The Revolt Of Islam. - Canto 11 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDDBEBB FGFGGHGHH IJIJJKJKK LMNMMGOGG PQPQQRQRR STSJTUTVU WBXBYZA2ZZ B2C2B2C2C2D2E2D2D2 B2F2B2F2F2G2F2G2G2 H2I2H2I2I2J2I2J2J2 PK2PE2E2TE2TT L2D2L2D2D2D2D2D2D2 E2QE2QQBQA2B M2B2BB2B2N2B2N2N2 O2JO2JJE2JE2E2 QQQQQNQNN P2Q2P2Q2Q2L2Q2L2L2 O2R2O2S2S2SS2SS P2D2E2D2D2T2D2T2T2 U2E2U2E2E2E2E2E2E2 E2E2E2E2E2V2E2V2V2 T2B2T2B2B2S2B2R2S2 QW2QW2W2JX2JJ Y2E2Y2E2E2E2E2D2E2 E2S2E2E2E2 E2A | |
She saw me not she heard me not alone | B |
Upon the mountain's dizzy brink she stood | C |
She spake not breathed not moved not there was thrown | B |
Over her look the shadow of a mood | D |
Which only clothes the heart in solitude | D |
A thought of voiceless depth she stood alone | B |
Above the Heavens were spread below the flood | E |
Was murmuring in its caves the wind had blown | B |
Her hair apart through which her eyes and forehead shone | B |
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A cloud was hanging o'er the western mountains | F |
Before its blue and moveless depth were flying | G |
Gray mists poured forth from the unresting fountains | F |
Of darkness in the North the day was dying | G |
Sudden the sun shone forth its beams were lying | G |
Like boiling gold on Ocean strange to see | H |
And on the shattered vapours which defying | G |
The power of light in vain tossed restlessly | H |
In the red Heaven like wrecks in a tempestuous sea | H |
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It was a stream of living beams whose bank | I |
On either side by the cloud's cleft was made | J |
And where its chasms that flood of glory drank | I |
Its waves gushed forth like fire and as if swayed | J |
By some mute tempest rolled on HER the shade | J |
Of her bright image floated on the river | K |
Of liquid light which then did end and fade | J |
Her radiant shape upon its verge did shiver | K |
Aloft her flowing hair like strings of flame did quiver | K |
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I stood beside her but she saw me not | L |
She looked upon the sea and skies and earth | M |
Rapture and love and admiration wrought | N |
A passion deeper far than tears or mirth | M |
Or speech or gesture or whate'er has birth | M |
From common joy which with the speechless feeling | G |
That led her there united and shot forth | O |
From her far eyes a light of deep revealing | G |
All but her dearest self from my regard concealing | G |
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Her lips were parted and the measured breath | P |
Was now heard there her dark and intricate eyes | Q |
Orb within orb deeper than sleep or death | P |
Absorbed the glories of the burning skies | Q |
Which mingling with her heart's deep ecstasies | Q |
Burst from her looks and gestures and a light | R |
Of liquid tenderness like love did rise | Q |
From her whole frame an atmosphere which quite | R |
Arrayed her in its beams tremulous and soft and bright | R |
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She would have clasped me to her glowing frame | S |
Those warm and odorous lips might soon have shed | T |
On mine the fragrance and the invisible flame | S |
Which now the cold winds stole she would have laid | J |
Upon my languid heart her dearest head | T |
I might have heard her voice tender and sweet | U |
Her eyes mingling with mine might soon have fed | T |
My soul with their own joy One moment yet | V |
I gazed we parted then never again to meet | U |
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Never but once to meet on Earth again | W |
She heard me as I fled her eager tone | B |
Sunk on my heart and almost wove a chain | X |
Around my will to link it with her own | B |
So that my stern resolve was almost gone | Y |
'I cannot reach thee whither dost thou fly | Z |
My steps are faint Come back thou dearest one | A2 |
Return ah me return ' The wind passed by | Z |
On which those accents died faint far and lingeringly | Z |
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Woe Woe that moonless midnight Want and Pest | B2 |
Were horrible but one more fell doth rear | C2 |
As in a hydra's swarming lair its crest | B2 |
Eminent among those victims even the Fear | C2 |
Of Hell each girt by the hot atmosphere | C2 |
Of his blind agony like a scorpion stung | D2 |
By his own rage upon his burning bier | E2 |
Of circling coals of fire but still there clung | D2 |
