The Revolt Of Islam. - Canto 7. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCDEDEE FGFGGHIHJ FKFKKLKLL FBFMBNBNN FOFOPQPQQ RSRSSBSBB OTPTTUTVU WXWYXRXRR ZFZFFA2FOA2 B2C2B2IGOGOO D2E2D2E2E2E2E2E2E2 TFTFFF2G2H2F2 E2I2E2I2I2J2I2J2J2 BK2BK2K2L2K2L2L2 D2A2D2A2A2POPP D2A2D2A2A2M2A2N2M2 OO2OO2O2E2O2E2E2 P2E2P2E2E2Q2E2Q2Q2 FFFFFR2FS2S2 E2S2E2S2S2I2S2I2I2 FT2FT2T2BT2BB E2SE2SSS2SFF OPOPPE2PE2E2 SE2SE2E2SE2SS FSFSSE2SE2E2 FSFSSE2SE2E2 D2SD2SSU2SU2U2 V2FV2FFS2FS2S2 SFSFFSFSS SSSSSSSSS W2S2W2S2S2X2S2Y2Y2 Z2SZ2SSFSFF A3E2A3E2E2FE2FF FFFFFW2FW2W2 P2E2P2E2E2SE2SS FSFSSF2SF2H2 A2SA2SSFSFF SSSSSSSSS FE2H2E2E2BE2BB SOSOOSOSS D2SD2SSSSSS

	A
So we sate joyous as the morning ray	B
Which fed upon the wrecks of night and storm	C
Now lingering on the winds light airs did play	B
Among the dewy weeds the sun was warm	C
And we sate linked in the inwoven charm	D
Of converse and caresses sweet and deep	E
Speechless caresses talk that might disarm	D
Time though he wield the darts of death and sleep	E
And those thrice mortal barbs in his own poison steep	E
	-
	-
I told her of my sufferings and my madness	F
And how awakened from that dreamy mood	G
By Liberty's uprise the strength of gladness	F
Came to my spirit in my solitude	G
And all that now I was while tears pursued	G
Each other down her fair and listening cheek	H
Fast as the thoughts which fed them like a flood	I
From sunbright dales and when I ceased to speak	H
Her accents soft and sweet the pausing air did wake	J
	-
	-
She told me a strange tale of strange endurance	F
Like broken memories of many a heart	K
Woven into one to which no firm assurance	F
So wild were they could her own faith impart	K
She said that not a tear did dare to start	K
From the swoln brain and that her thoughts were firm	L
When from all mortal hope she did depart	K
Borne by those slaves across the Ocean's term	L
And that she reached the port without one fear infirm	L
	-
	-
One was she among many there the thralls	F
Of the cold Tyrant's cruel lust and they	B
Laughed mournfully in those polluted halls	F
But she was calm and sad musing alway	M
On loftiest enterprise till on a day	B
The Tyrant heard her singing to her lute	N
A wild and sad and spirit thrilling lay	B
Like winds that die in wastes one moment mute	N
The evil thoughts it made which did his breast pollute	N
	-
	-
Even when he saw her wondrous loveliness	F
One moment to great Nature's sacred power	O
He bent and was no longer passionless	F
But when he bade her to his secret bower	O
Be borne a loveless victim and she tore	P
Her locks in agony and her words of flame	Q
And mightier looks availed not then he bore	P
Again his load of slavery and became	Q
A king a heartless beast a pageant and a name	Q
	-
	-
She told me what a loathsome agony	R
Is that when selfishness mocks love's delight	S
Foul as in dream's most fearful imagery	R
To dally with the mowing dead that night	S
All torture fear or horror made seem light	S
Which the soul dreams or knows and when the day	B
Shone on her awful frenzy from the sight	S
Where like a Spirit in fleshly chains she lay	B
Struggling aghast and pale the Tyrant fled away	B
	-
	-
Her madness was a beam of light a power	O
Which dawned through the rent soul and words it gave	T
Gestures and looks such as in whirlwinds bore	P
Which might not be withstood whence none could save	T
All who approached their sphere like some calm wave	T
Vexed into whirlpools by the chasms beneath	U
And sympathy made each attendant slave	T
Fearless and free and they began to breathe	V
Deep curses like the voice of flames far underneath	U
	-
	-
The King felt pale upon his noonday throne	W
At night two slaves he to her chamber sent	X
One was a green and wrinkled eunuch grown	W
From human shape into an instrument	Y
Of all things ill distorted bowed and bent	X
The other was a wretch from infancy	R
Made dumb by poison who nought knew or meant	X
But to obey from the fire isles came he	R
A diver lean and strong of Oman's coral sea	R
	-
	-
They bore her to a bark and the swift stroke	Z
Of silent rowers clove the blue moonlight seas	F
Until upon their path the morning broke	Z
They anchored then where be there calm or breeze	F
The gloomiest of the drear Symplegades	F
Shakes with the sleepless surge the Ethiop there	A2
Wound his long arms around her and with knees	F
Like iron clasped her feet and plunged with her	O
Among the closing waves out of the boundless air	A2
	-
	-
'Swift as an eagle stooping from the plain	B2
Of morning light into some shadowy wood	C2
He plunged through the green silence of the main	B2
