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 FPETER RONSARD loquitur | A |
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Heigho '' yawned one day King Francis | B |
Distance all value enhances | C |
When a man's busy why leisure | A |
Strikes him as wonderful pleasure | A |
'Faith and at leisure once is he | D |
Straightway he wants to be busy | D |
Here we've got peace and aghast I'm | E |
Caught thinking war the true pastime | E |
Is there a reason in metre | A |
Give us your speech master Peter '' | - |
I who if mortal dare say so | F |
Ne'er am at loss with my Naso | F |
Sire '' I replied joys prove cloudlets | F |
Men are the merest Ixions'' | F |
Here the King whistled aloud Let's | F |
Heigho go look at our lions '' | - |
Such are the sorrowful chances | F |
If you talk fine to King Francis | F |
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And so to the courtyard proceeding | G |
Our company Francis was leading | G |
Increased by new followers tenfold | H |
Before be arrived at the penfold | H |
Lords ladies like clouds which bedizen | I |
At sunset the western horizon | I |
And Sir De Lorge pressed 'mid the foremost | J |
With the dame he professed to adore most | J |
Oh what a face One by fits eyed | K |
Her and the horrible pitside | K |
For the penfold surrounded a hollow | F |
Which led where the eye scarce dared follow | F |
And shelved to the chamber secluded | K |
Where Bluebeard the great lion brooded | K |
The King bailed his keeper an Arab | L |
As glossy and black as a scarab | L |
And bade him make sport and at once stir | A |
Up and out of his den the old monster | A |
They opened a hole in the wire work | M |
Across it and dropped there a firework | M |
And fled one's heart's beating redoubled | K |
A pause while the pit's mouth was troubled | K |
The blackness and silence so utter | A |
By the firework's slow sparkling and sputter | A |
Then earth in a sudden contortion | I |
Gave out to our gaze her abortion | I |
Such a brute Were I friend Clement Marot | K |
Whose experience of nature's but narrow | F |
And whose faculties move in no small mist | K |
When he versifies David the Psalmist | K |
I should study that brute to describe you | N |
Illim Juda Leonem de Tribu | L |
One's whole blood grew curdling and creepy | D |
To see the black mane vast and heapy | D |
The tail in the air stiff and straining | G |
The wide eyes nor waxing nor waning | G |
As over the barrier which bounded | K |
His platform and us who surrounded | K |
The barrier they reached and they rested | K |
On space that might stand him in best stead | K |
For who knew he thought what the amazement | K |
The eruption of clatter and blaze meant | K |
And if in this minute of wonder | A |
No outlet 'mid lightning and thunder | A |
Lay broad and his shackles all shivered | K |
The lion at last was delivered | K |
Ay that was the open sky o'erhead | K |
And you saw by the flash on his forehead | K |
By the hope in those eyes wide and steady | K |
He was leagues in the desert already | K |
Driving the flocks up the mountain | I |
Or catlike couched hard by the fountain | I |
To waylay the date gathering negress | F |
So guarded he entrance or egress | F |
How he stands '' quoth the King we may well swear | A |
No novice we've won our spurs elsewhere | A |
And so can afford the confession | I |
We exercise wholesome discretion | I |
In keeping aloof from his threshold | K |
Once hold you those jaws want no fresh hold | K |
Their first would too pleasantly purloin | I |
The visitor's brisket or surloin | I |
But who's he would prove so fool hardy | K |
Not the best man of Marignan pardie '' | - |
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The sentence no sooner was uttered | K |
Than over the rails a glove flattered | K |
Fell close to the lion and rested | K |
The dame 'twas who flung it and jested | K |
With life so De Lorge had been wooing | G |
For months past he sat there pursuing | G |
His suit weighing out with nonchalance | F |
Fine speeches like gold from a balance | F |
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Sound the trumpet no true knight's a tarrier | A |
De Lorge made one leap at the barrier | A |
Walked straight to the glove while the lion | I |
Neer moved kept his far reaching eye on | I |
The palm tree edged desert spring's sapphire | A |
And the musky oiled skin of the Kaffir | A |
Picked it up and as calmly retreated | K |
