The Revolt Of Islam. - Canto 3 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCCDCDD EFEFFGFGG HIJKKLKLL FMFMNFMFF OFOFFPFPP QFRFFSFSS TUVUUWULW FLFLLBWBB XSXSSFSF NYBYYLYWL ZA2ZB2A2VKVV FWFWWFWFF C2SC2SSD2SPP E2F2E2F2F2FF2FF G2LG2LLFLFF FKFKKH2KH2H2 B2I2B2J2I2FI2FF FK2FK2K2L2K2L2M2 BWBLWFLFF SN2SN2N2FN2FF FFFFFFFFF O2P2O2P2P2M2P2M2M2 M2M2M2M2M2FM2FF YFYFFVFVT N2SN2SSK2SK2K2 YQ2YR2R2FR2FF I2MI2SSP2SP2P2 M2B2M2B2B2M2B2M2M2 FFFFFFFFF FSFSSK2SK2K2 VS2VT2T2FT2FF M2WM2VLS SS FM2FM2M2FM2FF SLSVLU2LU2U2

	A
What thoughts had sway o'er Cythna's lonely slumber	B
That night I know not but my own did seem	C
As if they might ten thousand years outnumber	B
Of waking life the visions of a dream	C
Which hid in one dim gulf the troubled stream	C
Of mind a boundless chaos wild and vast	D
Whose limits yet were never memory's theme	C
And I lay struggling as its whirlwinds passed	D
Sometimes for rapture sick sometimes for pain aghast	D
	-
	-
Two hours whose mighty circle did embrace	E
More time than might make gray the infant world	F
Rolled thus a weary and tumultuous space	E
When the third came like mist on breezes curled	F
From my dim sleep a shadow was unfurled	F
Methought upon the threshold of a cave	G
I sate with Cythna drooping briony pearled	F
With dew from the wild streamlet's shattered wave	G
Hung where we sate to taste the joys which Nature gave	G
	-
	-
We lived a day as we were wont to live	H
But Nature had a robe of glory on	I
And the bright air o'er every shape did weave	J
Intenser hues so that the herbless stone	K
The leafless bough among the leaves alone	K
Had being clearer than its own could be	L
And Cythna's pure and radiant self was shown	K
In this strange vision so divine to me	L
That if I loved before now love was agony	L
	-
	-
Morn fled noon came evening then night descended	F
And we prolonged calm talk beneath the sphere	M
Of the calm moon when suddenly was blended	F
With our repose a nameless sense of fear	M
And from the cave behind I seemed to hear	N
Sounds gathering upwards accents incomplete	F
And stifled shrieks and now more near and near	M
A tumult and a rush of thronging feet	F
The cavern's secret depths beneath the earth did beat	F
	-
	-
The scene was changed and away away away	O
Through the air and over the sea we sped	F
And Cythna in my sheltering bosom lay	O
And the winds bore me through the darkness spread	F
Around the gaping earth then vomited	F
Legions of foul and ghastly shapes which hung	P
Upon my flight and ever as we fled	F
They plucked at Cythna soon to me then clung	P
A sense of actual things those monstrous dreams among	P
	-
	-
And I lay struggling in the impotence	Q
Of sleep while outward life had burst its bound	F
Though still deluded strove the tortured sense	R
To its dire wanderings to adapt the sound	F
Which in the light of morn was poured around	F
Our dwelling breathless pale and unaware	S
I rose and all the cottage crowded found	F
With armed men whose glittering swords were bare	S
And whose degraded limbs the tyrant's garb did wear	S
	-
	-
And ere with rapid lips and gathered brow	T
I could demand the cause a feeble shriek	U
It was a feeble shriek faint far and low	V
Arrested me my mien grew calm and meek	U
And grasping a small knife I went to seek	U
That voice among the crowd 'twas Cythna's cry	W
Beneath most calm resolve did agony wreak	U
Its whirlwind rage so I passed quietly	L
Till I beheld where bound that dearest child did lie	W
	-
	-
I started to behold her for delight	F
And exultation and a joyance free	L
Solemn serene and lofty filled the light	F
Of the calm smile with which she looked on me	L
So that I feared some brainless ecstasy	L
Wrought from that bitter woe had wildered her	B
'Farewell farewell ' she said as I drew nigh	W
'At first my peace was marred by this strange stir	B
Now I am calm as truth its chosen minister	B
	-
	-
'Look not so Laon say farewell in hope	X
These bloody men are but the slaves who bear	S
Their mistress to her task it was my scope	X
The slavery where they drag me now to share	S
And among captives willing chains to wear	S
Awhile the rest thou knowest return dear friend	F
Let our first triumph trample the despair	S
Which would ensnare us now for in the end	F
In victory or in death our hopes and fears must blend '	-
	-
	-
These words had fallen on my unheeding ear	N
Whilst I had watched the motions of the crew	Y
With seeming careless glance not many were	B
Around her for their comrades just withdrew	Y
To guard some other victim so I drew	Y
My knife and with one impulse suddenly	L
All unaware three of their number slew	Y
And grasped a fourth by the throat and with loud cry	W
My countrymen invoked to death or liberty	L
	-
	-
What followed then I know not for a stroke	Z
On my raised arm and naked head came down	A2
Filling my eyes with blood When I awoke	Z
I felt that they had bound me in my swoon	B2
And up a rock which overhangs the town	A2
By the steep path were bearing me below	V
