Arabian Night's Entertainments Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEEEFEEEGHIJ KELMEEENOIIPIQEECRIE EEEBSITISSUEEE VIICSEEIWIEIISSXYIEZ TA2B2IO EXTETIEEEIZTTETIEETC 2TEIIEB2IEITEIEID2IE SOEEZE2EI SIF2 B2EAG2H2SEEI2ZOTESII TSJ2EB2SK2EB2ES AB2ISGIISIETIEIC2IIT EB2IJ2ZSSIIIETISIIIE IESTSEIIISB2 IIL2M2IT

Once on a timeA
There was a little boy a master mageB
By virtue of a BookC
Of magic O so magical it filledD
His life with visionary pompsE
Processional And PowersE
Passed with him where he passed And ThronesE
And Dominations glaived and plumed and mailedF
Thronged in the criss cross streetsE
The palaces pell mell with playing fieldsE
Domes cloisters dungeons caverns tents arcadesE
Of the unseen silent City in his soulG
Pavilioned jealously and hidH
As in the dusk profoundI
Green stillnesses of some enchanted mereJ
-
I shut mine eyes And loK
A flickering snatch of memory that floatsE
Upon the face of a pool of darkness fiveL
And thirty dead years deepM
Antic in girlish broideriesE
And skirts and silly shoes with strapsE
And a broad ribanded leghorn he walksE
Plain in the shadow of a churchN
St Michael's in whose brazen callO
To curfew his first wails of wrath were whelmedI
Sedate for all his hasteI
To be at home and nestled in his armP
Inciting still to quiet and solitudeI
Boarded in sober drabQ
With small square agitating cutsE
Let in a top of the double columned closeE
Quakerlike print a BookC
What but that blessed briefR
Of what is gallantest and bestI
In all the full shelved Libraries of RomanceE
The Book of rocsE
Sandalwood ivory turbans ambergrisE
Cream tarts and lettered apes and calendarsE
And ghouls and genies O so hugeB
They might have overed the tall Minster TowerS
Hands down as schoolboys take a postI
In truth the Book of CamaralzamanT
Schemselnihar and Sindbad ScheherezadeI
The peerless Bedreddin BadroulbadourS
Cairo and Serendib and CandaharS
And Caspian and the dim terrific bulkU
Ice ribbed fiend visited isled in spells and stormsE
Of Kaf That centre of miraclesE
The sole unparalleled Arabian NightsE
-
Old friends I had a many kindly and grimV
Familiars cronies quaintI
And goblin Never a Wood but housedI
Some morrice of dainty dapperlings No BrookC
But had his nunneryS
Of green haired silvry curving spritesE
To cabin in his grots and paceE
His lilied margents Every lone HillsideI
Might open upon Elf Land Every StalkW
That curled about a Bean stick was of the breedI
Of that live ladder by whose delicate rungsE
You climbed beyond the clouds and foundI
The Farm House where the Ogre gorgedI
And drowsy from his great oak chairS
Among the flitches and pewters at the fireS
Called for his Faery Harp And in it flewX
And perching on the kitchen table sangY
Jocund and jubilant with a soundI
Of those gay golden vowered madrigalsE
The shy thrush at mid MayZ
Flutes from wet orchards flushed with the triumphing dawnT
Or blackbirds rioting as they listened stillA2
In old world woodlands rapt with an old world springB2
For Pan's own whistle savage and rich and lewdI
And mocked him call for callO
-
I could not passE
The half door where the cobbler sat in viewX
Nor figure me the wizen LeprechaunT
In square cut faded reds and buckle shoesE
Bent at his work in the hedge side and knowT
Just how he tapped his brogue and twitchedI
His wax end this and that way both with wristsE
And elbows In the rich June fieldsE
Where the ripe clover drew the beesE
And the tall quakers trembled and the West WindI
Lolled his half holiday awayZ
Beside me lolling and lounging through my ownT
'Twas good to follow the Miller's Youngest SonT
On his white horse along the leafy lanesE
For at his stirrup linked and ranT
Not cynical and trapesing as he lopedI
From wall to wall above the espaliersE
But in the bravest topsE
That market town a town of tops could showT
Bold subtle adventurous his tailC2
A banner flaunted in disdainT
Of human stratagems and shiftsE
King over All the Catlands present and pastI
And future that moustachedI
Artificer of fortunes Puss in BootsE
Or Bluebeard's Closet with its plenishingB2
