The Revolt Of Islam. - Canto 8 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCCDCDD EFGFFHIHH JKJKKLMLL NOPQOEQGG RSTSSDSDD EDGDDUDVW DXDXXYXYY ZDA2DDB2DB2C2 D2DD2DDE2DE2S DIDIIDIDD DF2DF2F2EF2GG2 H2DI2DDSDE2S E2QSQQJ2QJ2J2 K2DTDDDDBB PDNDDSDSS L2DL2DDDDDD M2N2M2N2N2CN2CC G2CGCCO2CO2O2 P2NP2Q2PR2Q2R2R2 B2N2B2N2N2DN2DD BDBDDHDHH DDDDDS2DS2S2 T2U2DU2U2DU2SD V2W2V2W2W2F2W2F2F2 X2DY2DDIDII Z2D2Z2D2D2A3D2B3B3 CC3CC3C3DC3DD D3T2D3T2DDT2DD DI2DI2H2DH2DD DDDDDE3DE3E3

A
'I sate beside the Steersman then and gazingB
Upon the west cried Spread the sails BeholdC
The sinking moon is like a watch tower blazingB
Over the mountains yet the City of GoldC
Yon Cape alone does from the sight withholdC
The stream is fleet the north breathes steadilyD
Beneath the stars they tremble with the coldC
Ye cannot rest upon the dreary seaD
Haste haste to the warm home of happier destinyD
-
-
'The Mariners obeyed the Captain stoodE
Aloof and whispering to the Pilot saidF
Alas alas I fear we are pursuedG
By wicked ghosts a Phantom of the DeadF
The night before we sailed came to my bedF
In dream like that The Pilot then repliedH
It cannot be she is a human MaidI
Her low voice makes you weep she is some brideH
Or daughter of high birth she can be nought besideH
-
-
'We passed the islets borne by wind and streamJ
And as we sailed the Mariners came nearK
And thronged around to listen in the gleamJ
Of the pale moon I stood as one whom fearK
May not attaint and my calm voice did rearK
Ye are all human yon broad moon gives lightL
To millions who the selfsame likeness wearM
Even while I speak beneath this very nightL
Their thoughts flow on like ours in sadness or delightL
-
-
' What dream ye Your own hands have built an homeN
Even for yourselves on a beloved shoreO
For some fond eyes are pining till they comeP
How they will greet him when his toils are o'erQ
And laughing babes rush from the well known doorO
Is this your care ye toil for your own goodE
Ye feel and think has some immortal powerQ
Such purposes or in a human moodG
Dream ye some Power thus builds for man in solitudeG
-
-
' What is that Power Ye mock yourselves and giveR
A human heart to what ye cannot knowS
As if the cause of life could think and liveT
'Twere as if man's own works should feel and showS
The hopes and fears and thoughts from which they flowS
And he be like to them Lo Plague is freeD
To waste Blight Poison Earthquake Hail and SnowS
Disease and Want and worse NecessityD
Of hate and ill and Pride and Fear and TyrannyD
-
-
' What is that Power Some moon struck sophist stoodE
Watching the shade from his own soul upthrownD
Fill Heaven and darken Earth and in such moodG
The Form he saw and worshipped was his ownD
His likeness in the world's vast mirror shownD
And 'twere an innocent dream but that a faithU
Nursed by fear's dew of poison grows thereonD
And that men say that Power has chosen DeathV
On all who scorn its laws to wreak immortal wrathW
-
-
' Men say that they themselves have heard and seenD
Or known from others who have known such thingsX
A Shade a Form which Earth and Heaven betweenD
Wields an invisible rod that Priests and KingsX
Custom domestic sway ay all that bringsX
Man's freeborn soul beneath the oppressor's heelY
Are his strong ministers and that the stingsX
Of death will make the wise his vengeance feelY
Though truth and virtue arm their hearts with tenfold steelY
-
-
' And it is said this Power will punish wrongZ
Yes add despair to crime and pain to painD
And deepest hell and deathless snakes amongA2
Will bind the wretch on whom is fixed a stainD
Which like a plague a burden and a baneD
Clung to him while he lived for love and hateB2
Virtue and vice they say are difference vainD
The will of strength is right this human stateB2
Tyrants that they may rule with lies thus desolateC2
-
-
' Alas what strength Opinion is more frailD2
Than yon dim cloud now fading on the moonD
Even while we gaze though it awhile availD2
To hide the orb of truth and every throneD
Of Earth or Heaven though shadow rests thereonD
One shape of many names for this ye ploughE2
The barren waves of ocean hence each oneD
Is slave or tyrant all betray and bowE2
Command or kill or fear or wreak or suffer woeS
-
-
' Its names are each a sign which maketh holyD
All power ay the ghost the dream the shadeI
Of power lust falsehood hate and pride and follyD
The pattern whence all fraud and wrong is madeI