One hope like a keen sword on starting threads uphung | D2 |
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Not death death was no more refuge or rest | B2 |
Not life it was despair to be not sleep | F2 |
For fiends and chasms of fire had dispossessed | B2 |
All natural dreams to wake was not to weep | F2 |
But to gaze mad and pallid at the leap | F2 |
To which the Future like a snaky scourge | G2 |
Or like some tyrant's eye which aye doth keep | F2 |
Its withering beam upon his slaves did urge | G2 |
Their steps they heard the roar of Hell's sulphureous surge | G2 |
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Each of that multitude alone and lost | H2 |
To sense of outward things one hope yet knew | I2 |
As on a foam girt crag some seaman tossed | H2 |
Stares at the rising tide or like the crew | I2 |
Whilst now the ship is splitting through and through | I2 |
Each if the tramp of a far steed was heard | J2 |
Started from sick despair or if there flew | I2 |
One murmur on the wind or if some word | J2 |
Which none can gather yet the distant crowd has stirred | J2 |
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Why became cheeks wan with the kiss of death | P |
Paler from hope they had sustained despair | K2 |
Why watched those myriads with suspended breath | P |
Sleepless a second night they are not here | E2 |
The victims and hour by hour a vision drear | E2 |
Warm corpses fall upon the clay cold dead | T |
And even in death their lips are wreathed with fear | E2 |
The crowd is mute and moveless overhead | T |
Silent Arcturus shines 'Ha hear'st thou not the tread | T |
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'Of rushing feet laughter the shout the scream | L2 |
Of triumph not to be contained See hark | D2 |
They come they come give way ' Alas ye deem | L2 |
Falsely 'tis but a crowd of maniacs stark | D2 |
Driven like a troop of spectres through the dark | D2 |
From the choked well whence a bright death fire sprung | D2 |
A lurid earth star which dropped many a spark | D2 |
From its blue train and spreading widely clung | D2 |
To their wild hair like mist the topmost pines among | D2 |
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And many from the crowd collected there | E2 |
Joined that strange dance in fearful sympathies | Q |
There was the silence of a long despair | E2 |
When the last echo of those terrible cries | Q |
Came from a distant street like agonies | Q |
Stifled afar Before the Tyrant's throne | B |
All night his aged Senate sate their eyes | Q |
In stony expectation fixed when one | A2 |
Sudden before them stood a Stranger and alone | B |
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Dark Priests and haughty Warriors gazed on him | M2 |
With baffled wonder for a hermit's vest | B2 |
Concealed his face but when he spake his tone | B |
Ere yet the matter did their thoughts arrest | B2 |
Earnest benignant calm as from a breast | B2 |
Void of all hate or terror made them start | N2 |
For as with gentle accents he addressed | B2 |
His speech to them on each unwilling heart | N2 |
Unusual awe did fall a spirit quelling dart | N2 |
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'Ye Princes of the Earth ye sit aghast | O2 |
Amid the ruin which yourselves have made | J |
Yes Desolation heard your trumpet's blast | O2 |
And sprang from sleep dark Terror has obeyed | J |
Your bidding O that I whom ye have made | J |
Your foe could set my dearest enemy free | E2 |
From pain and fear but evil casts a shade | J |
Which cannot pass so soon and Hate must be | E2 |
The nurse and parent still of an ill progeny | E2 |
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'Ye turn to Heaven for aid in your distress | Q |
Alas that ye the mighty and the wise | Q |
Who if ye dared might not aspire to less | Q |
Than ye conceive of power should fear the lies | Q |
Which thou and thou didst frame for mysteries | Q |
To blind your slaves consider your own thought | N |
An empty and a cruel sacrifice | Q |
Ye now prepare for a vain idol wrought | N |
Out of the fears and hate which vain desires have brought | N |
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'Ye seek for happiness alas the day | P2 |
Ye find it not in luxury nor in gold | Q2 |
Nor in the fame nor in the envied sway | P2 |
For which O willing slaves to Custom old | Q2 |
