The Jacquerie: A Fragment: Chapter I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEFCGHIJKCCLMMC NCCOPQCCRCSCTUVCCWCX YZA2B2KCCC2D2CE2CCF2 RCG2CCCCCH2CCCCCI2J2 K2L2YM2CJ2N2I2CCJ2O2 B2CCP2F2CSIF2Q2P2P2E I2YR2OS2CCP2T2CU2QV2 CCW2F2CCX2Y2Z2A3CCB3 CYC3P2CS2S2Z2Z2CCCCC EED3E3RZ2F3G3F2EP2U2 I2CCCP2EX2Z2U2H3CI3J 3| Once on a time a Dawn all red and bright | A |
| Leapt on the conquered ramparts of the Night | A |
| And flamed one brilliant instant on the world | B |
| Then back into the historic moat was hurled | B |
| And Night was King again for many years | C |
| Once on a time the Rose of Spring blushed out | D |
| But Winter angrily withdrew it back | E |
| Into his rough new bursten husk and shut | F |
| The stern husk leaves and hid it many years | C |
| Once Famine tricked himself with ears of corn | G |
| And Hate strung flowers on his spiked belt | H |
| And glum Revenge in silver lilies pranked him | I |
| And Lust put violets on his shameless front | J |
| And all minced forth o' the street like holiday folk | K |
| That sally off afield on Summer morns | C |
| Once certain hounds that knew of many a chase | C |
| And bare great wounds of antler and of tusk | L |
| That they had ta'en to give a lord some sport | M |
| Good hounds that would have died to give lords sport | M |
| Were so bewrayed and kicked by these same lords | C |
| That all the pack turned tooth o' the knights and bit | N |
| As knights had been no better things than boars | C |
| And took revenge as bloody as a man's | C |
| Unhoundlike sudden hot i' the chops and sweet | O |
| Once sat a falcon on a lady's wrist | P |
| Seeming to doze with wrinkled eye lid drawn | Q |
| But dreaming hard of hoods and slaveries | C |
| And of dim hungers in his heart and wings | C |
| Then while the mistress gazed above for game | R |
| Sudden he flew into her painted face | C |
| And hooked his horn claws in her lily throat | S |
| And drove his beak into her lips and eyes | C |
| In fierce and hawkish kissing that did scar | T |
| And mar the lady's beauty evermore | U |
| And once while Chivalry stood tall and lithe | V |
| And flashed his sword above the stricken eyes | C |
| Of all the simple peasant folk of France | C |
| While Thought was keen and hot and quick | W |
| And did not play as in these later days | C |
| Like summer lightning flickering in the west | X |
| As little dreadful as if glow worms lay | Y |
| In the cool and watery clouds and glimmered weak | Z |
| But gleamed and struck at once or oak or man | A2 |
| And left not space for Time to wave his wing | B2 |
| Betwixt the instantaneous flash and stroke | K |
| While yet the needs of life were brave and fierce | C |
| And did not hide their deeds behind their words | C |
| And logic came not 'twixt desire and act | C2 |
| And Want and Take was the whole Form of life | D2 |
| While Love had fires a burning in his veins | C |
| And hidden Hate could flash into revenge | E2 |
| Ere yet young Trade was 'ware of his big thews | C |
| Or dreamed that in the bolder afterdays | C |
| He would hew down and bind old Chivalry | F2 |
| And drag him to the highest height of fame | R |
| And plunge him thence in the sea of still Romance | C |
| To lie for aye in never rusted mail | G2 |
| Gleaming through quiet ripples of soft songs | C |
| And sheens of old traditionary tales | C |
| On such a time a certain May arose | C |
| From out that blue Sea that between five lands | C |
| Lies like a violet midst of five large leaves | C |
| Arose from out this violet and flew on | H2 |
| And stirred the spirits of the woods of France | C |
| And smoothed the brows of moody Auvergne hills | C |
| And wrought warm sea tints into maidens' eyes | C |
| And calmed the wordy air of market towns | C |
| With faint suggestions blown from distant buds | C |
| Until the land seemed a mere dream of land | I2 |
| And in this dream field Life sat like a dove | J2 |
| And cooed across unto her dove mate Death | K2 |
| Brooding pathetic by a river lone | L2 |
| Oh sharper tangs pierced through this perfumed May | Y |
| Strange aches sailed by with odors on the wind | M2 |
| As when we kneel in flowers that grow on graves | C |
| Of friends who died unworthy of our love | J2 |
| King John of France was proving such an ache | N2 |
| In English prisons wide and fair and grand | I2 |
| Whose long expanses of green park and chace | C |