Through many a cavern which the eternal flood	I
Had scooped as dark lairs for its monster brood	G
And among mighty shapes which fled in wonder	O
And among mightier shadows which pursued	G
His heels he wound until the dark rocks under	O
He touched a golden chain a sound arose like thunder	O
	-
	-
'A stunning clang of massive bolts redoubling	D2
Beneath the deep a burst of waters driven	E2
As from the roots of the sea raging and bubbling	D2
And in that roof of crags a space was riven	E2
Through which there shone the emerald beams of heaven	E2
Shot through the lines of many waves inwoven	E2
Like sunlight through acacia woods at even	E2
Through which his way the diver having cloven	E2
Passed like a spark sent up out of a burning oven	E2
	-
	-
'And then ' she said 'he laid me in a cave	T
Above the waters by that chasm of sea	F
A fountain round and vast in which the wave	T
Imprisoned boiled and leaped perpetually	F
Down which one moment resting he did flee	F
Winning the adverse depth that spacious cell	F2
Like an hupaithric temple wide and high	G2
Whose aery dome is inaccessible	H2
Was pierced with one round cleft through which the sunbeams fell	F2
	-
	-
'Below the fountain's brink was richly paven	E2
With the deep's wealth coral and pearl and sand	I2
Like spangling gold and purple shells engraven	E2
With mystic legends by no mortal hand	I2
Left there when thronging to the moon's command	I2
The gathering waves rent the Hesperian gate	J2
Of mountains and on such bright floor did stand	I2
Columns and shapes like statues and the state	J2
Of kingless thrones which Earth did in her heart create	J2
	-
	-
'The fiend of madness which had made its prey	B
Of my poor heart was lulled to sleep awhile	K2
There was an interval of many a day	B
And a sea eagle brought me food the while	K2
Whose nest was built in that untrodden isle	K2
And who to be the gaoler had been taught	L2
Of that strange dungeon as a friend whose smile	K2
Like light and rest at morn and even is sought	L2
That wild bird was to me till madness misery brought	L2
	-
	-
'The misery of a madness slow and creeping	D2
Which made the earth seem fire the sea seem air	A2
And the white clouds of noon which oft were sleeping	D2
In the blue heaven so beautiful and fair	A2
Like hosts of ghastly shadows hovering there	A2
And the sea eagle looked a fiend who bore	P
Thy mangled limbs for food Thus all things were	O
Transformed into the agony which I wore	P
Even as a poisoned robe around my bosom's core	P
	-
	-
'Again I knew the day and night fast fleeing	D2
The eagle and the fountain and the air	A2
Another frenzy came there seemed a being	D2
Within me a strange load my heart did bear	A2
As if some living thing had made its lair	A2
Even in the fountains of my life a long	M2
And wondrous vision wrought from my despair	A2
Then grew like sweet reality among	N2
Dim visionary woes an unreposing throng	M2
	-
	-
'Methought I was about to be a mother	O
Month after month went by and still I dreamed	O2
That we should soon be all to one another	O
I and my child and still new pulses seemed	O2
To beat beside my heart and still I deemed	O2
There was a babe within and when the rain	E2
Of winter through the rifted cavern streamed	O2
Methought after a lapse of lingering pain	E2
I saw that lovely shape which near my heart had lain	E2
	-
	-
'It was a babe beautiful from its birth	P2
It was like thee dear love its eyes were thine	E2
Its brow its lips and so upon the earth	P2
It laid its fingers as now rest on mine	E2
Thine own beloved 'twas a dream divine	E2
Even to remember how it fled how swift	Q2
How utterly might make the heart repine	E2
Though 'twas a dream ' Then Cythna did uplift	Q2
Her looks on mine as if some doubt she sought to shift	Q2
	-
	-
A doubt which would not flee a tenderness	F
Of questioning grief a source of thronging tears	F
Which having passed as one whom sobs oppress	F
She spoke 'Yes in the wilderness of years	F
Her memory aye like a green home appears	F
She sucked her fill even at this breast sweet love	R2
For many months I had no mortal fears	F
Methought I felt her lips and breath approve	S2
It was a human thing which to my bosom clove	S2
	-
	-
'I watched the dawn of her first smiles and soon	E2
When zenith stars were trembling on the wave	S2
Or when the beams of the invisible moon	E2
Or sun from many a prism within the cave	S2
Their gem born shadows to the water gave	S2
Her looks would hunt them and with outspread hand	I2
From the swift lights which might that fountain pave	S2
She would mark one and laugh when that command	I2
