The Revolt Of Islam. - Canto 12 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCCDCDD EFEFFBFBB GHGHHIJII FBFKBLBLL DMNMMOMPP QRQSTUTUU SESEEVEVV PWOWWXWXX DYDYYZYA2A2 B2BB2BBWBWW BC2BC2C2PC2P J JEEC2EC2 D2E2D2E2E2F2E2G2F2 PBLBBIBII H2I2H2I2I2UI2UU J2GJ2GGC2GC2C2 GK2GK2E2DK2DD GGGGGGGGG C2BC2BBGBGG L2LL2LLGLGG M2C2M2C2C2BC2BB GBGBBGBG BLBLLGLGG N2C2N2C2C2C2C2C2C2 GEGEEG2EG2G2 CL2CL2O2GL2GG GC2GC2C2J2C2J2J2 P2GP2GGLGLO BC2BC2C2CC2CC GC2GGC2Q2C2Q2Q2 GGGGGGGGG MG2MG2G2L2G2LL GC2GC2C2BC2BB GL2GL2L2EL2EE C2GC2GGGGGG BGBGGDGDD R2S2T2S2S2BS2BB CGCGC2LC2LL BP2BP2P2GP2GG L2GL2GGJGJJ MPMPPGPGG

	A
The transport of a fierce and monstrous gladness	B
Spread through the multitudinous streets fast flying	C
Upon the winds of fear from his dull madness	B
The starveling waked and died in joy the dying	C
Among the corpses in stark agony lying	C
Just heard the happy tidings and in hope	D
Closed their faint eyes from house to house replying	C
With loud acclaim the living shook Heaven's cope	D
And filled the startled Earth with echoes morn did ope	D
	-
	-
Its pale eyes then and lo the long array	E
Of guards in golden arms and Priests beside	F
Singing their bloody hymns whose garbs betray	E
The blackness of the faith it seems to hide	F
And see the Tyrant's gem wrought chariot glide	F
Among the gloomy cowls and glittering spears	B
A Shape of light is sitting by his side	F
A child most beautiful I' the midst appears	B
Laon exempt alone from mortal hopes and fears	B
	-
	-
His head and feet are bare his hands are bound	G
Behind with heavy chains yet none do wreak	H
Their scoffs on him though myriads throng around	G
There are no sneers upon his lip which speak	H
That scorn or hate has made him bold his cheek	H
Resolve has not turned pale his eyes are mild	I
And calm and like the morn about to break	J
Smile on mankind his heart seems reconciled	I
To all things and itself like a reposing child	I
	-
	-
Tumult was in the soul of all beside	F
Ill joy or doubt or fear but those who saw	B
Their tranquil victim pass felt wonder glide	F
Into their brain and became calm with awe	K
See the slow pageant near the pile doth draw	B
A thousand torches in the spacious square	L
Borne by the ready slaves of ruthless law	B
Await the signal round the morning fair	L
Is changed to a dim night by that unnatural glare	L
	-
	-
And see beneath a sun bright canopy	D
Upon a platform level with the pile	M
The anxious Tyrant sit enthroned on high	N
Girt by the chieftains of the host all smile	M
In expectation but one child the while	M
I Laon led by mutes ascend my bier	O
Of fire and look around each distant isle	M
Is dark in the bright dawn towers far and near	P
Pierce like reposing flames the tremulous atmosphere	P
	-
	-
There was such silence through the host as when	Q
An earthquake trampling on some populous town	R
Has crushed ten thousand with one tread and men	Q
Expect the second all were mute but one	S
That fairest child who bold with love alone	T
Stood up before the King without avail	U
Pleading for Laon's life her stifled groan	T
Was heard she trembled like one aspen pale	U
Among the gloomy pines of a Norwegian vale	U
	-
	-
What were his thoughts linked in the morning sun	S
Among those reptiles stingless with delay	E
Even like a tyrant's wrath The signal gun	S
Roared hark again In that dread pause he lay	E
As in a quiet dream the slaves obey	E
A thousand torches drop and hark the last	V
Bursts on that awful silence far away	E
Millions with hearts that beat both loud and fast	V
Watch for the springing flame expectant and aghast	V
	-
	-
They fly the torches fall a cry of fear	P
Has startled the triumphant they recede	W
For ere the cannon's roar has died they hear	O
The tramp of hoofs like earthquake and a steed	W
Dark and gigantic with the tempest's speed	W
Bursts through their ranks a woman sits thereon	X
Fairer it seems than aught that earth can breed	W
Calm radiant like the phantom of the dawn	X
A spirit from the caves of daylight wandering gone	X
	-
	-
All thought it was God's Angel come to sweep	D
The lingering guilty to their fiery grave	Y
The Tyrant from his throne in dread did leap	D
Her innocence his child from fear did save	Y
Scared by the faith they feigned each priestly slave	Y
Knelt for his mercy whom they served with blood	Z
And like the refluence of a mighty wave	Y
Sucked into the loud sea the multitude	A2
With crushing panic fled in terror's altered mood	A2
	-
	-
They pause they blush they gaze a gathering shout	B2
Bursts like one sound from the ten thousand streams	B
Of a tempestuous sea that sudden rout	B2