Of meat hooks sawdust bloodI
And wives that hung like fresh dressed carcasesE
Odd fangled most a butcher's partI
A faery chamber hazily seenT
And hazily figured on dark afternoonsE
And windy nights was visiting of the bestI
Then too the pelt of hoofsE
Out in the roaring darkness toldI
Of Herne the Hunter in his antlered helmD2
Galloping as with despatches from the PitI
Between his hell born HoundsE
And Rip Van Winkle often I lurked to hearS
Outside the long low timbered tarry wallO
The mutter and rumble of the trolling bowlsE
Down the lean plank before they fluttered the pinsE
For listening I could help him playZ
His wonderful gameE2
In those blue booming hills with MarinersE
Refreshed from kegs not coopered in this our worldI
-
But what were these so nearS
So neighbourly fancies to the spell that broughtI
The run of Ali Baba's CaveF2
Just for the saying 'Open Sesame '-
With gold to measure peck by peckB2
In round brown wooden stoupsE
You borrowed at the chandler's Or one timeA
Made you Aladdin's friend at schoolG2
Free of his Garden of Jewels Ring and LampH2
In perfect trim Or Ladies fairS
For all the embrowning scars in their white breastsE
Went labouring under some dread ordinanceE
Which made them whip and bitterly cry the whileI2
Strange Curs that cried as theyZ
Till there was never a Black Bitch of allO
Your consorting but might have goneT
Spell driven miserably for crimesE
Done in the pride of womanhood and desireS
Or at the ghostliest altitudes of nightI
While you lay wondering and acoldI
Your sense was fearfully purged and soonT
Queen Labe abominable and dearS
Rose from your side opened the Box of DoomJ2
Scattered the yellow powder which I sawE
Like sulphur at the Docks in bulkB2
And muttered certain words you could not hearS
And there a living streamK2
The brook you bathed in with its weeds and flagsE
And cresses glittered and sangB2
Out of the hearthrug over the nakednessE
Fair scrubbed and decent of your bedroom floorS
-
I was how many a timeA
That Second Calendar Son of a KingB2
On whom 'twas vehemently enjoinedI
Pausing at one mysterious doorS
To pry no closer but content his soulG
With his kind Forty Yet I could not restI
For idleness and ungovernable FateI
And the Black Horse which fed on sesameS
That wonder working wordI
Vouchsafed his back to me and spread his vansE
And soaring soaring onT
From air to air came charging to the groundI
Sheer like a lark from the midsummer cloudsE
And shaking me out of the saddle where I sprawledI
Flicked at me with his tailC2
And left me blinded miserable distraughtI
Even as I was in deedI
When doctors came and odious things were doneT
On my poor tortured eyesE
With lancets or some evil acid stungB2
And wrung them like hot sandI
And desperately from room to roomJ2
Fumble I must my dark disconsolate wayZ
To get to Bagdad how I might But thereS
I met with Merry Ladies O you threeS
Safie Amine Zobeide when my heartI
Forgets you all shall be forgotI
And so we supped we and the restI
On wine and roasted lamb rose water datesE
Almonds pistachios citrons And HarounT
Laughed out of his lordly beardI
On Giaffar and Mesrour I knew the ThreeS
For all their Mossoul habits And outsideI
The Tigris flowing swiftI
Like Severn bend for bend twinkled and gleamedI
With broken and wavering shapes of stranger starsE
The vast blue nightI
Was murmurous with peris' plumesE
And the leathern wings of genies words of powerS
Were whispering and old fishermenT
Casting their nets with prayer might draw to shoreS
Dead loveliness or a prodigy in scalesE
Worth in the Caliph's Kitchen pieces of goldI
Or copper vessels stopped with leadI
Wherein some Squire of Eblis watched and railedI
In durance under potent charactryS
Graven by the seal of Solomon the KingB2
-
Then as the Book was glassedI
In Life as in some olden mirror's quaintI
Bewildering angles so would LifeL2
Flash light on light back on the Book and bothM2
Were changed Once in a house decayedI
From better days harbourinT

William Ernest Henley



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