Leaped back where the lady was seated | K |
And full in the face of its owner | A |
Flung the glove | O |
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Your heart's queen you dethrone her | A |
So should I '' cried the King 'twas mere vanity | K |
Not love set that task to humanity '' | - |
Lords and ladies alike turned with loathing | G |
From such a proved wolf in sheep's clothing | G |
- | |
Not so I for I caught an expression | I |
In her brow's undisturbed self possession | I |
Amid the Court's scoffing and merriment | K |
As if from no pleasing experiment | K |
She rose yet of pain not much heedful | F |
So long as the process was needful | F |
As if she had tried in a crucible | F |
To what speeches like gold'' were reducible | F |
And finding the finest prove copper | A |
Felt the smoke in her face was but proper | A |
To know what she had not to trust to | K |
Was worth all the ashes and dust too | K |
She went out 'mid hooting and laughter | A |
Clement Marot stayed I followed after | A |
And asked as a grace what it all meant | K |
If she wished not the rash deed's recalment | K |
For I'' so I spoke am a poet | K |
Human nature behoves that I know it '' | - |
- | |
She told me Too long had I heard | K |
Of the deed proved alone by the word | K |
For my love what De Lorge would not dare | A |
With my scorn what De Lorge could compare | A |
And the endless descriptions of death | P |
He would brave when my lip formed a breath | P |
I must reckon as braved or of course | F |
Doubt his word and moreover perforce | F |
For such gifts as no lady could spurn | I |
Must offer my love in return | I |
When I looked on your lion it brought | K |
All the dangers at once to my thought | K |
Encountered by all sorts of men | I |
Before he was lodged in his den | I |
From the poor slave whose club or bare hands | F |
Dug the trap set the snare on the sands | F |
With no King and no Court to applaud | K |
By no shame should he shrink overawed | K |
Yet to capture the creature made shift | K |
That his rude boys might laugh at the gift | K |
To the page who last leaped o'er the fence | F |
Of the pit on no greater pretence | F |
Than to get back the bonnet he dropped | K |
Lest his pay for a week should be stopped | K |
So wiser I judged it to make | Q |
One trial what death for my sake' | Q |
Really meant while the power was yet mine | I |
Than to wait until time should define | I |
Such a phrase not so simply as I | R |
Who took it to mean just to die ' | - |
The blow a glove gives is but weak | Q |
Does the mark yet discolour my cheek | Q |
But when the heart suffers a blow | F |
Will the pain pass so soon do you know '' | - |
- | |
I looked as away she was sweeping | Q |
And saw a youth eagerly keeping | Q |
As close as he dared to the doorway | S |
No doubt that a noble should more weigh | S |
His life than befits a plebeian | I |
And yet had our brute been Nemean | I |
I judge by a certain calm fervour | A |
The youth stepped with forward to serve her | A |
He'd have scarce thought you did him the worst turn | I |
If you whispered Friend what you'd get first earn '' | - |
And when shortly after she carried | K |
Her shame from the Court and they married | K |
To that marriage some happiness maugre | A |
The voice of the Court I dared augur | A |
- | |
For De Lorge he made women with men vie | R |
Those in wonder and praise these in envy | K |
And in short stood so plain a head taller | A |
That he wooed and won how do you call her | A |
The beauty that rose in the sequel | F |
To the King's love who loved her a week well | F |
And 'twas noticed he never would honour | A |
De Lorge who looked daggers upon her | A |
With the easy commission of stretching | Q |
His legs in the service and fetching | Q |
His wife from her chamber those straying | Q |
Sad gloves she was always mislaying | Q |
While the King took the closet to chat in | I |
But of course this adventure came pat in | I |
And never the King told the story | A |
How bringing a glove brought such glory | A |
But the wife smiled His nerves are grown firmer | A |
Mine he brings now and utters no murmur '' | - |
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Venienti occurrite morbo | L |
With which moral I drop my theorbo | L |
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A beetle | F |
Robert Browning
(1)
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