The Two Kings Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOKPQOR STUVWXDOIYQZA2B2C2D2 E2F2G2KH2I2G2J2K2L2M 2N2O2P2Q2R2PFFS2T2U2 LV2N2L2W2X2EY2Z2A3FB 3C3L2E2D3GE3F3G3I2GH 3I3QPJ3E3K3E3L3VJ3FM 3B2U2L2N3L2IO3F2P3Q3 F2K3FR3L2S3L2L2T3M3U 3V3L2FWL2V2IFL2W3AX3 B2VPFY3L2L2J3Z3L2U3A 4X3B4C4AL2D4E4I3L2I2 QB2F4L2G4B3Y2EFJ3FH4 QT3H4L2I4G4J4KL2QK4G L4L2M4GS3N4M4FN4N4O4 QN4Y2P4Q4R4SJ3J3I2J3 R4J3WS4GJ3WGR4R4F2J3 T4S3U4R4H2V4GN2R4E3J 3KJ3R4W4L2J3J3King 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 |
William Butler Yeats
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