most justly have we suffered for thy fame	R
Made dim but be at length our sins forgiven	I
Ere to despair and death thy worshippers be driven	I
	-
	-
'O King of Glory thou alone hast power	Y
Who can resist thy will who can restrain	A3
Thy wrath when on the guilty thou dost shower	Y
The shafts of thy revenge a blistering rain	A3
Greatest and best be merciful again	B3
Have we not stabbed thine enemies and made	O2
The Earth an altar and the Heavens a fane	A3
Where thou wert worshipped with their blood and laid	O2
Those hearts in dust which would thy searchless works have weighed	O2
	-
	-
'Well didst thou loosen on this impious City	O2
Thine angels of revenge recall them now	R2
Thy worshippers abased here kneel for pity	O2
And bind their souls by an immortal vow	R2
We swear by thee and to our oath do thou	R2
Give sanction from thine hell of fiends and flame	R
That we will kill with fire and torments slow	S2
The last of those who mocked thy holy name	R
And scorned the sacred laws thy prophets did proclaim '	-
	-
	-
Thus they with trembling limbs and pallid lips	F3
Worshipped their own hearts' image dim and vast	O2
Scared by the shade wherewith they would eclipse	F3
The light of other minds troubled they passed	O2
From the great Temple fiercely still and fast	O2
The arrows of the plague among them fell	W2
And they on one another gazed aghast	O2
And through the hosts contention wild befell	W2
As each of his own god the wondrous works did tell	W2
	-
	-
And Oromaze Joshua and Mahomet	O2
Moses and Buddh Zerdusht and Brahm and Foh	R2
A tumult of strange names which never met	O2
Before as watchwords of a single woe	S2
Arose each raging votary 'gan to throw	S2
Aloft his armed hands and each did howl	I3
'Our God alone is God ' and slaughter now	R2
Would have gone forth when from beneath a cowl	I3
A voice came forth which pierced like ice through every soul	J3
	-
	-
'Twas an Iberian Priest from whom it came	R
A zealous man who led the legioned West	O2
With words which faith and pride had steeped in flame	R
To quell the unbelievers a dire guest	O2
Even to his friends was he for in his breast	O2
Did hate and guile lie watchful intertwined	O2
Twin serpents in one deep and winding nest	O2
He loathed all faith beside his own and pined	O2
To wreak his fear of Heaven in vengeance on mankind	O2
	-
	-
But more he loathed and hated the clear light	O2
Of wisdom and free thought and more did fear	V
Lest kindled once its beams might pierce the night	O2
Even where his Idol stood for far and near	V
Did many a heart in Europe leap to hear	I2
That faith and tyranny were trampled down	Z2
Many a pale victim doomed for truth to share	E
The murderer's cell or see with helpless groan	D
The priests his children drag for slaves to serve their own	D
	-
	-
He dared not kill the infidels with fire	Y
Or steel in Europe the slow agonies	F3
Of legal torture mocked his keen desire	Y
So he made truce with those who did despise	F3
The expiation and the sacrifice	F3
That though detested Islam's kindred creed	O2
Might crush for him those deadlier enemies	F3
For fear of God did in his bosom breed	O2
A jealous hate of man an unreposing need	O2
	-
	-
'Peace Peace ' he cried 'when we are dead the Day	O2
Of Judgement comes and all shall surely know	S2
Whose God is God each fearfully shall pay	O2
The errors of his faith in endless woe	S2
But there is sent a mortal vengeance now	R2
On earth because an impious race had spurned	O2
Him whom we all adore a subtle foe	S2
By whom for ye this dread reward was earned	O2
And kingly thrones which rest on faith nigh overturned	O2
	-
	-
'Think ye because ye weep and kneel and pray	O2
That God will lull the pestilence It rose	F3
Even from beneath his throne where many a day	O2
His mercy soothed it to a dark repose	F3
It walks upon the earth to judge his foes	F3
And what are thou and I that he should deign	A3
To curb his ghastly minister or close	F3
The gates of death ere they receive the twain	A3
Who shook with mortal spells his undefended reign	A3
	-
	-
'Ay there is famine in the gulf of hell	W2
Its giant worms of fire for ever yawn	C
Their lurid eyes are on us those who fell	W2
By the swift shafts of pestilence ere dawn	C
Are in their jaws they hunger for the spawn	Q2
Of Satan their own brethren who were sent	O2
To make our souls their spoil See see they fawn	C
Like dogs and they will sleep with luxury spent	O2
When those detested hearts their iron fangs have rent	O2
	-
	-
'Our God may then lull Pestilence to sleep	K3
Pile high the pyre of expiation now	R2
A forest's spoil of boughs and on the heap	K3
Pour venomous gums which sullenly and slow	S2
When touched by flame shall burn and melt and flow	S2