Slighting it lingered there and could not understand	I2
	-
	-
'Methought her looks began to talk with me	F
And no articulate sounds but something sweet	T2
Her lips would frame so sweet it could not be	F
That it was meaningless her touch would meet	T2
Mine and our pulses calmly flow and beat	T2
In response while we slept and on a day	B
When I was happiest in that strange retreat	T2
With heaps of golden shells we two did play	B
Both infants weaving wings for time's perpetual way	B
	-
	-
'Ere night methought her waning eyes were grown	E2
Weary with joy and tired with our delight	S
We on the earth like sister twins lay down	E2
On one fair mother's bosom from that night	S
She fled like those illusions clear and bright	S
Which dwell in lakes when the red moon on high	S2
Pause ere it wakens tempest and her flight	S
Though 'twas the death of brainless fantasy	F
Yet smote my lonesome heart more than all misery	F
	-
	-
'It seemed that in the dreary night the diver	O
Who brought me thither came again and bore	P
My child away I saw the waters quiver	O
When he so swiftly sunk as once before	P
Then morning came it shone even as of yore	P
But I was changed the very life was gone	E2
Out of my heart I wasted more and more	P
Day after day and sitting there alone	E2
Vexed the inconstant waves with my perpetual moan	E2
	-
	-
'I was no longer mad and yet methought	S
My breasts were swoln and changed in every vein	E2
The blood stood still one moment while that thought	S
Was passing with a gush of sickening pain	E2
It ebbed even to its withered springs again	E2
When my wan eyes in stern resolve I turned	S
From that most strange delusion which would fain	E2
Have waked the dream for which my spirit yearned	S
With more than human love then left it unreturned	S
	-
	-
'So now my reason was restored to me	F
I struggled with that dream which like a beast	S
Most fierce and beauteous in my memory	F
Had made its lair and on my heart did feast	S
But all that cave and all its shapes possessed	S
By thoughts which could not fade renewed each one	E2
Some smile some look some gesture which had blessed	S
Me heretofore I sitting there alone	E2
Vexed the inconstant waves with my perpetual moan	E2
	-
	-
'Time passed I know not whether months or years	F
For day nor night nor change of seasons made	S
Its note but thoughts and unavailing tears	F
And I became at last even as a shade	S
A smoke a cloud on which the winds have preyed	S
Till it be thin as air until one even	E2
A Nautilus upon the fountain played	S
Spreading his azure sail where breath of Heaven	E2
Descended not among the waves and whirlpools driven	E2
	-
	-
'And when the Eagle came that lovely thing	D2
Oaring with rosy feet its silver boat	S
Fled near me as for shelter on slow wing	D2
The Eagle hovering o'er his prey did float	S
But when he saw that I with fear did note	S
His purpose proffering my own food to him	U2
The eager plumes subsided on his throat	S
He came where that bright child of sea did swim	U2
And o'er it cast in peace his shadow broad and dim	U2
	-
	-
'This wakened me it gave me human strength	V2
And hope I know not whence or wherefore rose	F
But I resumed my ancient powers at length	V2
My spirit felt again like one of those	F
Like thine whose fate it is to make the woes	F
Of humankind their prey what was this cave	S2
Its deep foundation no firm purpose knows	F
Immutable resistless strong to save	S2
Like mind while yet it mocks the all devouring grave	S2
	-
	-
'And where was Laon might my heart be dead	S
While that far dearer heart could move and be	F
Or whilst over the earth the pall was spread	S
Which I had sworn to rend I might be free	F
Could I but win that friendly bird to me	F
To bring me ropes and long in vain I sought	S
By intercourse of mutual imagery	F
Of objects if such aid he could be taught	S
But fruit and flowers and boughs yet never ropes he brought	S
	-
	-
'We live in our own world and mine was made	S
From glorious fantasies of hope departed	S
Aye we are darkened with their floating shade	S
Or cast a lustre on them time imparted	S
Such power to me I became fearless hearted	S
My eye and voice grew firm calm was my mind	S
And piercing like the morn now it has darted	S
Its lustre on all hidden things behind	S
Yon dim and fading clouds which load the weary wind	S
	-
	-
'My mind became the book through which I grew	W2
Wise in all human wisdom and its cave	S2
Which like a mine I rifled through and through	W2
To me the keeping of its secrets gave	S2
One mind the type of all the moveless wave	S2
