The Two Kings Poem Rhyme Scheme

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William Butler Yeats

The Two Kings Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

About The Two Kings

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King Eochaid came at sundown to a wood	A
Westward of Tara Hurrying to his queen	B
He had outridden his war wasted men	C
That with empounded cattle trod the mire	D
And where beech trees had mixed a pale green light	E
With the ground ivy's blue he saw a stag	F
Whiter than curds its eyes the tint of the sea	G
Because it stood upon his path and seemed	H
More hands in height than any stag in the world	I
He sat with tightened rein and loosened mouth	J
Upon his trembling horse then drove the spur	K
But the stag stooped and ran at him and passed	L
Rending the horse's flank King Eochaid reeled	M
Then drew his sword to hold its levelled point	N
Against the stag When horn and steel were met	O
The horn resounded as though it had been silver	K
A sweet miraculous terrifying sound	P
Horn locked in sword they tugged and struggled there	Q
As though a stag and unicorn were met	O
Among the African Mountains of the Moon	R
Until at last the double horns drawn backward	S
Butted below the single and so pierced	T
The entrails of the horse Dropping his sword	U
King Eochaid seized the horns in his strong hands	V
And stared into the sea green eye and so	W
Hither and thither to and fro they trod	X
Till all the place was beaten into mire	D
The strong thigh and the agile thigh were met	O
The hands that gathered up the might of the world	I
And hoof and horn that had sucked in their speed	Y
Amid the elaborate wilderness of the air	Q
Through bush they plunged and over ivied root	Z
And where the stone struck fire while in the leaves	A2
A squirrel whinnied and a bird screamed out	B2
But when at last he forced those sinewy flanks	C2
Against a beech bole he threw down the beast	D2
And knelt above it with drawn knife On the instant	E2
It vanished like a shadow and a cry	F2
So mournful that it seemed the cry of one	G2
Who had lost some unimaginable treasure	K
Wandered between the blue and the green leaf	H2
And climbed into the air crumbling away	I2
Till all had seemed a shadow or a vision	G2
But for the trodden mire the pool of blood	J2
The disembowelled horse	K2
King Eochaid ran	L2
Toward peopled Tara nor stood to draw his breath	M2
Until he came before the painted wall	N2
The posts of polished yew circled with bronze	O2
Of the great door but though the hanging lamps	P2
Showed their faint light through the unshuttered windows	Q2
Nor door nor mouth nor slipper made a noise	R2
Nor on the ancient beaten paths that wound	P
From well side or from plough land was there noisc	F
Nor had there been the noise of living thing	F
Before him or behind but that far off	S2
On the horizon edge bellowed the herds	T2
Knowing that silence brings no good to kings	U2
And mocks returning victory he passed	L
Between the pillars with a beating heart	V2
And saw where in the midst of the great hall	N2
pale faced alone upon a bench Edain	L2
Sat upright with a sword before her feet	W2
Her hands on either side had gripped the bench	X2
Her eyes were cold and steady her lips tight	E
Some passion had made her stone Hearing a foot	Y2
She started and then knew whose foot it was	Z2
But when he thought to take her in his arms	A3
She motioned him afar and rose and spoke	F
'I have sent among the fields or to the woods	B3
The fighting men and servants of this house	C3
For I would have your judgment upon one	L2
Who is self accused If she be innocent	E2
She would not look in any known man's face	D3
Till judgment has been given and if guilty	G
Would never look again on known man's face '	E3
And at these words hc paled as she had paled	F3
Knowing that he should find upon her lips	G3
The meaning of that monstrous day	I2
Then she	G
'You brought me where your brother Ardan sat	H3
Always in his one seat and bid me care him	I3
Through that strange illness that had fixed him there	Q
And should he die to heap his burial mound	P
And catve his name in Ogham ' Eochaid said	J3
'He lives ' 'He lives and is a healthy man '	E3
'While I have him and you it matters little	K3
What man you have lost what evil you have found '	E3
'I bid them make his bed under this roof	L3
And carried him his food with my own hands	V
And so the weeks passed by But when I said	J3
What is this trouble he would answer nothing	F
Though always at my words his trouble grew	M3
And I but asked the more till he cried out	B2
Weary of many questions There are things	U2
That make the heart akin to the dumb stone	L2
Then I replied Although you hide a secret	N3
Hopeless and dear or terrible to think on	L2
Speak it that I may send through the wide world	I
For Medicine Thereon he cried aloud	O3
Day after day you question me and I	F2
Because there is such a storm amid my thoughts	P3
I shall be carried in the gust command	Q3
Forbid beseech and waste my breath Then I	F2
Although the thing that you have hid were evil	K3
The speaking of it could be no great wrong	F
And evil must it be if done 'twere worse	R3
Than mound and stone that keep all virtue in	L2
