The Wanderings Of Oisin: Book Ii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIJK LLMMNNIIA OOPPQQRRROSSTTUUVVGG WUXXYYZWWZHHTA2A2THH B2TT MMMMTTTMM T TTTTMMA2A2 T C2C2 TTTD2D2TTTT E2E2GGTTF2F2G2G2TH2 TI2I2TTJ2J2G2G2WWTTD 2D2DDTTG2G2MMTM TDDTTTTMMMMK2K2MME2E 2G2G2DDL2L2M2M2PPTTT TTTMMGGDDTTN2N2TTO2O 2U TT

Now man of croziers shadows called our namesA
And then away away like whirling flamesA
And now fled by mist covered without soundB
The youth and lady and the deer and houndB
'Gaze no more on the phantoms ' Niamh saidC
And kissed my eyes and swaying her bright headC
And her bright body sang of faery and manD
Before God was or my old line beganD
Wars shadowy vast exultant faeries of oldE
Who wedded men with rings of Druid goldE
And how those lovers never turn their eyesF
Upon the life that fades and flickers and diesF
Yet love and kiss on dim shores far awayG
Rolled round with music of the sighing sprayG
Yet sang no more as when like a brown beeH
That has drunk full she crossed the misty seaH
With me in her white arms a hundred yearsI
Before this day for now the fall of tearsJ
Troubled her songK
-
I do not know if daysL
Or hours passed by yet hold the morning raysL
Shone many times among the glimmering flowersM
Woven into her hair before dark towersM
Rose in the darkness and the white surf gleamedN
About them and the horse of Faery screamedN
And shivered knowing the Isle of Many FearsI
Nor ceased until white Niamh stroked his earsI
And named him by sweet namesA
-
A foaming tideO
Whitened afar with surge fan formed and wideO
Burst from a great door matred by many a blowP
From mace and sword and pole axe long agoP
When gods and giants warred We rode betweenQ
The seaweed covered pillars and the greenQ
And surging phosphorus alone gave lightR
On our dark pathway till a countless flightR
Of moonlit steps glimmered and left and rightR
Dark statues glimmered over the pale tideO
Upon dark thrones Between the lids of oneS
The imaged meteors had flashed and runS
And had disported in the stilly jetT
And the fixed stars had dawned and shone and setT
Since God made Time and Death and Sleep the otherU
Stretched his long arm to where a misty smotherU
The stream churned churned and churned his lips apartV
As though he told his never slumbering heartV
Of every foamdrop on its misty wayG
Tying the horse to his vast foot that layG
Half in the unvesselled sea we climbed the stairW
And climbed so long I thought the last steps wereU
Hung from the morning star when these mild wordsX
Fanned the delighted air like wings of birdsX
'My brothers spring out of their beds at mornY
A murmur like young partridge with loud hornY
They chase the noontide deerZ
And when the dew drowned stars hang in the airW
Look to long fishing lines or point and pareW
An ashen hunting spearZ
O sigh O fluttering sigh be kind to meH
Flutter along the froth lips of the seaH
And shores the froth lips wetT
And stay a little while and bid them weepA2
Ah touch their blue veined eyelids if they sleepA2
And shake their coverletT
When you have told how I weep endlesslyH
Flutter along the froth lips of the seaH
And home to me againB2
And in the shadow of my hair lie hidT
And tell me that you found a man unbidT
The saddest of all men '-
-
A lady with soft eyes like funeral tapersM
And face that seemed wrought out of moonlit vapoursM
And a sad mouth that fear made tremulousM
As any ruddy moth looked down on usM
And she with a wave rusted chain was tiedT
To two old eagles full of ancient prideT
That with dim eyeballs stood on either sideT
Few feathers were on their dishevelled wingsM
For their dim minds were with the ancient thingsM
-
'I bring deliverance ' pearl pale Niamh saidT
-
'Neither the living nor the unlabouring deadT
Nor the high gods who never lived may fightT
My enemy and hope demons for frightT
Jabber and scream about him in the nightT
For he is strong and crafty as the seasM
That sprang under the Seven Hazel TreesM
And I must needs endure and hate and weepA2
Until the gods and demons drop asleepA2
Hearing Acdh touch thc mournful strings of gold '-
-
'Is he so dreadful '-
'Be not over boldT
But fly while still you may '-
And thereon IC2
'This demon shall be battered till he dieC2
