The Missionary - Canto Sixth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEFFGHIJHHKKHH LLMMNNOOPPQQHHHHRSTT UUQQHHVAJJWWXXYYBBZZ A2A2HHB2B2OOC2C2XXAA HBHBIJBD2BD2E2E2OOF2 F2BBLLVAYYG2G2BH2BI2 D2D2PPJ2J2WWAVRSK2K2 F2F2L2L2BBM2M2N2N2BB BBM2M2BBO2O2A2A2P2P2 UUOOYYYYYYQ2Q2G2G2D2 D2YYYYYYYYYYR2YYYJJY YS2S2YYA2A2T2| The second moon had now begun to wane | A |
| Since bold Valdivia left the southern plain | A |
| Goal of his labours Penco's port and bay | B |
| Far gleaming to the summer sunset lay | B |
| The wayworn veteran who had slowly passed | C |
| Through trackless woods or o'er savannahs vast | C |
| With hope impatient sees the city spires | D |
| Gild the horizon like ascending fires | E |
| Now well known sounds salute him as more near | F |
| The citadel and battlements appear | F |
| The approaching trumpets ring at intervals | G |
| The trumpet answers from the rampart walls | H |
| Where many a maiden casts an anxious eye | I |
| Some long lost object of her love to espy | J |
| Or watches as the evening light illumes | H |
| The points of lances or the passing plumes | H |
| The grating drawbridge and the portal arch | K |
| Now echo to the long battalion's march | K |
| Whilst every eye some friend remembered greets | H |
| Amid the gazing crowd that throngs the streets | H |
| As bending o'er his mule amid the throng | L |
| Pensive and pale Anselmo rode along | L |
| How sacred 'mid the noise of arms appeared | M |
| His venerable mien and snowy beard | M |
| Whilst every heart a silent prayer bestowed | N |
| Slow to the convent's massy gate he rode | N |
| Around the brothers gratulating stand | O |
| And ask for tidings of the southern land | O |
| As from the turret tolls the vesper bell | P |
| He seeks a weary man his evening cell | P |
| No sounds of social cheer no beds of state | Q |
| Nor gorgeous canopies his coming wait | Q |
| But o'er a little bread with folded hands | H |
| Thanking the God that gave a while he stands | H |
| Then while all thoughts of earthly sorrow cease | H |
| Upon his pallet lays him down in peace | H |
| The scene how different where the castle hall | R |
| Rings to the loud triumphant festival | S |
| A hundred torches blaze and flame aloof | T |
| Long quivering shadows streak the vaulted roof | T |
| Whilst seen far off the illumined windows throw | U |
| A splendour on the shore and seas below | U |
| Amid his captains in imperial state | Q |
| Beneath a crimson canopy elate | Q |
| Valdivia sits and striking loud the strings | H |
| The wandering ministrel of Valentia sings | H |
| For Chili conquered fill the bowl again | V |
| For Chili conquered raise the heroic strain | A |
| Lautaro left the hall of jubilee | J |
| Unmarked and wandered by the moonlit sea | J |
| He heard far off in dissonant acclaim | W |
| The song the shout and his loved country's name | W |
| As swelled at times the trump's insulting sound | X |
| He raised his eyes impatient from the ground | X |
| Then smote his breast indignantly and cried | Y |
| Chili my country would that I had died | Y |
| On the sad night of that eventful day | B |
| When on the ground my murdered father lay | B |
| I should not then dejected and alone | Z |
| Have thought I heard his injured spirit groan | Z |
| Ha was it not his form his face his hair | A2 |
| Hold soldier stern inhuman soldier spare | A2 |
| Ha is it not his blood Avenge he cries | H |
| Avenge my son these wounds He faints he dies | H |
| Leave me dread shadow Can I then forget | B2 |
| My father's look his voice He beckons yet | B2 |
| Now on that glimmering rock I see him stand | O |
| Avenge he cries and waves his dim seen hand | O |
| Thus mused the youth distempered and forlorn | C2 |
| When hark the sound as of a distant horn | C2 |
| Swells o'er the surge he turned his look around | X |
| And still with many a pause he heard the sound | X |
| It came from yonder rocks and list what strain | A |
| Breaks on the silence of the sleeping main | A |
| I heard the song of gladness | H |
| It seemed but yesterday | B |
| But it turned my thoughts to madness | H |
| So soon it died away | B |
| I sound my sea shell but in vain I try | I |
| To bring back that enchanting harmony | J |
| Hark heard ye not the surges say | B |
| Oh heartless maid what canst thou do | D2 |
| O'er the moon gleaming ocean I'll wander away | B |
| And paddle to Spain in my light canoe | D2 |
| The youth drew near by the strange accents led | E2 |
| Where in a cave wild sea weeds round her head | E2 |
| And holding a large sea conch in her hand | O |
| He saw with wildering air an Indian maiden stand | O |
| A tattered poncho o'er her shoulders hung | F2 |