Whose calm reflects all moving things that are	X2
Necessity and love and life the grave	S2
And sympathy fountains of hope and fear	Y2
Justice and truth and time and the world's natural sphere	Y2
	-
	-
'And on the sand would I make signs to range	Z2
These woofs as they were woven of my thought	S
Clear elemental shapes whose smallest change	Z2
A subtler language within language wrought	S
The key of truths which once were dimly taught	S
In old Crotona and sweet melodies	F
Of love in that lorn solitude I caught	S
From mine own voice in dream when thy dear eyes	F
Shone through my sleep and did that utterance harmonize	F
	-
	-
'Thy songs were winds whereon I fled at will	A3
As in a winged chariot o'er the plain	E2
Of crystal youth and thou wert there to fill	A3
My heart with joy and there we sate again	E2
On the gray margin of the glimmering main	E2
Happy as then but wiser far for we	F
Smiled on the flowery grave in which were lain	E2
Fear Faith and Slavery and mankind was free	F
Equal and pure and wise in Wisdom's prophecy	F
	-
	-
'For to my will my fancies were as slaves	F
To do their sweet and subtile ministries	F
And oft from that bright fountain's shadowy waves	F
They would make human throngs gather and rise	F
To combat with my overflowing eyes	F
And voice made deep with passion thus I grew	W2
Familiar with the shock and the surprise	F
And war of earthly minds from which I drew	W2
The power which has been mine to frame their thoughts anew	W2
	-
	-
'And thus my prison was the populous earth	P2
Where I saw even as misery dreams of morn	E2
Before the east has given its glory birth	P2
Religion's pomp made desolate by the scorn	E2
Of Wisdom's faintest smile and thrones uptorn	E2
And dwellings of mild people interspersed	S
With undivided fields of ripening corn	E2
And love made free a hope which we have nursed	S
Even with our blood and tears until its glory burst	S
	-
	-
'All is not lost There is some recompense	F
For hope whose fountain can be thus profound	S
Even throned Evil's splendid impotence	F
Girt by its hell of power the secret sound	S
Of hymns to truth and freedom the dread bound	S
Of life and death passed fearlessly and well	F2
Dungeons wherein the high resolve is found	S
Racks which degraded woman's greatness tell	F2
And what may else be good and irresistible	H2
	-
	-
'Such are the thoughts which like the fires that flare	A2
In storm encompassed isles we cherish yet	S
In this dark ruin such were mine even there	A2
As in its sleep some odorous violet	S
While yet its leaves with nightly dews are wet	S
Breathes in prophetic dreams of day's uprise	F
Or as ere Scythian frost in fear has met	S
Spring's messengers descending from the skies	F
The buds foreknow their life this hope must ever rise	F
	-
	-
'So years had passed when sudden earthquake rent	S
The depth of ocean and the cavern cracked	S
With sound as if the world's wide continent	S
Had fallen in universal ruin wracked	S
And through the cleft streamed in one cataract	S
The stifling waters when I woke the flood	S
Whose banded waves that crystal cave had sacked	S
Was ebbing round me and my bright abode	S
Before me yawned a chasm desert and bare and broad	S
	-
	-
'Above me was the sky beneath the sea	F
I stood upon a point of shattered stone	E2
And heard loose rocks rushing tumultuously	H2
With splash and shock into the deep anon	E2
All ceased and there was silence wide and lone	E2
I felt that I was free The Ocean spray	B
Quivered beneath my feet the broad Heaven shone	E2
Around and in my hair the winds did play	B
Lingering as they pursued their unimpeded way	B
	-
	-
'My spirit moved upon the sea like wind	S
Which round some thymy cape will lag and hover	O
Though it can wake the still cloud and unbind	S
The strength of tempest day was almost over	O
When through the fading light I could discover	O
A ship approaching its white sails were fed	S
With the north wind its moving shade did cover	O
The twilight deep the mariners in dread	S
Cast anchor when they saw new rocks around them spread	S
	-
	-
'And when they saw one sitting on a crag	D2
They sent a boat to me the Sailors rowed	S
In awe through many a new and fearful jag	D2
Of overhanging rock through which there flowed	S
The foam of streams that cannot make abode	S
They came and questioned me but when they heard	S
My voice they became silent and they stood	S
And moved as men in whom new love had stirred	S
Deep thoughts so to the ship we passed without a word	S

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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