Jerusalem Delivered - Book 03 - Part 02 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCBDEE AFGFGFGHH AIJKJKJDD KHHHHHHJJ KLALAMAKKKNHNHNHKK KKOKOKOPP KHFHFHFKK AHKHKHKHH AKHKHKHHH AFHQHFHHH FHFHFHFKK FRKRKRKEE KKSKTKTHH KFHFHFHHHXVI | A |
Soon was the prey out of their hands recovered | B |
By step and step the Frenchmen gan retire | C |
Till on a little hill at last they hovered | B |
Whose strength preserved them from Clorinda's ire | C |
When as a tempest that hath long been covered | B |
In watery clouds breaks out with sparkling fire | D |
With his strong squadron Lord Tancredi came | E |
His heart with rage his eyes with courage flame | E |
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XVII | A |
Mast great the spear was which the gallant bore | F |
That in his warlike pride he made to shake | G |
As winds tall cedars toss on mountains hoar | F |
The king that wondered at his bravery spake | G |
To her that near him seated was before | F |
Who felt her heart with love's hot fever quake | G |
Well shouldst thou know quoth he each Christian knight | H |
By long acquaintance though in armor dight | H |
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XVIII | A |
Say who is he shows so great worthiness | I |
That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell | J |
To this the princess said nor more nor less | K |
Her heart with sighs her eyes with tears did swell | J |
But sighs and tears she wisely could suppress | K |
Her love and passion she dissembled well | J |
And strove her love and hot desire to cover | D |
Till heart with sighs and eyes with tears ran over | D |
- | |
XIX | K |
At last she spoke and with a crafty sleight | H |
Her secret love disguised in clothes of hate | H |
Alas too well she says I know that knight | H |
I saw his force and courage proved late | H |
Too late I viewed him when his power and might | H |
Shook down the pillar of Cassanoe's state | H |
Alas what wounds he gives how fierce how fell | J |
No physic helps them cure nor magic's spell | J |
- | |
XX | K |
Tancred he hight O Macon would he wear | L |
My thrall ere fates him of this life deprive | A |
For to his hateful head such spite I bear | L |
I would him reave his cruel heart on live | A |
Thus said she they that her complainings hear | M |
In other sense her wishes credit give | A |
She sighed withal they construed all amiss | K |
And thought she wished to kill who longed to kiss | K |
XXI | K |
This while forth pricked Clorinda from the throng | N |
And 'gainst Tancredi set her spear in rest | H |
Upon their helms they cracked their lances long | N |
And from her head her gilden casque he kest | H |
For every lace he broke and every thong | N |
And in the dust threw down her plumed crest | H |
About her shoulders shone her golden locks | K |
Like sunny beams on alabaster rocks | K |
- | |
XXII | K |
Her looks with fire her eyes with lightning blaze | K |
Sweet was her wrath what then would be her smile | O |
Tancred whereon think'st thou what dost thou gaze | K |
Hast thou forgot her in so short a while | O |
The same is she the shape of whose sweet face | K |
The God of Love did in thy heart compile | O |
The same that left thee by the cooling stream | P |
Safe from sun's heat but scorched with beauty's beam | P |
- | |
XXIII | K |
The prince well knew her though her painted shield | H |
And golden helm he had not marked before | F |
She saved her head and with her axe well steeled | H |
Assailed the knight but her the knight forbore | F |
'Gainst other foes he proved him through the field | H |
Yet she for that refrained ne'er the more | F |
But following Turn thee cried in ireful wise | K |
And so at once she threats to kill him twice | K |
- | |
XXIV | A |
Not once the baron lifts his armed hand | H |
To strike the maid but gazing on her eyes | K |
Where lordly Cupid seemed in arms to stand | H |
No way to ward or shun her blows he tries | K |
But softly says No stroke of thy strong hand | H |
Can vanquish Tancred but thy conquest lies | K |
In those fair eyes which fiery weapons dart | H |
That find no lighting place except this heart | H |
- | |
XXV | A |
At last resolved although he hoped small grace | K |
Yet ere he did to tell how much he loved | H |
For pleasing words in women's ears find place | K |
And gentle hearts with humble suits are moved | H |
O thou quoth he withhold thy wrath a space | K |
For if thou long to see my valor proved | H |
Were it not better from this warlike rout | H |
Withdrawn somewhere alone to fight it out | H |
- | |
XXVI | A |
So singled may we both our courage try | F |
Clorinda to that motion yielded glad | H |
And helmless to the forestward gan hie | Q |
Whither the prince right pensive wend and sad | H |
And there the virgin gan him soon defy | F |
One blow she strucken and he warded had | H |
When he cried Hold and ere we prove our might | H |
First hear thou some conditions of the fight | H |
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XXVII | F |
She stayed and desperate love had made him bold | H |
Since from the fight thou wilt no respite give | F |
The covenants be he said that thou unfold | H |
This wretched bosom and my heart out rive | F |
Given thee long since and if thou cruel would | H |
I should be dead let me no longer live | F |
But pierce this breast that all the world may say | K |
The eagle made the turtle dove her prey | K |
- | |
XXVIII | F |
Save with thy grace or let thine anger kill | R |
Love hath disarmed my life of all defence | K |
An easy labor harmless blood to spill | R |
Strike then and punish where is none offence | K |
This said the prince and more perchance had will | R |
To have declared to move her cruel sense | K |
But in ill time of Pagans thither came | E |
A troop and Christians that pursued the same | E |
- | |
XXIX | K |
The Pagans fled before their valiant foes | K |
For dread or craft it skills not that we know | S |
A soldier wild careless to win or lose | K |
Saw where her locks about the damsel flew | T |
And at her back he proffereth as he goes | K |
To strike where her he did disarmed view | T |
But Tancred cried Oh stay thy cursed hand | H |
And for to ward the blow lift up his brand | H |
- | |
XXX | K |
But yet the cutting steel arrived there | F |
Where her fair neck adjoined her noble head | H |
Light was the wound but through her amber hair | F |
The purple drops down railed bloody red | H |
So rubies set in flaming gold appear | F |
But Lord Tancredi pale with rage as lead | H |
Flew on the villain who to flight him bound | H |
The smart was his though she received the wound | H |
Torquato Tasso
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