Cuchulain's Fight With The Sea Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCD DEE FFG GH HII JAKKI IL EE MM N AO PM QQ RRSSTT UUQQVVWWXXYLZ A2A2TT NJ XXTTB2 B2 FC2FGGS A A DDXXD2D2E2E2F2F2G2H2 RRVF2F2F2F2A man came slowly from the setting sun | A |
To Emer raddling raiment in her dun | A |
And said I am that swineherd whom you bid | B |
Go watch the road between the wood and tide | C |
But now I have no need to watch it more | D |
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Then Emer cast the web upon the floor | D |
And raising arms all raddled with the dye | E |
Parted her lips with a loud sudden cry | E |
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That swineherd stared upon her face and said | F |
No man alive no man among the dead | F |
Has won the gold his cars of battle bring | G |
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But if your master comes home triumphing | G |
Why must you blench and shake from foot to crown | H |
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Thereon he shook the more and cast him down | H |
Upon the web heaped floor and cried his word | I |
With him is one sweet throated like a bird | I |
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You dare me to my face and thereupon | J |
She smote with raddled fist and where her son | A |
Herded the cattle came with stumbling feet | K |
And cried with angry voice It is not meet | K |
To idle life away a common herd | I |
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I have long waited mother for that word | I |
But wherefore now | L |
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There is a man to die | E |
You have the heaviest arm under the sky | E |
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Whether under its daylight or its stars | M |
My father stands amid his battle cars | M |
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But you have grown to be the taller man | N |
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Yet somewhere under starlight or the sun | A |
My father stands | O |
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Aged worn out with wars | P |
On foot on horseback or in battle cars | M |
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I only ask what way my journey lies | Q |
For He who made you bitter made you wise | Q |
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The Red Branch camp in a great company | R |
Between wood's rim and the horses of the sea | R |
Go there and light a camp fire at wood's rim | S |
But tell your name and lineage to him | S |
Whose blade compels and wait till they have found | T |
Some feasting man that the same oath has bound | T |
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Among those feasting men Cuchulain dwelt | U |
And his young sweetheart close beside him knelt | U |
Stared on the mournful wonder of his eyes | Q |
Even as Spring upon the ancient skies | Q |
And pondered on the glory of his days | V |
And all around the harp string told his praise | V |
And Conchubar the Red Branch king of kings | W |
With his own fingers touched the brazen strings | W |
At last Cuchulain spake Some man has made | X |
His evening fire amid the leafy shade | X |
I have often heard him singing to and fro | Y |
I have often heard the sweet sound of his bow | L |
Seek out what man he is | Z |
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One went and came | A2 |
He bade me let all know he gives his name | A2 |
At the sword point and waits till we have found | T |
Some feasting man that the same oath has bound | T |
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Cuchulain cried I am the only man | N |
Of all this host so bound from childhood on | J |
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After short fighting in the leafy shade | X |
He spake to the young man 'Is there no maid | X |
Who loves you no white arms to wrap you round | T |
Or do you long for the dim sleepy ground | T |
That you have come and dared me to my face | B2 |
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The dooms of men are in God's hidden place | B2 |
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Your head a while seemed like a woman's head | F |
That I loved once | C2 |
Again the fighting sped | F |
But now the war rage in Cuchulain woke | G |
And through that new blade's guard the old blade broke | G |
And pierced him | S |
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Speak before your breath is done | A |
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Cuchulain I mighty Cuchulain's son | A |
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I put you from your pain I can no more | D |
While day its burden on to evening bore | D |
With head bowed on his knees Cuchulain stayed | X |
Then Conchubar sent that sweet throated maid | X |
And she to win him his grey hair caressed | D2 |
In vain her arms in vain her soft white breast | D2 |
Then Conchubar the subtlest of all men | E2 |
Ranking his Druids round him ten by ten | E2 |
Spake thus Cuchulain will dwell there and brood | F2 |
For three days more in dreadful quietude | F2 |
And then arise and raving slay us all | G2 |
Chaunt in his ear delusions magical | H2 |
That he may fight the horses of the sea | R |
The Druids took them to their mystery | R |
And chaunted for three days | V |
Cuchulain stirred | F2 |
Stared on the horses of the sea and heard | F2 |
The cars of battle and his own name cried | F2 |
And fought with the invulnerable tide | F2 |
William Butler Yeats
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