The Revolt Of Islam. - Canto 2 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCCDCDD EFEFFGFGG EHEIDJDJJ KLKLLMLMM DNDNNONPP QRSRRTRTT UVUVVWVWW XYXYZA2YA2A2 EB2EB2B2NB2C2C2 ND2E2F2F2B2F2B2B2 G2GG2GGEGEE H2I2J2I2I2K2I2K2K2 L2M2L2M2M2MM2MM F2N2F2N2N2O2N2O2O2 P2I2P2I2I2Q2I2Q2Q2 VEVR2ES2R2S2S2 T2U2T2U2U2V2U2V2V2 W2X2W2X2X2S2X2S2S2 UEUEES2ES2S2 S2Y2S2Y2Y2U2Y2U2T EJ2EJ2H2EH2EE Y2Z2Y2Z2Z2S2Z2S2S2 EY2EY2Y2V2Y2V2V2 EA3EA3A3S2A3S2S2 S2S2S2S2S2ES2EE S2S2S2S2S2S2S2S2S2 EA3EA3A3S2A3S2S2 S2ES2R2EL2EB3B3 V2S2V2S2S2C3S2C3C3 L2EL2EEFEFF I2S2I2S2S2ES2EE C3EC3EES2ES2S2 A3EA3EES2ES2S2 X2S2X2S2S2I2S2I2I2 S2S2S2S2S2Y2S2Y2Y2 ES2ES2S2ES2EE S2S2S2S2S2D3S2D3D3 Y2Y2Y2Y2Y2S2Y2S2S2 E3F3E3F3F3S2F3S2S2 S2ES2EETETT E3Y2S2E3E3S2E3S2S2 EEEEETETT G3A3G3A3A3J2A3H2J2 S2H3S2H3H3I3H3I3I3 S2S2S2S2S2ES2EE Y2EY2EEY2EY2Y2 E3J3E3J3J3S2J3S2S2 S2ES2EEY2EY2 Y2X2E3X2X2S2X2S2S2

	A
The starlight smile of children the sweet looks	B
Of women the fair breast from which I fed	C
The murmur of the unreposing brooks	B
And the green light which shifting overhead	C
Some tangled bower of vines around me shed	C
The shells on the sea sand and the wild flowers	D
The lamp light through the rafters cheerly spread	C
And on the twining flax in life's young hours	D
These sights and sounds did nurse my spirit's folded powers	D
	-
	-
In Argolis beside the echoing sea	E
Such impulses within my mortal frame	F
Arose and they were dear to memory	E
Like tokens of the dead but others came	F
Soon in another shape the wondrous fame	F
Of the past world the vital words and deeds	G
Of minds whom neither time nor change can tame	F
Traditions dark and old whence evil creeds	G
Start forth and whose dim shade a stream of poison feeds	G
	-
	-
I heard as all have heard the various story	E
Of human life and wept unwilling tears	H
Feeble historians of its shame and glory	E
False disputants on all its hopes and fears	I
Victims who worshipped ruin chroniclers	D
Of daily scorn and slaves who loathed their state	J
Yet flattering power had given its ministers	D
A throne of judgement in the grave 'twas fate	J
That among such as these my youth should seek its mate	J
	-
	-
The land in which I lived by a fell bane	K
Was withered up Tyrants dwelt side by side	L
And stabled in our homes until the chain	K
Stifled the captive's cry and to abide	L
That blasting curse men had no shame all vied	L
In evil slave and despot fear with lust	M
Strange fellowship through mutual hate had tied	L
Like two dark serpents tangled in the dust	M
Which on the paths of men their mingling poison thrust	M
	-
	-
Earth our bright home its mountains and its waters	D
And the ethereal shapes which are suspended	N
Over its green expanse and those fair daughters	D
The clouds of Sun and Ocean who have blended	N
The colours of the air since first extended	N
It cradled the young world none wandered forth	O
To see or feel a darkness had descended	N
On every heart the light which shows its worth	P
Must among gentle thoughts and fearless take its birth	P
	-
	-
This vital world this home of happy spirits	Q
Was as a dungeon to my blasted kind	R
All that despair from murdered hope inherits	S
They sought and in their helpless misery blind	R
A deeper prison and heavier chains did find	R
And stronger tyrants a dark gulf before	T
The realm of a stern Ruler yawned behind	R
Terror and Time conflicting drove and bore	T
On their tempestuous flood the shrieking wretch from shore	T
	-
	-
Out of that Ocean's wrecks had Guilt and Woe	U
Framed a dark dwelling for their homeless thought	V
And starting at the ghosts which to and fro	U
Glide o'er its dim and gloomy strand had brought	V
The worship thence which they each other taught	V
Well might men loathe their life well might they turn	W
Even to the ills again from which they sought	V
Such refuge after death well might they learn	W
To gaze on this fair world with hopeless unconcern	W
	-
	-
For they all pined in bondage body and soul	X
Tyrant and slave victim and torturer bent	Y
Before one Power to which supreme control	X
Over their will by their own weakness lent	Y
Made all its many names omnipotent	Z
All symbols of things evil all divine	A2
And hymns of blood or mockery which rent	Y
The air from all its fanes did intertwine	A2
Imposture's impious toils round each discordant shrine	A2
	-
	-
I heard as all have heard life's various story	E
And in no careless heart transcribed the tale	B2
