Glove, The Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCAADDEEA FFFFF FF GGHHIIJJKKFFKKLLAAMM KKAAIIKFKKNLDDGGKKKK KKAAKKKKKKIIFFAAIIKK IIK KKKKGGFF AAIIAAKKAO AK GG IIKKFFFFAAKKAAKKK KKAAPPFFIIKKIIFFKKKK FFKKQQIIR QQF QQSSIIAAI KKAA RKAAFFAAQQQQIIAAA LL F

PETER RONSARD loquiturA
-
Heigho '' yawned one day King FrancisB
Distance all value enhancesC
When a man's busy why leisureA
Strikes him as wonderful pleasureA
'Faith and at leisure once is heD
Straightway he wants to be busyD
Here we've got peace and aghast I'mE
Caught thinking war the true pastimeE
Is there a reason in metreA
Give us your speech master Peter ''-
I who if mortal dare say soF
Ne'er am at loss with my NasoF
Sire '' I replied joys prove cloudletsF
Men are the merest Ixions''F
Here the King whistled aloud Let'sF
Heigho go look at our lions ''-
Such are the sorrowful chancesF
If you talk fine to King FrancisF
-
And so to the courtyard proceedingG
Our company Francis was leadingG
Increased by new followers tenfoldH
Before be arrived at the penfoldH
Lords ladies like clouds which bedizenI
At sunset the western horizonI
And Sir De Lorge pressed 'mid the foremostJ
With the dame he professed to adore mostJ
Oh what a face One by fits eyedK
Her and the horrible pitsideK
For the penfold surrounded a hollowF
Which led where the eye scarce dared followF
And shelved to the chamber secludedK
Where Bluebeard the great lion broodedK
The King bailed his keeper an ArabL
As glossy and black as a scarabL
And bade him make sport and at once stirA
Up and out of his den the old monsterA
They opened a hole in the wire workM
Across it and dropped there a fireworkM
And fled one's heart's beating redoubledK
A pause while the pit's mouth was troubledK
The blackness and silence so utterA
By the firework's slow sparkling and sputterA
Then earth in a sudden contortionI
Gave out to our gaze her abortionI
Such a brute Were I friend Clement MarotK
Whose experience of nature's but narrowF
And whose faculties move in no small mistK
When he versifies David the PsalmistK
I should study that brute to describe youN
Illim Juda Leonem de TribuL
One's whole blood grew curdling and creepyD
To see the black mane vast and heapyD
The tail in the air stiff and strainingG
The wide eyes nor waxing nor waningG
As over the barrier which boundedK
His platform and us who surroundedK
The barrier they reached and they restedK
On space that might stand him in best steadK
For who knew he thought what the amazementK
The eruption of clatter and blaze meantK
And if in this minute of wonderA
No outlet 'mid lightning and thunderA
Lay broad and his shackles all shiveredK
The lion at last was deliveredK
Ay that was the open sky o'erheadK
And you saw by the flash on his foreheadK
By the hope in those eyes wide and steadyK
He was leagues in the desert alreadyK
Driving the flocks up the mountainI
Or catlike couched hard by the fountainI
To waylay the date gathering negressF
So guarded he entrance or egressF
How he stands '' quoth the King we may well swearA
No novice we've won our spurs elsewhereA
And so can afford the confessionI
We exercise wholesome discretionI
In keeping aloof from his thresholdK
Once hold you those jaws want no fresh holdK
Their first would too pleasantly purloinI
The visitor's brisket or surloinI
But who's he would prove so fool hardyK
Not the best man of Marignan pardie ''-
-
The sentence no sooner was utteredK
Than over the rails a glove flatteredK
Fell close to the lion and restedK
The dame 'twas who flung it and jestedK
With life so De Lorge had been wooingG
For months past he sat there pursuingG
His suit weighing out with nonchalanceF
Fine speeches like gold from a balanceF
-
Sound the trumpet no true knight's a tarrierA
De Lorge made one leap at the barrierA
Walked straight to the glove while the lionI
Neer moved kept his far reaching eye onI
The palm tree edged desert spring's sapphireA
And the musky oiled skin of the KaffirA
Picked it up and as calmly retreatedK
Leaped back where the lady was seatedK
And full in the face of its ownerA
Flung the gloveO
-
Your heart's queen you dethrone herA
So should I '' cried the King 'twas mere vanityK
Not love set that task to humanity ''-
Lords and ladies alike turned with loathingG
From such a proved wolf in sheep's clothingG
-
Not so I for I caught an expressionI
In her brow's undisturbed self possessionI
Amid the Court's scoffing and merrimentK
As if from no pleasing experimentK
She rose yet of pain not much heedfulF
So long as the process was needfulF
As if she had tried in a crucibleF
To what speeches like gold'' were reducibleF
And finding the finest prove copperA
Felt the smoke in her face was but properA
To know what she had not to trust toK
Was worth all the ashes and dust tooK
She went out 'mid hooting and laughterA
Clement Marot stayed I followed afterA
And asked as a grace what it all meantK
If she wished not the rash deed's recalmentK
For I'' so I spoke am a poetK
Human nature behoves that I know it ''-
-
She told me Too long had I heardK
Of the deed proved alone by the wordK
For my love what De Lorge would not dareA
With my scorn what De Lorge could compareA
And the endless descriptions of deathP
He would brave when my lip formed a breathP
I must reckon as braved or of courseF
Doubt his word and moreover perforceF
For such gifts as no lady could spurnI
Must offer my love in returnI
When I looked on your lion it broughtK
All the dangers at once to my thoughtK
Encountered by all sorts of menI
Before he was lodged in his denI
From the poor slave whose club or bare handsF
Dug the trap set the snare on the sandsF
With no King and no Court to applaudK
By no shame should he shrink overawedK
Yet to capture the creature made shiftK
That his rude boys might laugh at the giftK
To the page who last leaped o'er the fenceF
Of the pit on no greater pretenceF
Than to get back the bonnet he droppedK
Lest his pay for a week should be stoppedK
So wiser I judged it to makeQ
One trial what death for my sake'Q
Really meant while the power was yet mineI
Than to wait until time should defineI
Such a phrase not so simply as IR
Who took it to mean just to die '-
The blow a glove gives is but weakQ
Does the mark yet discolour my cheekQ
But when the heart suffers a blowF
Will the pain pass so soon do you know ''-
-
I looked as away she was sweepingQ
And saw a youth eagerly keepingQ
As close as he dared to the doorwayS
No doubt that a noble should more weighS
His life than befits a plebeianI
And yet had our brute been NemeanI
I judge by a certain calm fervourA
The youth stepped with forward to serve herA
He'd have scarce thought you did him the worst turnI
If you whispered Friend what you'd get first earn ''-
And when shortly after she carriedK
Her shame from the Court and they marriedK
To that marriage some happiness maugreA
The voice of the Court I dared augurA
-
For De Lorge he made women with men vieR
Those in wonder and praise these in envyK
And in short stood so plain a head tallerA
That he wooed and won how do you call herA
The beauty that rose in the sequelF
To the King's love who loved her a week wellF
And 'twas noticed he never would honourA
De Lorge who looked daggers upon herA
With the easy commission of stretchingQ
His legs in the service and fetchingQ
His wife from her chamber those strayingQ
Sad gloves she was always mislayingQ
While the King took the closet to chat inI
But of course this adventure came pat inI
And never the King told the storyA
How bringing a glove brought such gloryA
But the wife smiled His nerves are grown firmerA
Mine he brings now and utters no murmur ''-
-
Venienti occurrite morboL
With which moral I drop my theorboL
-
A beetleF

Robert Browning



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