The Knight's Epitaph Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGAHIJKALMNOP QLRSTUVWXQYZTA2B2AAC 2D2E2F2AZG2H2ZAI2 J2K2L2ACM2A| This is the church which Pisa great and free | A |
| Reared to St Catharine How the time stained walls | B |
| That earthquakes shook not from their poise appear | C |
| To shiver in the deep and voluble tones | D |
| Rolled from the organ Underneath my feet | E |
| There lies the lid of a sepulchral vault | F |
| The image of an armed knight is graven | G |
| Upon it clad in perfect panoply | A |
| Cuishes and greaves and cuirass with barred helm | H |
| Gauntleted hand and sword and blazoned shield | I |
| Around in Gothic characters worn dim | J |
| By feet of worshippers are traced his name | K |
| And birth and death and words of eulogy | A |
| Why should I pore upon them This old tomb | L |
| This effigy the strange disused form | M |
| Of this inscription eloquently show | N |
| His history Let me clothe in fitting words | O |
| The thoughts they breathe and frame his epitaph | P |
| - | |
| 'He whose forgotten dust for centuries | Q |
| Has lain beneath this stone was one in whom | L |
| Adventure and endurance and emprise | R |
| Exalted the mind's faculties and strung | S |
| The body's sinews Brave he was in fight | T |
| Courteous in banquet scornful of repose | U |
| And bountiful and cruel and devout | V |
| And quick to draw the sword in private feud | W |
| He pushed his quarrels to the death yet prayed | X |
| The saints as fervently on bended knees | Q |
| As ever shaven cenobite He loved | Y |
| As fiercely as he fought He would have borne | Z |
| The maid that pleased him from her bower by night | T |
| To his hill castle as the eagle bears | A2 |
| His victim from the fold and rolled the rocks | B2 |
| On his pursuers He aspired to see | A |
| His native Pisa queen and arbitress | A |
| Of cities earnestly for her he raised | C2 |
| His voice in council and affronted death | D2 |
| In battle field and climbed the galley's deck | E2 |
| And brought the captured flag of Genoa back | F2 |
| Or piled upon the Arno's crowded quay | A |
| The glittering spoils of the tamed Saracen | Z |
| He was not born to brook the stranger's yoke | G2 |
| But would have joined the exiles that withdrew | H2 |
| For ever when the Florentine broke in | Z |
| The gates of Pisa and bore off the bolts | A |
| For trophies but he died before that day | I2 |
| - | |
| 'He lived the impersonation of an age | J2 |
| That never shall return His soul of fire | K2 |
| Was kindled by the breath of the rude time | L2 |
| He lived in Now a gentler race succeeds | A |
| Shuddering at blood the effeminate cavalier | C |
| Turning his eyes from the reproachful past | M2 |
| And from the hopeless future gives to ease | A |
| And love and music his inglorious life ' | - |
William Cullen Bryant
(1)
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About The Knight's Epitaph
The Knight's Epitaph is a poem by William Cullen Bryant. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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