Marmion: Canto Ii. - The Convent Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Sir Walter Scott

Marmion: Canto Ii. - The Convent Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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I	A
	-
The breeze which swept away the smoke	B
Round Norham Castle rolled	C
When all the loud artillery spoke	B
With lightning flash and thunder stroke	B
As Marmion left the hold	C
It curled not Tweed alone that breeze	D
For far upon Northumbrian seas	D
It freshly blew and strong	E
Where from high Whitby's cloistered pile	F
Bound to St Cuthbert's holy isle	F
It bore a barque along	E
Upon the gale she stooped her side	G
And bounded o'er the swelling tide	G
As she were dancing home	H
The merry seamen laughed to see	I
Their gallant ship so lustily	F
Furrow the green sea foam	H
Much joyed they in their honoured freight	J
For on the deck in chair of state	J
The Abbess of Saint Hilda placed	K
With five fair nuns the galley graced	K
	-
II	A
	-
'Twas sweet to see these holy maids	L
Like birds escaped to greenwood shades	L
Their first flight from the cage	M
How timid and how curious too	N
For all to them was strange and new	N
And all the common sights they view	N
Their wonderment engage	M
One eyed the shrouds and swelling sail	F
With many a benedicite	N
One at the rippling surge grew pale	F
And would for terror pray	O
Then shrieked because the sea dog nigh	A
His round black head and sparkling eye	A
Reared o'er the foaming spray	O
And one would still adjust her veil	F
Disordered by the summer gale	F
Perchance lest some more worldly eye	A
Her dedicated charms might spy	A
Perchance because such action graced	N
Her fair turned arm and slender waist	N
Light was each simple bosom there	P
Save two who ill might pleasure share	P
The Abbess and the novice Clare	P
	-
III	A
	-
The Abbess was of noble blood	N
But early took the veil and hood	N
Ere upon life she cast a look	Q
Or knew the world that she forsook	Q
Fair too she was and kind had been	R
As she was fair but ne'er had seen	S
For her a timid lover sigh	A
Nor knew the influence of her eye	A
Love to her ear was but a name	T
Combined with vanity and shame	T
Her hopes her fears her joys were all	F
Bounded within the cloister wall	F
The deadliest sin her mind could reach	U
Was of monastic rule the breach	U
And her ambition's highest aim	T
To emulate Saint Hilda's fame	T
For this she gave her ample dower	V
To raise the convent's eastern tower	W
For this with carving rare and quaint	N
She decked the chapel of the saint	N
And gave the relic shrine of cost	N
With ivory and gems embossed	N
The poor her convent's bounty blest	N
The pilgrim in its halls found rest	N
	-
IV	A
	-
Black was her garb her rigid rule	F
Reformed on Benedictine school	F
Her cheek was pale her form was spare	P
Vigils and penitence austere	X
Had early quenched the light of youth	Y
But gentle was the dame in sooth	Y
Though vain of her religious sway	O
She loved to see her maids obey	O
Yet nothing stern was she in cell	F
And the nuns loved their Abbess well	F
Sad was this voyage to the dame	T
Summoned to Lindisfarne she came	T
There with Saint Cuthbert's Abbot old	N
And Tynemouth's Prioress to hold	N
A chapter of Saint Benedict	N
For inquisition stern and strict	N
On two apostates from the faith	Y
And if need were to doom to death	Y
	-
V	A
	-
Nought say I here of Sister Clare	P
Save this that she was young and fair	P
As yet a novice unprofessed	N
Lovely and gentle but distressed	N
She was betrothed to one now dead	N
Or worse who had dishonoured fled	N
Her kinsmen bade her give her hand	N
To one who loved her for her land	N
Herself almost heart broken now	Z
Was bent to take the vestal vow	Z
And shroud within Saint Hilda's gloom	A2
Her blasted hopes and withered bloom	A2
	-
VI	A
	-
She sate upon the galley's prow	Z
And seemed to mark the waves below	F
Nay seemed so fixed her look and eye	A
To count them as they glided by	A
She saw them not 'twas seeming all	F
Far other scene her thoughts recall	F
A sun scorched desert waste and bare	P
Nor waves nor breezes murmured there	P
There saw she where some careless hand	N
