Saul Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFF A GGH A HHHHIJHHHHHHKK F HHLLMM F NNOOHHPP F HHHQQRS F HHTTSSHHUUHHH F HHHHHHV Q HHWWXXYYZZA2A2HHB2B2 HHHGGC2C2YYGD2K Q QQQQHHE2E2F2F2HHHHGG HHHHGGH

IA
-
Said Abner At last thou art come Ere I tell ere thou speakB
Kiss my cheek wish me well '' Then I wished it and did kiss his cheekB
And he Since the King O my friend for thy countenance sentC
Neither drunken nor eaten have we nor until from his tentC
Thou return with the joyful assurance the King liveth yetD
Shall our lip with the honey be bright with the water be wetD
For out of the black mid tent's silence a space of three daysE
Not a sound hath escaped to thy servants of prayer nor of praiseE
To betoken that Saul and the Spirit have ended their strifeF
And that faint in his triumph the monarch sinks back upon lifeF
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IIA
-
Yet now my heart leaps O beloved God's child with his dewG
On thy gracious gold hair and those lilies still living and blueG
Just broken to twine round thy harp strings as if no wild beatH
Were now raging to torture the desert ''-
-
IIIA
-
Then I as was meetH
Knelt down to the God of my fathers and rose on my feetH
And ran o'er the sand burnt to powder The tent was unloopedH
I pulled up the spear that obstructed and under I stoopedH
Hands and knees on the slippery grass patch all withered and goneI
That extends to the second enclosure I groped my way onJ
Till I felt where the foldskirts fly open Then once more I prayedH
And opened the foldskirts and entered and was not afraidH
But spoke Here is David thy servant '' And no voice repliedH
At the first I saw nought but the blackness but soon I descriedH
A something more black than the blackness the vast the uprightH
Main prop which sustains the pavilion and slow into sightH
Grew a figure against it gigantic and blackest of allK
Then a sunbeam that burst thro' the tent roof showed SaulK
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IVF
-
He stood as erect as that tent prop both arms stretched out wideH
On the great cross support in the centre that goes to each sideH
He relaxed not a muscle but hung there as caught in his pangsL
And waiting his change the king serpent all heavily hangsL
Far away from his kind in the pine till deliverance comeM
With the spring time so agonized Saul drear and stark blind and dumbM
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VF
-
Then I tuned my harp took off the lilies we twine round its chordsN
Lest they snap 'neath the stress of the noon tide those sunbeams like swordsN
And I first played the tune all our sheep know as one after oneO
So docile they come to the pen door till folding be doneO
They are white and untorn by the bushes for lo they have fedH
Where the long grasses stifle the water within the stream's bedH
And now one after one seeks its lodging as star follows starP
Into eve and the blue far above us so blue and so farP
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VIF
-
Then the tune for which quails on the cornland will each leave his mateH
To fly after the player then what makes the crickets elateH
Till for boldness they fight one another and then what has weightH
To set the quick jerboa amusing outside his sand houseQ
There are none such as he for a wonder half bird and half mouseQ
God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fearR
To give sign we and they are his children one family hereS
-
-
VIIF
-
Then I played the help tune of our reapers their wine song when handH
Grasps at hand eye lights eye in good friendship and great hearts expandH
And grow one in the sense of this world's life And then the last songT
When the dead man is praised on his journey Bear bear him alongT
With his few faults shut up like dead flowerets Are balm seeds not hereS
To console us The land has none left such as he on the bierS
Oh would we might keep thee my brother '' And then the glad chauntH
Of the marriage first go the young maidens next she whom we vauntH
As the beauty the pride of our dwelling And then the great marchU
Wherein man runs to man to assist him and buttress an archU
Nought can break who shall harm them our friends Then the chorus intonedH
As the Levites go up to the altar in glory enthronedH
But I stopped here for here in the darkness Saul groanedH
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VIIIF
-
And I paused held my breath in such silence and listened apartH
And the tent shook for mighty Saul shuddered and sparkles 'gan dartH
From the jewels that woke in his turban at once with a startH
All its lordly male sapphires and rubies courageous at heartH
So the head but the body still moved not still hung there erectH
And I bent once again to my playing pursued it uncheckedH
As I sangV
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IXQ
-
Oh our manhood's prime vigour No spirit feels wasteH
Not a muscle is stopped in its playing nor sinew unbracedH
Oh the wild joys of living the leaping from rock up to rockW
The strong rending of boughs from the fir tree the cool silver shockW
Of the plunge in a pool's living water the hunt of the bearX
And the sultriness showing the lion is couched in his lairX
And the meal the rich dates yellowed over with gold dust divineY
And the locust flesh steeped in the pitcher the full draught of wineY
And the sleep in the dried river channel where bulrushes tellZ
That the water was wont to go warbling so softly and wellZ
How good is man's life the mere living how fit to employA2
All the heart and the soul and the senses for ever in joyA2
Hast thou loved the white locks of thy father whose sword thou didst guardH
When he trusted thee forth with the armies for glorious rewardH
Didst thou see the thin hands of thy mother held up as men sungB2
The low song of the nearly departed and bear her faint tongueB2
Joining in while it could to the witness Let one more attestH
I have lived seen God's hand thro'a lifetime and all was for best'H
Then they sung thro' their tears in strong triumph not much but the restH
And thy brothers the help and the contest the working whence grewG
Such result as from seething grape bundles the spirit strained trueG
And the friends of thy boyhood that boyhood of wonder and hopeC2
Present promise and wealth of the future beyond the eye's scopeC2
Till lo thou art grown to a monarch a people is thineY
And all gifts which the world offers singly on one head combineY
On one head all the beauty and strength love and rage like the throeG
That a work in the rock helps its labour and lets the gold goD2
High ambition and deeds which surpass it fame crowning them allK
Brought to blaze on the head of one creature King Saul ''-
-
XQ
-
And lo with that leap of my spirit heart hand harp and voiceQ
Each lifting Saul's name out of sorrow each bidding rejoiceQ
Saul's fame in the light it was made for as when dare I sayQ
The Lord's army in rapture of service strains through its arrayQ
And up soareth the cherubim chariot Saul '' cried I and stoppedH
And waited the thing that should follow Then Saul who hung proppedH
By the tent's cross support in the centre was struck by his nameE2
Have ye seen when Spring's arrowy summons goes right to the aimE2
And some mountain the last to withstand her that held he aloneF2
While the vale laughed in freedom and flowers on a broad bust of stoneF2
A year's snow bound about for a breastplate leaves grasp of the sheetH
Fold on fold all at once it crowds thunderously down to his feetH
And there fronts you stark black but alive yet your mountain of oldH
With his rents the successive bequeathings of ages untoldH
Yea each harm got in fighting your battles each furrow and scarG
Of his head thrust 'twixt you and the tempest all hail there they areG
Now again to be softened with verdure again hold the nestH
Of the dove tempt the goat and its young to the green on his crestH
For their food in the ardours of summer One long shudder thrilledH
All the tent till the very air tingled then sank and was stilledH
At the King's self left standing before me released and awareG
What was gone what remained All to traverse 'twixt hope and despairG
Death was past life not come so he waited Awhile his rightH

Robert Browning



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