Marmion: Canto Ii. - The Convent Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBBCDDEFFEGGHIFHJJK K A LLMNNNMFNFOAAOFFAANN PPP A NNQQRSAATTFFUUTTVWNN NNNN A FFPXYYOOFFTTNNNNYY A PPNNNNNNZZA2A2 A ZFAAFFPPNNB2A2C2C2 A NNNNNNNTTD2D2AAOO A NNE2E2OOFFF2G2C2C2FF TTH2XI2I2PPC2C2OO G2 C2C2FFOOG2G2NNG2G2FF G2 NNFFC2J2J2C2C2C2G2G2 OONNFFC2C2NNWWNN G2 EENNG2I2I2G2FFK2PPPK 2NNNNNN G2 NNHG2G2I | A |
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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 |
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II | A |
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'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 |
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III | A |
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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 |
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IV | A |
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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 |
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V | A |
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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 |
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VI | A |
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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 |
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VII | A |
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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 |
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VIII | A |
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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 |
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IX | G2 |
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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 |
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X | G2 |
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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 |
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XI | G2 |
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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 |
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XII | G2 |
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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 |
Sir Walter Scott
(1)
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