O'er a dead corpse had heaped the sand	N
To hide it till the jackals come	B2
To tear it from the scanty tomb	A2
See what a woful look was given	C2
As she raised up her eyes to heaven	C2
	-
VII	A
	-
Lovely and gentle and distressed	N
These charms might tame the fiercest breast	N
Harpers have sung and poets told	N
That he in fury uncontrolled	N
The shaggy monarch of the wood	N
Before a virgin fair and good	N
Hath pacified his savage mood	N
But passions in the human frame	T
Oft put the lion's rage to shame	T
And jealousy by dark intrigue	D2
With sordid avarice in league	D2
Had practised with their bowl and knife	A
Against the mourner's harmless life	A
This crime was charged 'gainst those who lay	O
Prisoned in Cuthbert's islet grey	O
	-
VIII	A
	-
And now the vessel skirts the strand	N
Of mountainous Northumberland	N
Towns towers and halls successive rise	E2
And catch the nuns' delighted eyes	E2
Monkwearmouth soon behind them lay	O
And Tynemouth's priory and bay	O
They marked amid her trees the hall	F
Of lofty Seaton Delaval	F
They saw the Blythe and Wansbeck floods	F2
Rush to the sea through sounding woods	G2
They passed the tower of Widderington	C2
Mother of many a valiant son	C2
At Coquet Isle their beads they tell	F
To the good saint who owned the cell	F
Then did the Alne attention claim	T
And Warkworth proud of Percy's name	T
And next they crossed themselves to hear	H2
The whitening breakers sound so near	X
Where boiling through the rocks they roar	I2
On Dunstanborough's caverned shore	I2
Thy tower proud Bamborough marked they there	P
King Ida's castle huge and square	P
From its tall rock look grimly down	C2
And on the swelling ocean frown	C2
Then from the coast they bore away	O
And reached the Holy Island's bay	O
	-
IX	G2
	-
The tide did now its floodmark gain	C2
And girdled in the saint's domain	C2
For with the flow and ebb its style	F
Varies from continent to isle	F
Dry shod o'er sands twice every day	O
The pilgrims to the shrine find way	O
Twice every day the waves efface	G2
Of staves and sandalled feet the trace	G2
As to the port the galley flew	N
Higher and higher rose to view	N
The castle with its battled walls	G2
The ancient monastery's halls	G2
A solemn huge and dark red pile	F
Placed on the margin of the isle	F
	-
X	G2
	-
In Saxon strength that abbey frowned	N
With massive arches broad and round	N
That rose alternate row and row	F
On ponderous columns short and low	F
Built ere the art was known	C2
By pointed aisle and shafted stalk	J2
The arcades of an alleyed walk	J2
To emulate in stone	C2
On the deep walls the heathen Dane	C2
Had poured his impious rage in vain	C2
And needful was such strength to these	G2
Exposed to the tempestuous seas	G2
Scourged by the winds' eternal sway	O
Open to rovers fierce as they	O
Which could twelve hundred years withstand	N
Winds waves and northern pirates' hand	N
Not but that portions of the pile	F
Rebuilded in a later style	F
Showed where the spoiler's hand had been	C2
Not hut the wasting sea breeze keen	C2
Had worn the pillar's carving quaint	N
And mouldered in his niche the saint	N
And rounded with consuming power	W
The pointed angles of each tower	W
Yet still entire the abbey stood	N
Like veteran worn but unsubdued	N
	-
XI	G2
	-
Soon as they neared his turrets strong	E
The maidens raised Saint Hilda's song	E
And with the sea wave and the wind	N
Their voices sweetly shrill combined	N
And made harmonious close	G2
Then answering from the sandy shore	I2
Half drowned amid the breakers' roar	I2
According chorus rose	G2
Down to the haven of the isle	F
The monks and nuns in order file	F
From Cuthbert's cloisters grim	K2
Banner and cross and relics there	P
To meet Saint Hilda's maids they bare	P
And as they caught the sounds on air	P
They echoed back the hymn	K2
The islanders in joyous mood	N
Rushed emulously through the flood	N
To hale the barque to land	N
Conspicuous by her veil and hood	N
Signing the cross the Abbess stood	N
And blessed them with her hand	N
	-
XII	G2
	-
Suppose we now the welcome said	N
Suppose the convent banquet made	N
All through the holy dome	H
Through cloister aisle and gallery	G2
Wherever ves	G2