The plain was filled with slaughter overthrown	K
The vineyards and the harvests and the glow	V
Of blazing roofs shone far o'er the white Ocean's flow	V
	-
	-
Upon that rock a mighty column stood	F
Whose capital seemed sculptured in the sky	W
Which to the wanderers o'er the solitude	F
Of distant seas from ages long gone by	W
Had made a landmark o'er its height to fly	W
Scarcely the cloud the vulture or the blast	F
Has power and when the shades of evening lie	W
On Earth and Ocean its carved summits cast	F
The sunken daylight far through the aerial waste	F
	-
	-
They bore me to a cavern in the hill	C2
Beneath that column and unbound me there	S
And one did strip me stark and one did fill	C2
A vessel from the putrid pool one bare	S
A lighted torch and four with friendless care	S
Guided my steps the cavern paths along	D2
Then up a steep and dark and narrow stair	S
We wound until the torch's fiery tongue	P
Amid the gushing day beamless and pallid hung	P
	-
	-
They raised me to the platform of the pile	E2
That column's dizzy height the grate of brass	F2
Through which they thrust me open stood the while	E2
As to its ponderous and suspended mass	F2
With chains which eat into the flesh alas	F2
With brazen links my naked limbs they bound	F
The grate as they departed to repass	F2
With horrid clangour fell and the far sound	F
Of their retiring steps in the dense gloom was drowned	F
	-
	-
The noon was calm and bright around that column	G2
The overhanging sky and circling sea	L
Spread forth in silentness profound and solemn	G2
The darkness of brief frenzy cast on me	L
So that I knew not my own misery	L
The islands and the mountains in the day	F
Like clouds reposed afar and I could see	L
The town among the woods below that lay	F
And the dark rocks which bound the bright and glassy bay	F
	-
	-
It was so calm that scarce the feathery weed	F
Sown by some eagle on the topmost stone	K
Swayed in the air so bright that noon did breed	F
No shadow in the sky beside mine own	K
Mine and the shadow of my chain alone	K
Below the smoke of roofs involved in flame	H2
Rested like night all else was clearly shown	K
In that broad glare yet sound to me none came	H2
But of the living blood that ran within my frame	H2
	-
	-
The peace of madness fled and ah too soon	B2
A ship was lying on the sunny main	I2
Its sails were flagging in the breathless noon	B2
Its shadow lay beyond that sight again	J2
Waked with its presence in my tranced brain	I2
The stings of a known sorrow keen and cold	F
I knew that ship bore Cythna o'er the plain	I2
Of waters to her blighting slavery sold	F
And watched it with such thoughts as must remain untold	F
	-
	-
I watched until the shades of evening wrapped	F
Earth like an exhalation then the bark	K2
Moved for that calm was by the sunset snapped	F
It moved a speck upon the Ocean dark	K2
Soon the wan stars came forth and I could mark	K2
Its path no more I sought to close mine eyes	L2
But like the balls their lids were stiff and stark	K2
I would have risen but ere that I could rise	L2
My parched skin was split with piercing agonies	M2
	-
	-
I gnawed my brazen chain and sought to sever	B
Its adamantine links that I might die	W
O Liberty forgive the base endeavour	B
Forgive me if reserved for victory	L
The Champion of thy faith e'er sought to fly	W
That starry night with its clear silence sent	F
Tameless resolve which laughed at misery	L
Into my soul linked remembrance lent	F
To that such power to me such a severe content	F
	-
	-
To breathe to be to hope or to despair	S
And die I questioned not nor though the Sun	N2
Its shafts of agony kindling through the air	S
Moved over me nor though in evening dun	N2
Or when the stars their visible courses run	N2
Or morning the wide universe was spread	F
In dreary calmness round me did I shun	N2
Its presence nor seek refuge with the dead	F
From one faint hope whose flower a dropping poison shed	F
	-
	-
Two days thus passed I neither raved nor died	F
Thirst raged within me like a scorpion's nest	F
Built in mine entrails I had spurned aside	F
The water vessel while despair possessed	F
My thoughts and now no drop remained The uprest	F
Of the third sun brought hunger but the crust	F
Which had been left was to my craving breast	F
Fuel not food I chewed the bitter dust	F
And bit my bloodless arm and licked the brazen rust	F
	-
	-
My brain began to fail when the fourth morn	O2
Burst o'er the golden isles a fearful sleep	P2
Which through the caverns dreary and forlorn	O2
Of the riven soul sent its foul dreams to sweep	P2
With whirlwind swiftness a fall far and deep	P2
A gulf a void a sense of senselessness	M2
These things dwelt in me even as shadows keep	P2
Their watch in some dim charnel's loneliness	M2
A shoreless sea a sky sunless and planetless	M2
	-
	-
The forms which peopled this terrific trance	M2
I well remember like a choir of devils	M2
Around me they involved a giddy dance	M2
Legions seemed gathering from the misty levels	M2
