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 HHHHGGHI | A |
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Said Abner At last thou art come Ere I tell ere thou speak | B |
Kiss my cheek wish me well '' Then I wished it and did kiss his cheek | B |
And he Since the King O my friend for thy countenance sent | C |
Neither drunken nor eaten have we nor until from his tent | C |
Thou return with the joyful assurance the King liveth yet | D |
Shall our lip with the honey be bright with the water be wet | D |
For out of the black mid tent's silence a space of three days | E |
Not a sound hath escaped to thy servants of prayer nor of praise | E |
To betoken that Saul and the Spirit have ended their strife | F |
And that faint in his triumph the monarch sinks back upon life | F |
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II | A |
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Yet now my heart leaps O beloved God's child with his dew | G |
On thy gracious gold hair and those lilies still living and blue | G |
Just broken to twine round thy harp strings as if no wild beat | H |
Were now raging to torture the desert '' | - |
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III | A |
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Then I as was meet | H |
Knelt down to the God of my fathers and rose on my feet | H |
And ran o'er the sand burnt to powder The tent was unlooped | H |
I pulled up the spear that obstructed and under I stooped | H |
Hands and knees on the slippery grass patch all withered and gone | I |
That extends to the second enclosure I groped my way on | J |
Till I felt where the foldskirts fly open Then once more I prayed | H |
And opened the foldskirts and entered and was not afraid | H |
But spoke Here is David thy servant '' And no voice replied | H |
At the first I saw nought but the blackness but soon I descried | H |
A something more black than the blackness the vast the upright | H |
Main prop which sustains the pavilion and slow into sight | H |
Grew a figure against it gigantic and blackest of all | K |
Then a sunbeam that burst thro' the tent roof showed Saul | K |
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IV | F |
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He stood as erect as that tent prop both arms stretched out wide | H |
On the great cross support in the centre that goes to each side | H |
He relaxed not a muscle but hung there as caught in his pangs | L |
And waiting his change the king serpent all heavily hangs | L |
Far away from his kind in the pine till deliverance come | M |
With the spring time so agonized Saul drear and stark blind and dumb | M |
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V | F |
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Then I tuned my harp took off the lilies we twine round its chords | N |
Lest they snap 'neath the stress of the noon tide those sunbeams like swords | N |
And I first played the tune all our sheep know as one after one | O |
So docile they come to the pen door till folding be done | O |
They are white and untorn by the bushes for lo they have fed | H |
Where the long grasses stifle the water within the stream's bed | H |
And now one after one seeks its lodging as star follows star | P |
Into eve and the blue far above us so blue and so far | P |
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VI | F |
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Then the tune for which quails on the cornland will each leave his mate | H |
To fly after the player then what makes the crickets elate | H |
Till for boldness they fight one another and then what has weight | H |
To set the quick jerboa amusing outside his sand house | Q |
There are none such as he for a wonder half bird and half mouse | Q |
God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear | R |
To give sign we and they are his children one family here | S |
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VII | F |
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Then I played the help tune of our reapers their wine song when hand | H |
Grasps at hand eye lights eye in good friendship and great hearts expand | H |
And grow one in the sense of this world's life And then the last song | T |
When the dead man is praised on his journey Bear bear him along | T |
With his few faults shut up like dead flowerets Are balm seeds not here | S |
To console us The land has none left such as he on the bier | S |
Oh would we might keep thee my brother '' And then the glad chaunt | H |
Of the marriage first go the young maidens next she whom we vaunt | H |
As the beauty the pride of our dwelling And then the great march | U |
Wherein man runs to man to assist him and buttress an arch | U |
Nought can break who shall harm them our friends Then the chorus intoned | H |
As the Levites go up to the altar in glory enthroned | H |
But I stopped here for here in the darkness Saul groaned | H |
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VIII | F |
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And I paused held my breath in such silence and listened apart | H |
And the tent shook for mighty Saul shuddered and sparkles 'gan dart | H |
From the jewels that woke in his turban at once with a start | H |
All its lordly male sapphires and rubies courageous at heart | H |
So the head but the body still moved not still hung there erect | H |
And I bent once again to my playing pursued it unchecked | H |
As I sang | V |
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IX | Q |
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Oh our manhood's prime vigour No spirit feels waste | H |
Not a muscle is stopped in its playing nor sinew unbraced | H |
Oh the wild joys of living the leaping from rock up to rock | W |
The strong rending of boughs from the fir tree the cool silver shock | W |
Of the plunge in a pool's living water the hunt of the bear | X |
And the sultriness showing the lion is couched in his lair | X |
And the meal the rich dates yellowed over with gold dust divine | Y |
And the locust flesh steeped in the pitcher the full draught of wine | Y |
And the sleep in the dried river channel where bulrushes tell | Z |
That the water was wont to go warbling so softly and well | Z |
How good is man's life the mere living how fit to employ | A2 |
All the heart and the soul and the senses for ever in joy | A2 |
Hast thou loved the white locks of thy father whose sword thou didst guard | H |
When he trusted thee forth with the armies for glorious reward | H |
Didst thou see the thin hands of thy mother held up as men sung | B2 |
The low song of the nearly departed and bear her faint tongue | B2 |
Joining in while it could to the witness Let one more attest | H |
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 rest | H |
And thy brothers the help and the contest the working whence grew | G |
Such result as from seething grape bundles the spirit strained true | G |
And the friends of thy boyhood that boyhood of wonder and hope | C2 |
Present promise and wealth of the future beyond the eye's scope | C2 |
Till lo thou art grown to a monarch a people is thine | Y |
And all gifts which the world offers singly on one head combine | Y |
On one head all the beauty and strength love and rage like the throe | G |
That a work in the rock helps its labour and lets the gold go | D2 |
High ambition and deeds which surpass it fame crowning them all | K |
Brought to blaze on the head of one creature King Saul '' | - |
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X | Q |
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And lo with that leap of my spirit heart hand harp and voice | Q |
Each lifting Saul's name out of sorrow each bidding rejoice | Q |
Saul's fame in the light it was made for as when dare I say | Q |
The Lord's army in rapture of service strains through its array | Q |
And up soareth the cherubim chariot Saul '' cried I and stopped | H |
And waited the thing that should follow Then Saul who hung propped | H |
By the tent's cross support in the centre was struck by his name | E2 |
Have ye seen when Spring's arrowy summons goes right to the aim | E2 |
And some mountain the last to withstand her that held he alone | F2 |
While the vale laughed in freedom and flowers on a broad bust of stone | F2 |
A year's snow bound about for a breastplate leaves grasp of the sheet | H |
Fold on fold all at once it crowds thunderously down to his feet | H |
And there fronts you stark black but alive yet your mountain of old | H |
With his rents the successive bequeathings of ages untold | H |
Yea each harm got in fighting your battles each furrow and scar | G |
Of his head thrust 'twixt you and the tempest all hail there they are | G |
Now again to be softened with verdure again hold the nest | H |
Of the dove tempt the goat and its young to the green on his crest | H |
For their food in the ardours of summer One long shudder thrilled | H |
All the tent till the very air tingled then sank and was stilled | H |
At the King's self left standing before me released and aware | G |
What was gone what remained All to traverse 'twixt hope and despair | G |
Death was past life not come so he waited Awhile his right | H |
Robert Browning
(1)
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