One checked who never in his mildest dreams	B
Felt awe from grace or loveliness the seams	B
Of his rent heart so hard and cold a creed	W
Had seared with blistering ice but he misdeems	B
That he is wise whose wounds do only bleed	W
Inly for self thus thought the Iberian Priest indeed	W
	-
	-
And others too thought he was wise to see	B
In pain and fear and hate something divine	C2
In love and beauty no divinity	B
Now with a bitter smile whose light did shine	C2
Like a fiend's hope upon his lips and eyne	C2
He said and the persuasion of that sneer	P
Rallied his trembling comrades 'Is it mine	C2
To stand alone when kings and soldiers fear	P
A woman Heaven has sent its other victim here '	-
	-
	-
'Were it not impious ' said the King 'to break	J
Our holy oath ' 'Impious to keep it say '	-
Shrieked the exulting Priest 'Slaves to the stake	J
Bind her and on my head the burden lay	E
Of her just torments at the Judgement Day	E
Will I stand up before the golden throne	C2
Of Heaven and cry To Thee did I betray	E
An infidel but for me she would have known	C2
Another moment's joy the glory be thine own '	-
	-
	-
They trembled but replied not nor obeyed	D2
Pausing in breathless silence Cythna sprung	E2
From her gigantic steed who like a shade	D2
Chased by the winds those vacant streets among	E2
Fled tameless as the brazen rein she flung	E2
Upon his neck and kissed his mooned brow	F2
A piteous sight that one so fair and young	E2
The clasp of such a fearful death should woo	G2
With smiles of tender joy as beamed from Cythna now	F2
	-
	-
The warm tears burst in spite of faith and fear	P
From many a tremulous eye but like soft dews	B
Which feed Spring's earliest buds hung gathered there	L
Frozen by doubt alas they could not choose	B
But weep for when her faint limbs did refuse	B
To climb the pyre upon the mutes she smiled	I
And with her eloquent gestures and the hues	B
Of her quick lips even as a weary child	I
Wins sleep from some fond nurse with its caresses mild	I
	-
	-
She won them though unwilling her to bind	H2
Near me among the snakes When there had fled	I2
One soft reproach that was most thrilling kind	H2
She smiled on me and nothing then we said	I2
But each upon the other's countenance fed	I2
Looks of insatiate love the mighty veil	U
Which doth divide the living and the dead	I2
Was almost rent the world grew dim and pale	U
All light in Heaven or Earth beside our love did fail	U
	-
	-
Yet yet one brief relapse like the last beam	J2
Of dying flames the stainless air around	G
Hung silent and serene a blood red gleam	J2
Burst upwards hurling fiercely from the ground	G
The globed smoke I heard the mighty sound	G
Of its uprise like a tempestuous ocean	C2
And through its chasms I saw as in a swound	G
The tyrant's child fall without life or motion	C2
Before his throne subdued by some unseen emotion	C2
	-
	-
And is this death The pyre has disappeared	G
The Pestilence the Tyrant and the throng	K2
The flames grow silent slowly there is heard	G
The music of a breath suspending song	K2
Which like the kiss of love when life is young	E2
Steeps the faint eyes in darkness sweet and deep	D
With ever changing notes it floats along	K2
Till on my passive soul there seemed to creep	D
A melody like waves on wrinkled sands that leap	D
	-
	-
The warm touch of a soft and tremulous hand	G
Wakened me then lo Cythna sate reclined	G
Beside me on the waved and golden sand	G
Of a clear pool upon a bank o'ertwined	G
With strange and star bright flowers which to the wind	G
Breathed divine odour high above was spread	G
The emerald heaven of trees of unknown kind	G
Whose moonlike blooms and bright fruit overhead	G
A shadow which was light upon the waters shed	G
	-
	-
And round about sloped many a lawny mountain	C2
With incense bearing forests and vast caves	B
Of marble radiance to that mighty fountain	C2
And where the flood its own bright margin laves	B
Their echoes talk with its eternal waves	B
Which from the depths whose jagged caverns breed	G
Their unreposing strife it lifts and heaves	B
Till through a chasm of hills they roll and feed	G
A river deep which flies with smooth but arrowy speed	G
	-
	-
As we sate gazing in a trance of wonder	L2
A boat approached borne by the musical air	L
Along the waves which sung and sparkled under	L2
Its rapid keel a winged shape sate there	L
A child with silver shining wings so fair	L
That as her bark did through the waters glide	G
The shadow of the lingering waves did wear	L
Light as from starry beams from side to side	G
While veering to the wind her plumes the bark did guide	G