But from the sneers of men who had grown hoary	E
In shame and scorn from groans of crowds made pale	B2
By famine from a mother's desolate wail	B2
O'er her polluted child from innocent blood	N
Poured on the earth and brows anxious and pale	B2
With the heart's warfare did I gather food	C2
To feed my many thoughts a tameless multitude	C2
	-
	-
I wandered through the wrecks of days departed	N
Far by the desolated shore when even	D2
O'er the still sea and jagged islets darted	E2
The light of moonrise in the northern Heaven	F2
Among the clouds near the horizon driven	F2
The mountains lay beneath one planet pale	B2
Around me broken tombs and columns riven	F2
Looked vast in twilight and the sorrowing gale	B2
Waked in those ruins gray its everlasting wail	B2
	-
	-
I knew not who had framed these wonders then	G2
Nor had I heard the story of their deeds	G
But dwellings of a race of mightier men	G2
And monuments of less ungentle creeds	G
Tell their own tale to him who wisely heeds	G
The language which they speak and now to me	E
The moonlight making pale the blooming weeds	G
The bright stars shining in the breathless sea	E
Interpreted those scrolls of mortal mystery	E
	-
	-
Such man has been and such may yet become	H2
Ay wiser greater gentler even than they	I2
Who on the fragments of yon shattered dome	J2
Have stamped the sign of power I felt the sway	I2
Of the vast stream of ages bear away	I2
My floating thoughts my heart beat loud and fast	K2
Even as a storm let loose beneath the ray	I2
Of the still moon my spirit onward passed	K2
Beneath truth's steady beams upon its tumult cast	K2
	-
	-
It shall be thus no more too long too long	L2
Sons of the glorious dead have ye lain bound	M2
In darkness and in ruin Hope is strong	L2
Justice and Truth their winged child have found	M2
Awake arise until the mighty sound	M2
Of your career shall scatter in its gust	M
The thrones of the oppressor and the ground	M2
Hide the last altar's unregarded dust	M
Whose Idol has so long betrayed your impious trust	M
	-
	-
It must be so I will arise and waken	F2
The multitude and like a sulphurous hill	N2
Which on a sudden from its snows has shaken	F2
The swoon of ages it shall burst and fill	N2
The world with cleansing fire it must it will	N2
It may not be restrained and who shall stand	O2
Amid the rocking earthquake steadfast still	N2
But Laon on high Freedom's desert land	O2
A tower whose marble walls the leagued storms withstand	O2
	-
	-
One summer night in commune with the hope	P2
Thus deeply fed amid those ruins gray	I2
I watched beneath the dark sky's starry cope	P2
And ever from that hour upon me lay	I2
The burden of this hope and night or day	I2
In vision or in dream clove to my breast	Q2
Among mankind or when gone far away	I2
To the lone shores and mountains 'twas a guest	Q2
Which followed where I fled and watched when I did rest	Q2
	-
	-
These hopes found words through which my spirit sought	V
To weave a bondage of such sympathy	E
As might create some response to the thought	V
Which ruled me now and as the vapours lie	R2
Bright in the outspread morning's radiancy	E
So were these thoughts invested with the light	S2
Of language and all bosoms made reply	R2
On which its lustre streamed whene'er it might	S2
Through darkness wide and deep those tranced spirits smite	S2
	-
	-
Yes many an eye with dizzy tears was dim	T2
And oft I thought to clasp my own heart's brother	U2
When I could feel the listener's senses swim	T2
And hear his breath its own swift gaspings smother	U2
Even as my words evoked them and another	U2
And yet another I did fondly deem	V2
Felt that we all were sons of one great mother	U2
And the cold truth such sad reverse did seem	V2
As to awake in grief from some delightful dream	V2
	-
	-
Yes oft beside the ruined labyrinth	W2
Which skirts the hoary caves of the green deep	X2
Did Laon and his friend on one gray plinth	W2
Round whose worn base the wild waves hiss and leap	X2
Resting at eve a lofty converse keep	X2
And that this friend was false may now be said	S2
Calmly that he like other men could weep	X2
Tears which are lies and could betray and spread	S2
Snares for that guileless heart which for his own had bled	S2
	-
	-
Then had no great aim recompensed my sorrow	U
I must have sought dark respite from its stress	E
In dreamless rest in sleep that sees no morrow	U
For to tread life's dismaying wilderness	E