A law to which mankind has been betrayedI
And human love is as the name well knownD
Of a dear mother whom the murderer laidI
In bloody grave and into darkness thrownD
Gathered her wildered babes around him as his ownD
-
-
' O Love who to the hearts of wandering menD
Art as the calm to Ocean's weary wavesF2
Justice or Truth or Joy those only canD
From slavery and religion's labyrinth cavesF2
Guide us as one clear star the seaman savesF2
To give to all an equal share of goodE
To track the steps of Freedom though through gravesF2
She pass to suffer all in patient moodG
To weep for crime though stained with thy friend's dearest bloodG2
-
-
' To feel the peace of self contentment's lotH2
To own all sympathies and outrage noneD
And in the inmost bowers of sense and thoughtI2
Until life's sunny day is quite gone downD
To sit and smile with Joy or not aloneD
To kiss salt tears from the worn cheek of WoeS
To live as if to love and live were oneD
This is not faith or law nor those who bowE2
To thrones on Heaven or Earth such destiny may knowS
-
-
' But children near their parents tremble nowE2
Because they must obey one rules anotherQ
And as one Power rules both high and lowS
So man is made the captive of his brotherQ
And Hate is throned on high with Fear her motherQ
Above the Highest and those fountain cellsJ2
Whence love yet flowed when faith had choked all otherQ
Are darkened Woman as the bond slave dwellsJ2
Of man a slave and life is poisoned in its wellsJ2
-
-
' Man seeks for gold in mines that he may weaveK2
A lasting chain for his own slaveryD
In fear and restless care that he may liveT
He toils for others who must ever beD
The joyless thralls of like captivityD
He murders for his chiefs delight in ruinD
He builds the altar that its idol's feeD
May be his very blood he is pursuingB
O blind and willing wretch his own obscure undoingB
-
-
' Woman she is his slave she has becomeP
A thing I weep to speak the child of scornD
The outcast of a desolated homeN
Falsehood and fear and toil like waves have wornD
Channels upon her cheek which smiles adornD
As calm decks the false Ocean well ye knowS
What Woman is for none of Woman bornD
Can choose but drain the bitter dregs of woeS
Which ever from the oppressed to the oppressors flowS
-
-
' This need not be ye might arise and willL2
That gold should lose its power and thrones their gloryD
That love which none may bind be free to fillL2
The world like light and evil faith grown hoaryD
With crime be quenched and die Yon promontoryD
Even now eclipses the descending moonD
Dungeons and palaces are transitoryD
High temples fade like vapour Man aloneD
Remains whose will has power when all beside is goneD
-
-
' Let all be free and equal From your heartsM2
I feel an echo through my inmost frameN2
Like sweetest sound seeking its mate it dartsM2
Whence come ye friends Alas I cannot nameN2
All that I read of sorrow toil and shameN2
On your worn faces as in legends oldC
Which make immortal the disastrous fameN2
Of conquerors and impostors false and boldC
The discord of your hearts I in your looks beholdC
-
-
' Whence come ye friends from pouring human bloodG2
Forth on the earth Or bring ye steel and goldC
That Kings may dupe and slay the multitudeG
Or from the famished poor pale weak and coldC
Bear ye the earnings of their toil UnfoldC
Speak Are your hands in slaughter's sanguine hueO2
Stained freshly have your hearts in guile grown oldC
Know yourselves thus ye shall be pure as dewO2
And I will be a friend and sister unto youO2
-
-
' Disguise it not we have one human heartP2
All mortal thoughts confess a common homeN
Blush not for what may to thyself impartP2
Stains of inevitable crime the doomQ2
Is this which has or may or must becomeP
Thine and all humankind's Ye are the spoilR2
Which Time thus marks for the devouring tombQ2
Thou and thy thoughts and they and all the toilR2
Wherewith ye twine the rings of life's perpetual coilR2
-
-
' Disguise it not ye blush for what ye hateB2
And Enmity is sister unto ShameN2
Look on your mind it is the book of fateB2
Ah it is dark with many a blazoned nameN2
Of misery all are mirrors of the sameN2
But the dark fiend who with his iron penD
Dipped in scorn's fiery poison makes his fameN2
Enduring there would o'er the heads of menD
Pass harmless if they scorned to make their hearts his denD
-
-
' Yes it is Hate that shapeless fiendly thingB
Of many names all evil some divineD