	-
	-
The boat was one curved shell of hollow pearl	M2
Almost translucent with the light divine	C2
Of her within the prow and stern did curl	M2
Horned on high like the young moon supine	C2
When o'er dim twilight mountains dark with pine	C2
It floats upon the sunset's sea of beams	B
Whose golden waves in many a purple line	C2
Fade fast till borne on sunlight's ebbing streams	B
Dilating on earth's verge the sunken meteor gleams	B
	-
	-
Its keel has struck the sands beside our feet	G
Then Cythna turned to me and from her eyes	B
Which swam with unshed tears a look more sweet	G
Than happy love a wild and glad surprise	B
Glanced as she spake 'Ay this is Paradise	B
And not a dream and we are all united	G
Lo that is mine own child who in the guise	B
Of madness came like day to one benighted	G
In lonesome woods my heart is now too well requited '	-
	-
	-
And then she wept aloud and in her arms	B
Clasped that bright Shape less marvellously fair	L
Than her own human hues and living charms	B
Which as she leaned in passion's silence there	L
Breathed warmth on the cold bosom of the air	L
Which seemed to blush and tremble with delight	G
The glossy darkness of her streaming hair	L
Fell o'er that snowy child and wrapped from sight	G
The fond and long embrace which did their hearts unite	G
	-
	-
Then the bright child the plumed Seraph came	N2
And fixed its blue and beaming eyes on mine	C2
And said 'I was disturbed by tremulous shame	N2
When once we met yet knew that I was thine	C2
From the same hour in which thy lips divine	C2
Kindled a clinging dream within my brain	C2
Which ever waked when I might sleep to twine	C2
Thine image with HER memory dear again	C2
We meet exempted now from mortal fear or pain	C2
	-
	-
'When the consuming flames had wrapped ye round	G
The hope which I had cherished went away	E
I fell in agony on the senseless ground	G
And hid mine eyes in dust and far astray	E
My mind was gone when bright like dawning day	E
The Spectre of the Plague before me flew	G2
And breathed upon my lips and seemed to say	E
They wait for thee beloved then I knew	G2
The death mark on my breast and became calm anew	G2
	-
	-
'It was the calm of love for I was dying	C
I saw the black and half extinguished pyre	L2
In its own gray and shrunken ashes lying	C
The pitchy smoke of the departed fire	L2
Still hung in many a hollow dome and spire	O2
Above the towers like night beneath whose shade	G
Awed by the ending of their own desire	L2
The armies stood a vacancy was made	G
In expectation's depth and so they stood dismayed	G
	-
	-
'The frightful silence of that altered mood	G
The tortures of the dying clove alone	C2
Till one uprose among the multitude	G
And said The flood of time is rolling on	C2
We stand upon its brink whilst THEY are gone	C2
To glide in peace down death's mysterious stream	J2
Have ye done well They moulder flesh and bone	C2
Who might have made this life's envenomed dream	J2
A sweeter draught than ye will ever taste I deem	J2
	-
	-
' These perish as the good and great of yore	P2
Have perished and their murderers will repent	G
Yes vain and barren tears shall flow before	P2
Yon smoke has faded from the firmament	G
Even for this cause that ye who must lament	G
The death of those that made this world so fair	L
Cannot recall them now but there is lent	G
To man the wisdom of a high despair	L
When such can die and he live on and linger here	O
	-
	-
' Ay ye may fear not now the Pestilence	B
From fabled hell as by a charm withdrawn	C2
All power and faith must pass since calmly hence	B
In pain and fire have unbelievers gone	C2
And ye must sadly turn away and moan	C2
In secret to his home each one returning	C
And to long ages shall this hour be known	C2
And slowly shall its memory ever burning	C
Fill this dark night of things with an eternal morning	C
	-
	-
' For me that world is grown too void and cold	G
Since Hope pursues immortal Destiny	C2
With steps thus slow therefore shall ye behold	G
How those who love yet fear not dare to die	G
Tell to your children this Then suddenly	C2
He sheathed a dagger in his heart and fell	Q2
My brain grew dark in death and yet to me	C2
There came a murmur from the crowd to tell	Q2
Of deep and mighty change which suddenly befell	Q2
	-
	-
'Then suddenly I stood a winged Thought	G
Before the immortal Senate and the seat	G
Of that star shining spirit whence is wrought	G
The strength of its dominion good and great	G
The better Genius of this world's estate	G
His realm around one mighty Fane is spread	G
Elysian islands bright and fortunate	G