Without one smile to cheer one voice to bless	E
Amid the snares and scoffs of human kind	S2
Is hard but I betrayed it not nor less	E
With love that scorned return sought to unbind	S2
The interwoven clouds which make its wisdom blind	S2
	-
	-
With deathless minds which leave where they have passed	S2
A path of light my soul communion knew	Y2
Till from that glorious intercourse at last	S2
As from a mine of magic store I drew	Y2
Words which were weapons round my heart there grew	Y2
The adamantine armour of their power	U2
And from my fancy wings of golden hue	Y2
Sprang forth yet not alone from wisdom's tower	U2
A minister of truth these plumes young Laon bore	T
	-
	-
An orphan with my parents lived whose eyes	E
Were lodestars of delight which drew me home	J2
When I might wander forth nor did I prize	E
Aught human thing beneath Heaven's mighty dome	J2
Beyond this child so when sad hours were come	H2
And baffled hope like ice still clung to me	E
Since kin were cold and friends had now become	H2
Heartless and false I turned from all to be	E
Cythna the only source of tears and smiles to thee	E
	-
	-
What wert thou then A child most infantine	Y2
Yet wandering far beyond that innocent age	Z2
In all but its sweet looks and mien divine	Y2
Even then methought with the world's tyrant rage	Z2
A patient warfare thy young heart did wage	Z2
When those soft eyes of scarcely conscious thought	S2
Some tale or thine own fancies would engage	Z2
To overflow with tears or converse fraught	S2
With passion o'er their depths its fleeting light had wrought	S2
	-
	-
She moved upon this earth a shape of brightness	E
A power that from its objects scarcely drew	Y2
One impulse of her being in her lightness	E
Most like some radiant cloud of morning dew	Y2
Which wanders through the waste air's pathless blue	Y2
To nourish some far desert she did seem	V2
Beside me gathering beauty as she grew	Y2
Like the bright shade of some immortal dream	V2
Which walks when tempest sleeps the wave of life's dark stream	V2
	-
	-
As mine own shadow was this child to me	E
A second self far dearer and more fair	A3
Which clothed in undissolving radiancy	E
All those steep paths which languor and despair	A3
Of human things had made so dark and bare	A3
But which I trod alone nor till bereft	S2
Of friends and overcome by lonely care	A3
Knew I what solace for that loss was left	S2
Though by a bitter wound my trusting heart was cleft	S2
	-
	-
Once she was dear now she was all I had	S2
To love in human life this playmate sweet	S2
This child of twelve years old so she was made	S2
My sole associate and her willing feet	S2
Wandered with mine where earth and ocean meet	S2
Beyond the aereal mountains whose vast cells	E
The unreposing billows ever beat	S2
Through forests wild and old and lawny dells	E
Where boughs of incense droop over the emerald wells	E
	-
	-
And warm and light I felt her clasping hand	S2
When twined in mine she followed where I went	S2
Through the lone paths of our immortal land	S2
It had no waste but some memorial lent	S2
Which strung me to my toil some monument	S2
Vital with mind then Cythna by my side	S2
Until the bright and beaming day were spent	S2
Would rest with looks entreating to abide	S2
Too earnest and too sweet ever to be denied	S2
	-
	-
And soon I could not have refused her thus	E
For ever day and night we two were ne'er	A3
Parted but when brief sleep divided us	E
And when the pauses of the lulling air	A3
Of noon beside the sea had made a lair	A3
For her soothed senses in my arms she slept	S2
And I kept watch over her slumbers there	A3
While as the shifting visions over her swept	S2
Amid her innocent rest by turns she smiled and wept	S2
	-
	-
And in the murmur of her dreams was heard	S2
Sometimes the name of Laon suddenly	E
She would arise and like the secret bird	S2
Whom sunset wakens fill the shore and sky	R2
With her sweet accents a wild melody	E
Hymns which my soul had woven to Freedom strong	L2
The source of passion whence they rose to be	E
Triumphant strains which like a spirit's tongue	B3
To the enchanted waves that child of glory sung	B3
	-
	-
Her white arms lifted through the shadowy stream	V2
Of her loose hair Oh excellently great	S2
Seemed to me then my purpose the vast theme	V2
Of those impassioned songs when Cythna sate	S2
Amid the calm which rapture doth create	S2
After its tumult her heart vibrating	C3