Severe taskmistress ye your hearts have sold | Q2 |
Ye seek for peace and when ye die to dream | L2 |
No evil dreams all mortal things are cold | Q2 |
And senseless then if aught survive I deem | L2 |
It must be love and joy for they immortal seem | L2 |
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'Fear not the future weep not for the past | O2 |
Oh could I win your ears to dare be now | R2 |
Glorious and great and calm that ye would cast | O2 |
Into the dust those symbols of your woe | S2 |
Purple and gold and steel that ye would go | S2 |
Proclaiming to the nations whence ye came | S |
That Want and Plague and Fear from slavery flow | S2 |
And that mankind is free and that the shame | S |
Of royalty and faith is lost in freedom's fame | S |
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'If thus 'tis well if not I come to say | P2 |
That Laon ' while the Stranger spoke among | D2 |
The Council sudden tumult and affray | E2 |
Arose for many of those warriors young | D2 |
Had on his eloquent accents fed and hung | D2 |
Like bees on mountain flowers they knew the truth | T2 |
And from their thrones in vindication sprung | D2 |
The men of faith and law then without ruth | T2 |
Drew forth their secret steel and stabbed each ardent youth | T2 |
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They stabbed them in the back and sneered a slave | U2 |
Who stood behind the throne those corpses drew | E2 |
Each to its bloody dark and secret grave | U2 |
And one more daring raised his steel anew | E2 |
To pierce the Stranger 'What hast thou to do | E2 |
With me poor wretch ' Calm solemn and severe | E2 |
That voice unstrung his sinews and he threw | E2 |
His dagger on the ground and pale with fear | E2 |
Sate silently his voice then did the Stranger rear | E2 |
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'It doth avail not that I weep for ye | E2 |
Ye cannot change since ye are old and gray | E2 |
And ye have chosen your lot your fame must be | E2 |
A book of blood whence in a milder day | E2 |
Men shall learn truth when ye are wrapped in clay | E2 |
Now ye shall triumph I am Laon's friend | V2 |
And him to your revenge will I betray | E2 |
So ye concede one easy boon Attend | V2 |
For now I speak of things which ye can apprehend | V2 |
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'There is a People mighty in its youth | T2 |
A land beyond the Oceans of the West | B2 |
Where though with rudest rites Freedom and Truth | T2 |
Are worshipped from a glorious Mother's breast | B2 |
Who since high Athens fell among the rest | B2 |
Sate like the Queen of Nations but in woe | S2 |
By inbred monsters outraged and oppressed | B2 |
Turns to her chainless child for succour now | R2 |
It draws the milk of Power in Wisdom's fullest flow | S2 |
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'That land is like an Eagle whose young gaze | Q |
Feeds on the noontide beam whose golden plume | W2 |
Floats moveless on the storm and in the blaze | Q |
Of sunrise gleams when Earth is wrapped in gloom | W2 |
An epitaph of glory for the tomb | W2 |
Of murdered Europe may thy fame be made | J |
Great People as the sands shalt thou become | X2 |
Thy growth is swift as morn when night must fade | J |
The multitudinous Earth shall sleep beneath thy shade | J |
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'Yes in the desert there is built a home | Y2 |
For Freedom Genius is made strong to rear | E2 |
The monuments of man beneath the dome | Y2 |
Of a new Heaven myriads assemble there | E2 |
Whom the proud lords of man in rage or fear | E2 |
Drive from their wasted homes the boon I pray | E2 |
Is this that Cythna shall be convoyed there | E2 |
Nay start not at the name America | D2 |
And then to you this night Laon will I betray | E2 |
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'With me do what ye will I am your foe ' | - |
The light of such a joy as makes the stare | E2 |
Of hungry snakes like living emeralds glow | S2 |
Shone in a hundred human eyes 'Where where | E2 |
Is Laon Haste fly drag him swiftly here | E2 |
We grant thy boon ' 'I put no trust in ye | E2 |
Swear by the Power ye dread ' 'We swear we swear ' | - |
The Stranger threw his vest back suddenly | E2 |
And smiled in gentle pride and said 'Lo I am he ' | - |
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1)
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