Griselda: A Society Novel In Verse - Chapter I Poem Rhyme Scheme

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An idle story with an idle moral	A
Why do I tell it at the risk of quarrel	A
With nobler themes The world alas is so	B
And who would gather truth must bend him low	B
Nor fear to soil his knees with graveyard ground	C
If haply there some flower of truth be found	C
For human nature is an earthy fruit	D
Mired at the stem and fleshy at the root	D
And thrives with folly's mixon best o'erlaid	D
Nor less divinely so when all is said	D
Brave lives are lived and worthy deeds are done	E
Each virtuous day 'neath the all pitying sun	E
But these are not the most perhaps not even	F
The surest road to our soul's modern Heaven	E
The best of us are creatures of God's chance	G
Call it His grace which works deliverance	H
The rest mere pendulums 'twixt good and ill	I
Like soldiers marking time while standing still	I
'Tis all their strategy who have lost faith	J
In things Divine beyond Man's life and death	K
Pleasure and pain Of Heaven what know we	L
Save as unfit for angels' company	L
Say rather Hell's We cling to sins confessed	D
And say our prayers still hoping for the best	D
We fear old age and ugliness and pain	M
And love our lives nor look to live again	N
	-
I do but parable the crowd I know	B
The human cattle grazing as they go	B
Unheedful of the heavens Here and there	O
Some prouder may be or less hungry steer	P
Lifting his face an instant to the sky	Q
And left behind as the bent herd goes by	Q
Or stung to a short madness tossing wild	D
His horns aloft and charging the gay field	D
Till the fence stops him and he vanquished too	D
Turns to his browsing lost his Waterloo	D
	-
The moral of my tale I leave to others	R
More bold who point the finger at their brothers	R
And surer know than I which way is best	D
To virtue's goal where all of us find rest	D
Whether in stern denial of things sweet	D
Or yielding timely lest life lose its feet	D
And fall the further A plain tale is mine	S
Of naked fact unconscious of design	S
Told of the world in this last century	L
Of Man's not God's disgrace the XIXth We	L
Have made it all a little as it is	T
In our own images and likenesses	T
And need the more forgiveness for our sin	F
	-
Therefore my Muse impatient to begin	F
I bid thee fearless forward on thy road	D
Steer thou thy honest course 'twixt bad and good	D
Know this in art that thing alone is evil	A
Which shuns the one plain word that shames the Devil	A
Tell truth without preamble or excuse	U
And all shall be forgiven thee all my Muse	V
	-
In London then not many years ago	B
There lived a lady of high fashion who	D
For her friends' sake if any still there be	L
Who hold her virtues green in memory	L
Shall not be further named in this true tale	W
Than as Griselda or the Lady L	X
Such if I err not was the second name	Y
Her parents gave when to the font she came	Y
And such the initial letter bravely set	D
On her coach door beneath the coronet	D
Which bore her and her fortunes bore alas	Z
For as in this sad world all things must pass	Z
However great and nobly framed and fair	O
Griselda too is of the things that were	A2
	-
But while she lived Griselda had no need	D
Of the world's pity She was proudly bred	D
And proudly nurtured Plenty her full horn	B2
Had fairly emptied out when she was born	B2
And dowered her with all bounties She was fair	O
As only children of the noblest are	C2
And brave and strong and opulent of health	D2
Which made her take full pleasure of her wealth	D2
She had a pitying scorn of little souls	E2
And little bodies levying heavy tolls	E2
On all the world which was less strong than she	L
She used her natural strength most naturally	L
And yet with due discretion so that all	F2
Stood equally in bondage to her thrall	F2
She was of that high godlike shape and size	G2
Which has authority in all men's eyes	G2
Her hair was brown her colour white and red	D
Nor idly moved to blush She held her head	D
Straight with her back Her body from the knee	L
Tall and clean shaped like some well nurtured tree	L
Rose finely finished to the finger tips	H2
She had a noble carriage of the hips	H2
And that proportionate waist which only art	D
Dares to divine harmonious part with part	D
But of this more anon or rather never	A2