Her spirit o'er the Ocean's floating state	S2
From her deep eyes far wandering on the wing	C3
Of visions that were mine beyond its utmost spring	C3
	-
	-
For before Cythna loved it had my song	L2
Peopled with thoughts the boundless universe	E
A mighty congregation which were strong	L2
Where'er they trod the darkness to disperse	E
The cloud of that unutterable curse	E
Which clings upon mankind all things became	F
Slaves to my holy and heroic verse	E
Earth sea and sky the planets life and fame	F
And fate or whate'er else binds the world's wondrous frame	F
	-
	-
And this beloved child thus felt the sway	I2
Of my conceptions gathering like a cloud	S2
The very wind on which it rolls away	I2
Hers too were all my thoughts ere yet endowed	S2
With music and with light their fountains flowed	S2
In poesy and her still and earnest face	E
Pallid with feelings which intensely glowed	S2
Within was turned on mine with speechless grace	E
Watching the hopes which there her heart had learned to trace	E
	-
	-
In me communion with this purest being	C3
Kindled intenser zeal and made me wise	E
In knowledge which in hers mine own mind seeing	C3
Left in the human world few mysteries	E
How without fear of evil or disguise	E
Was Cythna what a spirit strong and mild	S2
Which death or pain or peril could despise	E
Yet melt in tenderness what genius wild	S2
Yet mighty was enclosed within one simple child	S2
	-
	-
New lore was this old age with its gray hair	A3
And wrinkled legends of unworthy things	E
And icy sneers is nought it cannot dare	A3
To burst the chains which life for ever flings	E
On the entangled soul's aspiring wings	E
So is it cold and cruel and is made	S2
The careless slave of that dark power which brings	E
Evil like blight on man who still betrayed	S2
Laughs o'er the grave in which his living hopes are laid	S2
	-
	-
Nor are the strong and the severe to keep	X2
The empire of the world thus Cythna taught	S2
Even in the visions of her eloquent sleep	X2
Unconscious of the power through which she wrought	S2
The woof of such intelligible thought	S2
As from the tranquil strength which cradled lay	I2
In her smile peopled rest my spirit sought	S2
Why the deceiver and the slave has sway	I2
O'er heralds so divine of truth's arising day	I2
	-
	-
Within that fairest form the female mind	S2
Untainted by the poison clouds which rest	S2
On the dark world a sacred home did find	S2
But else from the wide earth's maternal breast	S2
Victorious Evil which had dispossessed	S2
All native power had those fair children torn	Y2
And made them slaves to soothe his vile unrest	S2
And minister to lust its joys forlorn	Y2
Till they had learned to breathe the atmosphere of scorn	Y2
	-
	-
This misery was but coldly felt till she	E
Became my only friend who had endued	S2
My purpose with a wider sympathy	E
Thus Cythna mourned with me the servitude	S2
In which the half of humankind were mewed	S2
Victims of lust and hate the slaves of slaves	E
She mourned that grace and power were thrown as food	S2
To the hyena lust who among graves	E
Over his loathed meal laughing in agony raves	E
	-
	-
And I still gazing on that glorious child	S2
Even as these thoughts flushed o'er her 'Cythna sweet	S2
Well with the world art thou unreconciled	S2
Never will peace and human nature meet	S2
Till free and equal man and woman greet	S2
Domestic peace and ere this power can make	D3
In human hearts its calm and holy seat	S2
This slavery must be broken' as I spake	D3
From Cythna's eyes a light of exultation brake	D3
	-
	-
She replied earnestly 'It shall be mine	Y2
This task mine Laon thou hast much to gain	Y2
Nor wilt thou at poor Cythna's pride repine	Y2
If she should lead a happy female train	Y2
To meet thee over the rejoicing plain	Y2
When myriads at thy call shall throng around	S2
The Golden City ' Then the child did strain	Y2
My arm upon her tremulous heart and wound	S2
Her own about my neck till some reply she found	S2
	-
	-
I smiled and spake not 'Wherefore dost thou smile	E3
At what I say Laon I am not weak	F3
And though my cheek might become pale the while	E3
With thee if thou desirest will I seek	F3
Through their array of banded slaves to wreak	F3
Ruin upon the tyrants I had thought	S2
It was more hard to turn my unpractised cheek	F3
To scorn and shame and this beloved spot	S2
And thee O dearest friend to leave and murmur not	S2
	-
	-