And his loose bulk be thrown in the loud tide '-
'Flee from him ' pearl pale Niamh weeping criedT
'For all men flee the demons' but moved notT
My angry king remembering soul one jotT
There was no mightier soul of Heber's lineD2
Now it is old and mouse like For a signD2
I burst the chain still earless neNeless blindT
Wrapped in the things of the unhuman mindT
In some dim memory or ancient moodT
Still earless netveless blind the eagles stoodT
-
And then we climbed the stair to a high doorE2
A hundred horsemen on the basalt floorE2
Beneath had paced content we held our wayG
And stood within clothed in a misty rayG
I saw a foam white seagull drift and floatT
Under the roof and with a straining throatT
Shouted and hailed him he hung there a starF2
For no man's cry shall ever mount so farF2
Not even your God could have thrown down that hallG2
Stabling His unloosed lightnings in their stallG2
He had sat down and sighed with cumbered heartT
As though His hour were comeH2
-
We sought the partT
That was most distant from the door green slimeI2
Made the way slippery and time on timeI2
Showed prints of sea born scales while down through itT
The captive's journeys to and fro were writT
Like a small river and where feet touched cameJ2
A momentary gleam of phosphorus flameJ2
Under the deepest shadows of the hallG2
That woman found a ring hung on the wallG2
And in the ring a torch and with its flareW
Making a world about her in the airW
Passed under the dim doorway out of sightT
And came again holding a second lightT
Burning between her fingers and in mineD2
Laid it and sighed I held a sword whose shineD2
No centuries could dim and a word ranD
Thereon in Ogham letters 'Manannan'D
That sea god's name who in a deep contentT
Sprang dripping and with captive demons sentT
Out of the sevenfold seas built the dark hallG2
Rooted in foam and clouds and cried to allG2
The mightier masters of a mightier raceM
And at his cry there came no milk pale faceM
Under a crown of thorns and dark with bloodT
But only exultant facesM
-
Niamh stoodT
With bowed head trembling when the white blade shoneD
But she whose hours of tenderness were goneD
Had neither hope nor fear I bade them hideT
Under the shadowS till the tumults diedT
Of the loud crashing and earth shaking fightT
Lest they should look upon some dreadful sightT
And thrust the torch between the slimy flagsM
A dome made out of endless carven jagsM
Where shadowy face flowed into shadowy faceM
Looked down on me and in the self same placeM
I waited hour by hour and the high domeK2
Windowless pillarless multitudinous homeK2
Of faces waited and the leisured gazeM
Was loaded with the memory of daysM
Buried and mighty When through the great doorE2
The dawn came in and glimmered on the floorE2
With a pale light I journeyed round the hallG2
And found a door deep sunken in the wallG2
The least of doors beyond on a dim plainD
A little mnnel made a bubbling strainD
And on the runnel's stony and bare edgeL2
A dusky demon dry as a withered sedgeL2
Swayed crooning to himself an unknown tongueM2
In a sad revelry he sang and swungM2
Bacchant and mournful passing to and froP
His hand along the runnel's side as thoughP
The flowers still grew there far on the sea's wasteT
Shaking and waving vapour vapour chasedT
While high frail cloudlets fed with a green lightT
Like drifts of leaves immovable and brightT
Hung in the passionate dawn He slowly turnedT
A demon's leisure eyes first white now burnedT
Like wings of kingfishers and he aroseM
Barking We trampled up and down with blowsM
Of sword and brazen battle axe while dayG
Gave to high noon and noon to night gave wayG
And when he knew the sword of ManannanD
Amid the shades of night he changed and ranD
Through many shapes I lunged at the smooth throatT
Of a great eel it changed and I but smoteT
A fir tree roaring in its leafless topN2
And thereupon I drew the livid chopN2
Of a drowned dripping body to my breastT
Horror from horror grew but when the westT
Had surged up in a plumy fire I draveO2
Through heart and spine and cast him in the waveO2
Lest Niamh shudderU
-
Full of hope and dreadT
Those two came carrying wine andT

William Butler Yeats



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