Calm dwellings of the free and happy dead	G
Where I am sent to lead ' These winged words she said	G
	-
	-
And with the silence of her eloquent smile	M
Bade us embark in her divine canoe	G2
Then at the helm we took our seat the while	M
Above her head those plumes of dazzling hue	G2
Into the winds' invisible stream she threw	G2
Sitting beside the prow like gossamer	L2
On the swift breath of morn the vessel flew	G2
O'er the bright whirlpools of that fountain fair	L
Whose shores receded fast while we seemed lingering there	L
	-
	-
Till down that mighty stream dark calm and fleet	G
Between a chasm of cedarn mountains riven	C2
Chased by the thronging winds whose viewless feet	G
As swift as twinkling beams had under Heaven	C2
From woods and waves wild sounds and odours driven	C2
The boat fled visibly three nights and days	B
Borne like a cloud through morn and noon and even	C2
We sailed along the winding watery ways	B
Of the vast stream a long and labyrinthine maze	B
	-
	-
A scene of joy and wonder to behold	G
That river's shapes and shadows changing ever	L2
Where the broad sunrise filled with deepening gold	G
Its whirlpools where all hues did spread and quiver	L2
And where melodious falls did burst and shiver	L2
Among rocks clad with flowers the foam and spray	E
Sparkled like stars upon the sunny river	L2
Or when the moonlight poured a holier day	E
One vast and glittering lake around green islands lay	E
	-
	-
Morn noon and even that boat of pearl outran	C2
The streams which bore it like the arrowy cloud	G
Of tempest or the speedier thought of man	C2
Which flieth forth and cannot make abode	G
Sometimes through forests deep like night we glode	G
Between the walls of mighty mountains crowned	G
With Cyclopean piles whose turrets proud	G
The homes of the departed dimly frowned	G
O'er the bright waves which girt their dark foundations round	G
	-
	-
Sometimes between the wide and flowering meadows	B
Mile after mile we sailed and 'twas delight	G
To see far off the sunbeams chase the shadows	B
Over the grass sometimes beneath the night	G
Of wide and vaulted caves whose roofs were bright	G
With starry gems we fled whilst from their deep	D
And dark green chasms shades beautiful and white	G
Amid sweet sounds across our path would sweep	D
Like swift and lovely dreams that walk the waves of sleep	D
	-
	-
And ever as we sailed our minds were full	R2
Of love and wisdom which would overflow	S2
In converse wild and sweet and wonderful	T2
And in quick smiles whose light would come and go	S2
Like music o'er wide waves and in the flow	S2
Of sudden tears and in the mute caress	B
For a deep shade was cleft and we did know	S2
That virtue though obscured on Earth not less	B
Survives all mortal change in lasting loveliness	B
	-
	-
Three days and nights we sailed as thought and feeling	C
Number delightful hours for through the sky	G
The sphered lamps of day and night revealing	C
New changes and new glories rolled on high	G
Sun Moon and moonlike lamps the progeny	C2
Of a diviner Heaven serene and fair	L
On the fourth day wild as a windwrought sea	C2
The stream became and fast and faster bare	L
The spirit winged boat steadily speeding there	L
	-
	-
Steady and swift where the waves rolled like mountains	B
Within the vast ravine whose rifts did pour	P2
Tumultuous floods from their ten thousand fountains	B
The thunder of whose earth uplifting roar	P2
Made the air sweep in whirlwinds from the shore	P2
Calm as a shade the boat of that fair child	G
Securely fled that rapid stress before	P2
Amid the topmost spray and sunbows wild	G
Wreathed in the silver mist in joy and pride we smiled	G
	-
	-
The torrent of that wide and raging river	L2
Is passed and our aereal speed suspended	G
We look behind a golden mist did quiver	L2
When its wild surges with the lake were blended	G
Our bark hung there as on a line suspended	G
Between two heavens that windless waveless lake	J
Which four great cataracts from four vales attended	G
By mists aye feed from rocks and clouds they break	J
And of that azure sea a silent refuge make	J
	-
	-
Motionless resting on the lake awhile	M
I saw its marge of snow bright mountains rear	P
Their peaks aloft I saw each radiant isle	M
And in the midst afar even like a sphere	P
Hung in one hollow sky did there appear	P
The Temple of the Spirit on the sound	G
Which issued thence drawn nearer and more near	P
Like the swift moon this glorious earth around	G
The charmed boat approached and there its haven found	G

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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