'Whence came I what I am Thou Laon knowest	S2
How a young child should thus undaunted be	E
Methinks it is a power which thou bestowest	S2
Through which I seek by most resembling thee	E
So to become most good and great and free	E
Yet far beyond this Ocean's utmost roar	T
In towers and huts are many like to me	E
Who could they see thine eyes or feel such lore	T
As I have learnt from them like me would fear no more	T
	-
	-
'Think'st thou that I shall speak unskilfully	E3
And none will heed me I remember now	Y2
How once a slave in tortures doomed to die	S2
Was saved because in accents sweet and low	E3
He sung a song his Judge loved long ago	E3
As he was led to death All shall relent	S2
Who hear me tears as mine have flowed shall flow	E3
Hearts beat as mine now beats with such intent	S2
As renovates the world a will omnipotent	S2
	-
	-
'Yes I will tread Pride's golden palaces	E
Through Penury's roofless huts and squalid cells	E
Will I descend where'er in abjectness	E
Woman with some vile slave her tyrant dwells	E
There with the music of thine own sweet spells	E
Will disenchant the captives and will pour	T
For the despairing from the crystal wells	E
Of thy deep spirit reason's mighty lore	T
And power shall then abound and hope arise once more	T
	-
	-
'Can man be free if woman be a slave	G3
Chain one who lives and breathes this boundless air	A3
To the corruption of a closed grave	G3
Can they whose mates are beasts condemned to bear	A3
Scorn heavier far than toil or anguish dare	A3
To trample their oppressors in their home	J2
Among their babes thou knowest a curse would wear	A3
The shape of woman hoary Crime would come	H2
Behind and Fraud rebuild religion's tottering dome	J2
	-
	-
'I am a child I would not yet depart	S2
When I go forth alone bearing the lamp	H3
Aloft which thou hast kindled in my heart	S2
Millions of slaves from many a dungeon damp	H3
Shall leap in joy as the benumbing cramp	H3
Of ages leaves their limbs no ill may harm	I3
Thy Cythna ever truth its radiant stamp	H3
Has fixed as an invulnerable charm	I3
Upon her children's brow dark Falsehood to disarm	I3
	-
	-
'Wait yet awhile for the appointed day	S2
Thou wilt depart and I with tears shall stand	S2
Watching thy dim sail skirt the ocean gray	S2
Amid the dwellers of this lonely land	S2
I shall remain alone and thy command	S2
Shall then dissolve the world's unquiet trance	E
And multitudinous as the desert sand	S2
Borne on the storm its millions shall advance	E
Thronging round thee the light of their deliverance	E
	-
	-
'Then like the forests of some pathless mountain	Y2
Which from remotest glens two warring winds	E
Involve in fire which not the loosened fountain	Y2
Of broadest floods might quench shall all the kinds	E
Of evil catch from our uniting minds	E
The spark which must consume them Cythna then	Y2
Will have cast off the impotence that binds	E
Her childhood now and through the paths of men	Y2
Will pass as the charmed bird that haunts the serpent's den	Y2
	-
	-
'We part O Laon I must dare nor tremble	E3
To meet those looks no more Oh heavy stroke	J3
Sweet brother of my soul can I dissemble	E3
The agony of this thought ' As thus she spoke	J3
The gathered sobs her quivering accents broke	J3
And in my arms she hid her beating breast	S2
I remained still for tears sudden she woke	J3
As one awakes from sleep and wildly pressed	S2
My bosom her whole frame impetuously possessed	S2
	-
	-
'We part to meet again but yon blue waste	S2
Yon desert wide and deep holds no recess	E
Within whose happy silence thus embraced	S2
We might survive all ills in one caress	E
Nor doth the grave I fear 'tis passionless	E
Nor yon cold vacant Heaven we meet again	Y2
Within the minds of men whose lips shall bless	E
Our memory and whose hopes its light retain	Y2
When these dissevered bones are trodden in the plain '	-
	-
	-
I could not speak though she had ceased for now	Y2
The fountains of her feeling swift and deep	X2
Seemed to suspend the tumult of their flow	E3
So we arose and by the starlight steep	X2
Went homeward neither did we speak nor weep	X2
But pale were calm with passion thus subdued	S2
Like evening shades that o'er the mountains creep	X2
We moved towards our home where in this mood	S2
Each from the other sought refuge in solitude	S2

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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