Whom self contempt arms with a mortal stingB
Which when the heart its snaky folds entwineD
Is wasted quite and when it doth repineD
To gorge such bitter prey on all besideH
It turns with ninefold rage as with its twineD
When Amphisbaena some fair bird has tiedH
Soon o'er the putrid mass he threats on every sideH
-
-
' Reproach not thine own soul but know thyselfD
Nor hate another's crime nor loathe thine ownD
It is the dark idolatry of selfD
Which when our thoughts and actions once are goneD
Demands that man should weep and bleed and groanD
Oh vacant expiation Be at restS2
The past is Death's the future is thine ownD
And love and joy can make the foulest breastS2
A paradise of flowers where peace might build her nestS2
-
-
' Speak thou whence come ye A Youth made replyT2
Wearily wearily o'er the boundless deepU2
We sail thou readest well the miseryD
Told in these faded eyes but much doth sleepU2
Within which there the poor heart loves to keepU2
Or dare not write on the dishonoured browD
Even from our childhood have we learned to steepU2
The bread of slavery in the tears of woeS
And never dreamed of hope or refuge until nowD
-
-
' Yes I must speak my secret should have perishedV2
Even with the heart it wasted as a brandW2
Fades in the dying flame whose life it cherishedV2
But that no human bosom can withstandW2
Thee wondrous Lady and the mild commandW2
Of thy keen eyes yes we are wretched slavesF2
Who from their wonted loves and native landW2
Are reft and bear o'er the dividing wavesF2
The unregarded prey of calm and happy gravesF2
-
-
' We drag afar from pastoral vales the fairestX2
Among the daughters of those mountains loneD
We drag them there where all things best and rarestY2
Are stained and trampled years have come and goneD
Since like the ship which bears me I have knownD
No thought but now the eyes of one dear MaidI
On mine with light of mutual love have shoneD
She is my life I am but as the shadeI
Of her a smoke sent up from ashes soon to fadeI
-
-
' For she must perish in the Tyrant's hallZ2
Alas alas He ceased and by the sailD2
Sate cowering but his sobs were heard by allZ2
And still before the ocean and the galeD2
The ship fled fast till the stars 'gan to failD2
And round me gathered with mute countenanceA3
The Seamen gazed the Pilot worn and paleD2
With toil the Captain with gray locks whose glanceB3
Met mine in restless awe they stood as in a tranceB3
-
-
' Recede not pause not now Thou art grown oldC
But Hope will make thee young for Hope and YouthC3
Are children of one mother even Love beholdC
The eternal stars gaze on us is the truthC3
Within your soul care for your own or ruthC3
For others' sufferings do ye thirst to bearD
A heart which not the serpent Custom's toothC3
May violate Be free and even hereD
Swear to be firm till death They cried We swear We swearD
-
-
'The very darkness shook as with a blastD3
Of subterranean thunder at the cryT2
The hollow shore its thousand echoes castD3
Into the night as if the sea and skyT2
And earth rejoiced with new born libertyD
For in that name they swore Bolts were undrawnD
And on the deck with unaccustomed eyeT2
The captives gazing stood and every oneD
Shrank as the inconstant torch upon her countenance shoneD
-
-
'They were earth's purest children young and fairD
With eyes the shrines of unawakened thoughtI2
And brows as bright as Spring or Morning ereD
Dark time had there its evil legend wroughtI2
In characters of cloud which wither notH2
The change was like a dream to them but soonD
They knew the glory of their altered lotH2
In the bright wisdom of youth's breathless noonD
Sweet talk and smiles and sighs all bosoms did attuneD
-
-
'But one was mute her cheeks and lips most fairD
Changing their hue like lilies newly blownD
Beneath a bright acacia's shadowy hairD
Waved by the wind amid the sunny noonD
Showed that her soul was quivering and full soonD
That Youth arose and breathlessly did lookE3
On her and me as for some speechless boonD
I smiled and both their hands in mine I tookE3
And felt a soft delight from what their spirits shookE3

Percy Bysshe Shelley



Rate:
(1)



Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation


Write your comment about The Revolt Of Islam. - Canto 8 poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley


 

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 4 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Popular Poets