| Did ape large liberty with such success | C |
| As smiles of irony ape smiles of love | J2 |
| Down from the oaks of Hertford Castle park | O2 |
| Double with warm rose breaths of southern Spring | B2 |
| Came rumors as if odors too had thorns | C |
| Sharp rumors how the three Estates of France | C |
| Like old Three headed Cerberus of Hell | P2 |
| Had set upon the Duke of Normandy | F2 |
| Their rightful Regent snarled in his great face | C |
| Snapped jagged teeth in inch breadth of his throat | S |
| And blown such hot and savage breath upon him | I |
| That he had tossed great sops of royalty | F2 |
| Unto the clamorous three mawed baying beast | Q2 |
| And was not further on his way withal | P2 |
| And had but changed a snarl into a growl | P2 |
| How Arnold de Cervolles had ta'en the track | E |
| That war had burned along the unhappy land | I2 |
| Shouting 'since France is then too poor to pay | Y |
| The soldiers that have bloody devoir done | R2 |
| And since needs must pardie a man must eat | O |
| Arm gentlemen swords slice as well as knives ' | S2 |
| And so had tempted stout men from the ranks | C |
| And now was adding robbers' waste to war's | C |
| Stealing the leavings of remorseless battle | P2 |
| And making gaunter the gaunt bones of want | T2 |
| How this Cervolles called Arch priest by the mass | C |
| Through warm Provence had marched and menace made | U2 |
| Against Pope Innocent at Avignon | Q |
| And how the Pope nor ate nor drank nor slept | V2 |
| Through godly fear concerning his red wines | C |
| For if these knaves should sack his holy house | C |
| And all the blessed casks be knocked o' the head | W2 |
| HORRENDUM all his Holiness' drink to be | F2 |
| Profanely guzzled down the reeking throats | C |
| Of scoundrels and inflame them on to seize | C |
| The massy coffers of the Church's gold | X2 |
| And steal mayhap the carven silver shrine | Y2 |
| And all the golden crucifixes No | Z2 |
| And so the holy father Pope made stir | A3 |
| And had sent forth a legate to Cervolles | C |
| And treated with him and made compromise | C |
| And last had bidden all the Arch priest's troop | B3 |
| To come and banquet with him in his house | C |
| Where they did wassail high by night and day | Y |
| And Father Pope sat at the board and carved | C3 |
| Midst jokes that flowed full greasily | P2 |
| And priest and soldier trolled good songs for mass | C |
| And all the prayers the Priests made were 'pray drink ' | S2 |
| And all the oaths the Soldiers swore were 'drink ' | S2 |
| Till Mirth sat like a jaunty postillon | Z2 |
| Upon the back of Time and urged him on | Z2 |
| With piquant spur past chapel and past cross | C |
| How Charles King of Navarre in long duress | C |
| By mandate of King John within the walls | C |
| Of Crevacoeur and then of strong Alleres | C |
| In faithful ward of Sir Tristan du Bois | C |
| Was now escaped had supped with Guy Kyrec | E |
| Had now a pardon of the Regent Duke | E |
| By half compulsion of a Paris mob | D3 |
| Had turned the people's love upon himself | E3 |
| By smooth harangues and now was bold to claim | R |
| That France was not the Kingdom of King John | Z2 |
| But By our Lady his by right and worth | F3 |
| And so was plotting treason in the State | G3 |
| And laughing at weak Charles of Normandy | F2 |
| Nay these had been like good news to the King | E |
| Were any man but bold enough to tell | P2 |
| The King what bitter sayings men had made | U2 |
| And hawked augmenting up and down the land | I2 |
| Against the barons and great lords of France | C |
| That fled from English arrows at Poictiers | C |
| POICTIERS POICTIERS this grain i' the eye of France | C |
| Had swelled it to a big and bloodshot ball | P2 |
| That looked with rage upon a world askew | E |
| Poictiers' disgrace was now but two years old | X2 |
| Yet so outrageous rank and full was grown | Z2 |
| That France was wholly overspread with shade | U2 |
| And bitter fruits lay on the untilled ground | H3 |
| That stank and bred so foul contagious smells | C |
| That not a nose in France but stood awry | I3 |
| Nor boor that cried not FAUGH upon the air | J3 |
Sidney Lanier
(1)
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About The Jacquerie: A Fragment: Chapter I
The Jacquerie: A Fragment: Chapter I is a poem by Sidney Lanier. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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