And loosen on us dreams that waste our life	S3
Shadows and shows that can but turn the brain	L2
but finding him still silent I stooped down	L2
And whispering that none but he should hear	T3
Said If a woman has put this on you	M3
My men whether it please her or displease	U3
And though they have to cross the Loughlan waters	V3
And take her in the middle of armed men	L2
Shall make her look upon her handiwork	F
That she may quench the rick she has fired and though	W
She may have worn silk clothes or worn a crown	L2
She'II not be proud knowing within her heart	V2
That our sufficient portion of the world	I
Is that we give although it be brief giving	F
Happiness to children and to men	L2
Then he driven by his thought beyond his thought	W3
And speaking what he would not though he would	A
Sighed You even you yourself could work the cure	X3
And at those words I rose and I went out	B2
And for nine days he had food from other hands	V
And for nine days my mind went whirling round	P
The one disastrous zodiac muttering	F
That the immedicable mound's beyond	Y3
Our questioning beyond our pity even	L2
But when nine days had gone I stood again	L2
Before his chair and bending down my head	J3
I bade him go when all his household slept	Z3
To an old empty woodman's house that's hidden	L2
Westward of Tara among the hazel trees	U3
For hope would give his limbs the power and await	A4
A friend that could he had told her work his cure	X3
And would be no harsh friend	B4
When night had deepened	C4
I groped my way from beech to hazel wood	A
Found that old house a sputtering torch within	L2
And stretched out sleeping on a pile of skins	D4
Ardan and though I called to him and tried	E4
To Shake him out of sleep I could not rouse him	I3
I waited till the night was on the turn	L2
Then fearing that some labourer on his way	I2
To plough or pasture land might see me there	Q
Went out	B2
Among the ivy covered rocks	F4
As on the blue light of a sword a man	L2
Who had unnatural majesty and eyes	G4
Like the eyes of some great kite scouring the woods	B3
Stood on my path Trembling from head to foot	Y2
I gazed at him like grouse upon a kite	E
But with a voice that had unnatural music	F
A weary wooing and a long he said	J3
Speaking of love through other lips and looking	F
Under the eyelids of another for it was my craft	H4
That put a passion in the sleeper there	Q
And when I had got my will and drawn you here	T3
Where I may speak to you alone my craft	H4
Sucked up the passion out of him again	L2
And left mere sleep He'll wake when the sun wakes	I4
push out his vigorous limbs and rub his eyes	G4
And wonder what has ailed him these twelve months	J4
I cowered back upon the wall in terror	K
But that sweet sounding voice ran on Woman	L2
I was your husband when you rode the air	Q
Danced in the whirling foam and in the dust	K4
In days you have not kept in memory	G
Being betrayed into a cradle and I come	L4
That I may claim you as my wife again	L2
I was no longer terrified his voice	M4
Had half awakened some old memory	G
Yet answered him I am King Eochaid's wife	S3
And with him have found every happiness	N4
Women can find With a most masterful voice	M4
That made the body seem as it were a string	F
Under a bow he cried What happiness	N4
Can lovers have that know their happiness	N4
Must end at the dumb stone But where we build	O4
Our sudden palaces in the still air	Q
pleasure itself can bring no weariness	N4
Nor can time waste the cheek nor is there foot	Y2
That has grown weary of the wandering dance	P4
Nor an unlaughing mouth but mine that mourns	Q4
Among those mouths that sing their sweethearts' praise	R4
Your empty bed How should I love I answered	S
Were it not that when the dawn has lit my bed	J3
And shown my husband sleeping there I have sighcd	J3
'Your strength and nobleness will pass away'	I2
Or how should love be worth its pains were it not	J3
That when he has fallen asleep within my atms	R4
Being wearied out I love in man the child	J3
What can they know of love that do not know	W
She builds her nest upon a narrow ledge	S4
Above a windy precipice Then he	G
Seeing that when you come to the deathbed	J3
You must return whether you would or no	W
This human life blotted from memory	G
Why must I live some thirty forty years	R4
Alone with all this useless happiness	R4
Thereon he seized me in his arms but I	F2
Thrust him away with both my hands and cried	J3
Never will I believe there is any change	T4
Can blot out of my memory this life	S3
Sweetened by death but if I could believe	U4
That were a double hunger in my lips	R4
For what is doubly brief	H2
And now the shape	V4
My hands were pressed to vanished suddenly	G
I staggered but a beech tree stayed my fall	N2
And clinging to it I could hear the cocks	R4
Crow upon Tara '	E3
King Eochaid bowed his head	J3
And thanked her for her kindness to his brother	K
For that she promised and for that refused	J3
Thereon the bellowing of the empounded herds	R4
Rose round the walls and through the bronze ringed door	W4
Jostled and shouted those war wasted men	L2
And in the midst King Eochaid's brother stood	J3
And bade all welcome being ignorant	J3