All that the world could vaunt for its endeavour	A2
Was the fair promise of her ankles set	D
Upon a pair of small high instepped feet	D
In whose behalf though modestly God wot	D
As any nun she raised her petticoat	D
One little inch more high than reason meet	D
Was for one crossing a well besomed street	D
This was the only tribute she allowed	D
To human folly and the envious crowd	D
Nor for my part would I be found her judge	I2
For her one weakness nor appear to grudge	I2
What in myself as surely in the rest	D
Bred strange sweet fancies such as feet suggest	D
We owe her all too much This point apart	D
Griselda modesty's own counterpart	D
Moved in the sphere of folly like a star	C2
Aloof and bright and most particular	A2
	-
By girlish choice and whim of her first will	I
She had espoused the amiable Lord L	X
A worthy nobleman in high repute	D
For wealth and virtue and her kin to boot	D
A silent man well mannered and well dressed	D
Courteous deliberate kind sublimely blessed	D
With fortune's favours but without pretence	H2
Whom manners almost made a man of sense	H2
In early life he had aspired to fame	Y
In the world of letters by the stratagem	J2
Of a new issue from his private press	H2
Of classic bards in senatorial dress	H2
In usum Marchionis '' He had spent	D
Much of his youth upon the Continent	D
Purchasing marbles bronzes pictures gems	H2
In every town from Tiber unto Thames	H2
And gaining store of curious knowledge too	D
On divers subjects that the world least knew	D
Knowledge uncatalogued and overlaid	D
With dust and lumber somewhere in his head	D
A slumberous man in whom the lamp of life	K2
Had never quite been lighted for the strife	K2
And turmoil of the world but flickered down	L2
In an uncertain twilight of its own	M2
With an occasional flash that only made	D
A deeper shadow for its world of shade	D
When he returned to England all admired	D
The taste of his collections and inquired	D
To whose fair fortunate head the lot should fall	F2
To wear these gems and jewels after all	F2
But years went by and still unclaimed they shone	M2
A snare and stumbling block to more than one	E
Till in his fiftieth year 'twas vaguely said	D
Lord L already had too long delayed	D
Be it as it may he abdicated life	K2
The day he took Griselda to his wife	K2
	-
And then Griselda loved him All agreed	D
The world's chief sponsors for its social creed	D
That whether poor Lord L was or was not	D
The very fool some said and idiot	D
Or whether under cloak of dulness crass	H2
He veiled that sense best suited to his case	H2
Sparing his wit as housewives spare their light	D
For curtain eloquence and dead of night	D
And spite of whispered tales obscurely spread	D
Doubting the fortunes of her nuptial bed	D
Here at this word all sides agreed to rest	D
Griselda did her duty with the best	D
	-
Yet poor Griselda When in lusty youth	N2
A love sick boy I stood unformed uncouth	N2
And watched with sad and ever jealous eye	Q
The vision of your beauty passing by	Q
Why was it that that brow inviolate	D
That virginal courage yet unscared by fate	D
That look the immortal queen and huntress wore	O2
To frightened shepherds' eyes in days of yore	O2
Consoled me thus and soothed unconsciously	L
And stilled my jealous fears I knew not why	Q
How shall I tell the secret of your soul	P2
Which then I blindly guessed or how cajole	P2
My boyhood's ancient folly to declare	O
Now in my wisdom the dear maid you were	A2
Though such the truth Griselda's early days	H2
Of married life were not that fitful maze	H2
Of tears and laughter which betoken aught	D
Changed or exchanged of pain with pleasure bought	D
Of maiden freedom conquered and subdued	D
Of hopes new born and fears of womanhood	D
Those who then saw Griselda saw a child	D
Well pleased and happy thoughtlessly beguiled	D
By every simplest pleasure of her age	Q2
Gay as a bird just issued from its cage	Q2
When every flower is sweet No eye could trace	H2
Doubt or disquiet written on her face	H2
Where none there was And if the truth be told	D
Griselda grieved not that Lord L was o	B

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

Griselda: A Society Novel In Verse - Chapter I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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