A stream of clinging fire and fix on high	R2
A net of iron and spread forth below	S2
A couch of snakes and scorpions and the fry	R2
Of centipedes and worms earth's hellish progeny	O2
	-
	-
'Let Laon and Laone on that pyre	Y
Linked tight with burning brass perish then pray	O2
That with this sacrifice the withering ire	L3
Of Heaven may be appeased ' He ceased and they	O2
A space stood silent as far far away	O2
The echoes of his voice among them died	O2
And he knelt down upon the dust alway	O2
Muttering the curses of his speechless pride	O2
Whilst shame and fear and awe the armies did divide	O2
	-
	-
His voice was like a blast that burst the portal	E3
Of fabled hell and as he spake each one	I
Saw gape beneath the chasms of fire immortal	E3
And Heaven above seemed cloven where on a throne	D
Girt round with storms and shadows sate alone	D
Their King and Judge fear killed in every breast	O2
All natural pity then a fear unknown	D
Before and with an inward fire possessed	O2
They raged like homeless beasts whom burning woods invest	O2
	-
	-
'Twas morn At noon the public crier went forth	M3
Proclaiming through the living and the dead	O2
'The Monarch saith that his great Empire's worth	L2
Is set on Laon and Laone's head	O2
He who but one yet living here can lead	O2
Or who the life from both their hearts can wring	N
Shall be the kingdom's heir a glorious meed	O2
But he who both alive can hither bring	N
The Princess shall espouse and reign an equal King '	-
	-
	-
Ere night the pyre was piled the net of iron	F2
Was spread above the fearful couch below	S2
It overtopped the towers that did environ	F2
That spacious square for Fear is never slow	S2
To build the thrones of Hate her mate and foe	S2
So she scourged forth the maniac multitude	O2
To rear this pyramid tottering and slow	S2
Plague stricken foodless like lean herds pursued	O2
By gadflies they have piled the heath and gums and wood	O2
	-
	-
Night came a starless and a moonless gloom	N3
Until the dawn those hosts of many a nation	F2
Stood round that pile as near one lover's tomb	N3
Two gentle sisters mourn their desolation	F2
And in the silence of that expectation	F2
Was heard on high the reptiles' hiss and crawl	O3
It was so deep save when the devastation	F2
Of the swift pest with fearful interval	E3
Marking its path with shrieks among the crowd would fall	O3
	-
	-
Morn came among those sleepless multitudes	F3
Madness and Fear and Plague and Famine still	U
Heaped corpse on corpse as in autumnal woods	F3
The frosts of many a wind with dead leaves fill	U
Earth's cold and sullen brooks in silence still	U
The pale survivors stood ere noon the fear	V
Of Hell became a panic which did kill	U
Like hunger or disease with whispers drear	V
As 'Hush hark Come they yet Just Heaven thine hour is near '	-
	-
	-
And Priests rushed through their ranks some counterfeiting	N
The rage they did inspire some mad indeed	O2
With their own lies they said their god was waiting	N
To see his enemies writhe and burn and bleed	O2
And that till then the snakes of Hell had need	O2
Of human souls three hundred furnaces	F3
Soon blazed through the wide City where with speed	O2
Men brought their infidel kindred to appease	F3
God's wrath and while they burned knelt round on quivering knees	F3
	-
	-
The noontide sun was darkened with that smoke	P3
The winds of eve dispersed those ashes gray	V
The madness which these rites had lulled awoke	P3
Again at sunset Who shall dare to say	V
The deeds which night and fear brought forth or weigh	V
In balance just the good and evil there	V
He might man's deep and searchless heart display	V
And cast a light on those dim labyrinths where	V
Hope near imagined chasms is struggling with despair	V
	-
	-
'Tis said a mother dragged three children then	F2
To those fierce flames which roast the eyes in the head	O2
And laughed and died and that unholy men	F2
Feasting like fiends upon the infidel dead	O2
Looked from their meal and saw an Angel tread	O2
The visible floor of Heaven and it was she	O2
And on that night one without doubt or dread	O2
Came to the fire and said 'Stop I am he	O2
Kill me ' They burned them both with hellish mockery	O2
	-
	-
And one by one that night young maidens came	R
Beauteous and calm like shapes of living stone	F2
Clothed in the light of dreams and by the flame	R
Which shrank as overgorged they laid them down	F2
And sung a low sweet song of which alone	F2
One word was heard and that was Liberty	O2
And that some kissed their marble feet with moan	F2
Like love and died and then that they did die	O2
With happy smiles which sunk in white tranquillity	O2

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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