| On either side her long black locks were flung | F2 |
| And now by the moon's glimmer he espies | B |
| Her high cheek bones and bright but hollow eyes | B |
| Lautaro spoke Oh say what cruel wrong | L |
| Weighs on thy heart maiden what bodes thy song | L |
| She answered not but blew her shell again | V |
| Then thus renewed the desultory strain | A |
| Yes yes we must forget the world is wide | Y |
| My music now shall be the dashing tide | Y |
| In the calm of the deep I will frolic and swim | G2 |
| With the breath of the South o'er the sea blossom skim | G2 |
| If ever stranger on thy way | B |
| Sounds more than earthly sweet thy soul should move | H2 |
| It is the youth Oh do not say | B |
| That poor Olola died for love | I2 |
| Lautaro stretched his hand she said Adieu | D2 |
| And o'er the glimmering rocks like lightning flew | D2 |
| He followed and still heard at distance swell | P |
| The lessening echoes of that mournful shell | P |
| It ceased at once and now he heard no more | J2 |
| Than the sea's murmur dying on the shore | J2 |
| Olola ha his sister had that name | W |
| Oh horrid fancies shake not thus his frame | W |
| All night he wandered by the desert main | A |
| To catch the melancholy sounds again | V |
| No torches blaze in Penco's castled hall | R |
| That echoed to the midnight festival | S |
| The weary soldiers by their toils oppressed | K2 |
| Had now retired to silence and to rest | K2 |
| The minstrel only who the song had sung | F2 |
| Of noble Cid as o'er the strings he hung | F2 |
| Upon the instrument had fall'n asleep | L2 |
| Weary and now was hushed in slumbers deep | L2 |
| Tracing the scenes long past in busy dreams | B |
| Again he wanders by his native streams | B |
| Or sits his evening saraband to sing | M2 |
| To the clear Garonne's gentle murmuring | M2 |
| Cold o'er the fleckered clouds the morning broke | N2 |
| Aslant ere from his slumbers he awoke | N2 |
| Still as he sat nor yet had left the place | B |
| The first dim light fell on his pallid face | B |
| He wakes he gazes round the dawning day | B |
| Comes from the deep in garb of cloudy gray | B |
| The woods with crow of early turkeys ring | M2 |
| The glancing birds beneath the castle sing | M2 |
| And the sole sun his rising orb displays | B |
| Radiant and reddening through the scattered haze | B |
| To recreate the languid sense a while | O2 |
| When earth and ocean wore their sweetest smile | O2 |
| He wandered to the beach the early air | A2 |
| Blew soft and lifted as it blew his hair | A2 |
| Flushed was his cheek his faded eye more bright | P2 |
| Shone with a faint but animated light | P2 |
| While the soft morning ray seemed to bestow | U |
| On his tired mind a transient kindred glow | U |
| As thus with shadow stretching o'er the sand | O |
| He mused and wandered on the winding strand | O |
| At distance tossed upon the tumbling tide | Y |
| A dark and floating substance he espied | Y |
| He stood and where the eddying surges beat | Y |
| An Indian corse was rolled beneath his feet | Y |
| The hollow wave retired with sullen sound | Y |
| The face of that sad corse was to the ground | Y |
| It seemed a female by the slender form | Q2 |
| He touched the hand it was no longer warm | Q2 |
| He turned its face O God that eye though dim | G2 |
| Seemed with its deadly glare as fixed on him | G2 |
| How sunk his shuddering sense how changed his hue | D2 |
| When poor Olola in that corse he knew | D2 |
| Lautaro rushing from the rocks advanced | Y |
| His keen eye like a startled eagle's glanced | Y |
| 'Tis she he knew her by a mark impressed | Y |
| From earliest infancy beneath her breast | Y |
| Oh my poor sister when all hopes were past | Y |
| Of meeting do we meet thus meet at last | Y |
| Then full on Zarinel as one amazed | Y |
| With rising wrath and stern suspicion gazed | Y |
| For Zarinel still knelt upon the sand | Y |
| And to his forehead pressed the dead maid's hand | Y |
| Speak whence art thou | R2 |
| Pale Zarinel his head | Y |
| Upraising answered | Y |
| Peace is with the dead | Y |
| Him dost thou seek who injured thine and thee | J |
| Here strike the fell assassin I am he | J |
| Die he exclaimed and with convulsive start | Y |
| Instant had plunged the dagger in his heart | Y |
| When the meek father with his holy book | S2 |
| And placid aspect met his frenzied look | S2 |
| He trembled struck his brow and turning round | Y |
| Flung the uplifted dagger to the ground | Y |
| Then murmured Father Heaven has heard thy prayer | A2 |
| But oh the sister of my soul lies there | A2 |
| The | T2 |
William Lisle Bowles
(1)
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