Of Ocean to supply those ceaseless revels	M2
Foul ceaseless shadows thought could not divide	F
The actual world from these entangling evils	M2
Which so bemocked themselves that I descried	F
All shapes like mine own self hideously multiplied	F
	-
	-
The sense of day and night of false and true	Y
Was dead within me Yet two visions burst	F
That darkness one as since that hour I knew	Y
Was not a phantom of the realms accursed	F
Where then my spirit dwelt but of the first	F
I know not yet was it a dream or no	V
But both though not distincter were immersed	F
In hues which when through memory's waste they flow	V
Make their divided streams more bright and rapid now	T
	-
	-
Methought that grate was lifted and the seven	N2
Who brought me thither four stiff corpses bare	S
And from the frieze to the four winds of Heaven	N2
Hung them on high by the entangled hair	S
Swarthy were three the fourth was very fair	S
As they retired the golden moon upsprung	K2
And eagerly out in the giddy air	S
Leaning that I might eat I stretched and clung	K2
Over the shapeless depth in which those corpses hung	K2
	-
	-
A woman's shape now lank and cold and blue	Y
The dwelling of the many coloured worm	Q2
Hung there the white and hollow cheek I drew	Y
To my dry lips what radiance did inform	R2
Those horny eyes whose was that withered form	R2
Alas alas it seemed that Cythna's ghost	F
Laughed in those looks and that the flesh was warm	R2
Within my teeth a whirlwind keen as frost	F
Then in its sinking gulfs my sickening spirit tossed	F
	-
	-
Then seemed it that a tameless hurricane	I2
Arose and bore me in its dark career	M
Beyond the sun beyond the stars that wane	I2
On the verge of formless space it languished there	S
And dying left a silence lone and drear	S
More horrible than famine in the deep	P2
The shape of an old man did then appear	S
Stately and beautiful that dreadful sleep	P2
His heavenly smiles dispersed and I could wake and weep	P2
	-
	-
And when the blinding tears had fallen I saw	M2
That column and those corpses and the moon	B2
And felt the poisonous tooth of hunger gnaw	M2
My vitals I rejoiced as if the boon	B2
Of senseless death would be accorded soon	B2
When from that stony gloom a voice arose	M2
Solemn and sweet as when low winds attune	B2
The midnight pines the grate did then unclose	M2
And on that reverend form the moonlight did repose	M2
	-
	-
He struck my chains and gently spake and smiled	F
As they were loosened by that Hermit old	F
Mine eyes were of their madness half beguiled	F
To answer those kind looks he did enfold	F
His giant arms around me to uphold	F
My wretched frame my scorched limbs he wound	F
In linen moist and balmy and as cold	F
As dew to drooping leaves the chain with sound	F
Like earthquake through the chasm of that steep stair did bound	F
	-
	-
As lifting me it fell What next I heard	F
Were billows leaping on the harbour bar	S
And the shrill sea wind whose breath idly stirred	F
My hair I looked abroad and saw a star	S
Shining beside a sail and distant far	S
That mountain and its column the known mark	K2
Of those who in the wide deep wandering are	S
So that I feared some Spirit fell and dark	K2
In trance had lain me thus within a fiendish bark	K2
	-
	-
For now indeed over the salt sea billow	V
I sailed yet dared not look upon the shape	S2
Of him who ruled the helm although the pillow	V
For my light head was hollowed in his lap	T2
And my bare limbs his mantle did enwrap	T2
Fearing it was a fiend at last he bent	F
O'er me his aged face as if to snap	T2
Those dreadful thoughts the gentle grandsire bent	F
And to my inmost soul his soothing looks he sent	F
	-
	-
A soft and healing potion to my lips	M2
At intervals he raised now looked on high	W
To mark if yet the starry giant dips	M2
His zone in the dim sea now cheeringly	V
Though he said little did he speak to me	L
'It is a friend beside thee take good cheer	S
Poor victim thou art now at liberty '	-
I joyed as those a human tone to hear	S
Who in cells deep and lone have languished many a year	S
	-
	-
A dim and feeble joy whose glimpses oft	F
Were quenched in a relapse of wildering dreams	M2
Yet still methought we sailed until aloft	F
The stars of night grew pallid and the beams	M2
Of morn descended on the ocean streams	M2
And still that aged man so grand and mild	F
Tended me even as some sick mother seems	M2
To hang in hope over a dying child	F
Till in the azure East darkness again was piled	F
	-
	-
And then the night wind steaming from the shore	S
Sent odours dying sweet across the sea	L
And the swift boat the little waves which bore	S
Were cut by its keen keel though slantingly	V
Soon I could hear the leaves sigh and could see	L
The myrtle blossoms starring the dim grove	U2
As past the pebbly beach the boat did flee	L
On sidelong wing into a silent cove	U2
Where ebon pines a shade under the starlight wove	U2

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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