The Missionary - Canto Third Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFGHHIIJJAAKK LLMNOOPPQQBCRNSSTTUU VCWWGFWWQQUUUUXXAAUU YYZZUUUUA2A2B2B2ZC2U UUUUUPPUUNND2D2UUUUK KE2E2F2F2G2G2H2H2NNI 2I2UUUUJ2J2ZC2RRAAUU K2K2BBAADDL2L2AANNM2 M2UUAABBN2O2P2P2GGQ2 R2FFUUZC2UUUUS2S2T2T 2BBU2U2UUUUUUV2V2W2W 2X2X2UUU| Come for the sun yet hangs above the bay | A |
| And whilst our time may brook a brief delay | A |
| With other thoughts and haply with a tear | B |
| An old man's tale of sorrow thou shalt hear | C |
| I wished not to reveal it thoughts that dwell | D |
| Deep in the lonely bosom's inmost cell | D |
| Unnoticed and unknown too painful wake | E |
| And like a tempest the dark spirit shake | E |
| When starting from our slumberous apathy | F |
| We gaze upon the scenes of days gone by | G |
| Yet if a moment's irritating flush | H |
| Darkens thy cheek as thoughts conflicting rush | H |
| When I disclose my hidden griefs the tale | I |
| May more than wisdom or reproof prevail | I |
| Oh may it teach thee till all trials cease | J |
| To hold thy course though sorrowing yet in peace | J |
| Still looking up to Him the soul's best stay | A |
| Who Faith and Hope shall crown when worlds are swept away | A |
| Where fair Seville's Morisco turrets gleam | K |
| On Guadilquiver's gently stealing stream | K |
| Whose silent waters seaward as they glide | L |
| Reflect the wild rose thickets on its side | L |
| My youth was passed Oh days for ever gone | M |
| How touched with Heaven's own light your mornings shone | N |
| Even now when lonely and forlorn I bend | O |
| My weary journey hastening to its end | O |
| A drooping exile on a distant shore | P |
| I mourn the hours of youth that are no more | P |
| The tender thought amid my prayers has part | Q |
| And steals at times from Heaven my aged heart | Q |
| Forgive the cause O God forgive the tear | B |
| That flows even now o'er Leonora's bier | C |
| For 'midst the innocent and lovely none | R |
| More beautiful than Leonora shone | N |
| As by her widowed mother's side she knelt | S |
| A sad and sacred sympathy I felt | S |
| At Easter tide when the high mass was sung | T |
| And fuming high the silver censer swung | T |
| When rich hued windows from the arches' height | U |
| Poured o'er the shrines a soft and yellow light | U |
| From aisle to aisle amid the service clear | V |
| When 'Adoremus' swelled upon the ear | C |
| Such as to Heaven thy rapt attention drew | W |
| First in the Christian churches of Peru | W |
| She seemed methought some spirit of the sky | G |
| Descending to that holy harmony | F |
| But wherefore tell when life and hope were new | W |
| How by degrees the soul's first passion grew | W |
| I loved her and I won her virgin heart | Q |
| But fortune whispered we a while must part | Q |
| The minster tolled the middle hour of night | U |
| When waked to agony and wild affright | U |
| I heard those words words of appalling dread | U |
| 'The Holy Inquisition ' from the bed | U |
| I started snatched my dagger and my cloak | X |
| Who dare accuse me none in answer spoke | X |
| The demons seized in silence on their prey | A |
| And tore me from my dreams of bliss away | A |
| How frightful was their silence and their shade | U |
| In torch light as their victim they conveyed | U |
| By dark inscribed and massy windowed walls | Y |
| Through the dim twilight of terrific halls | Y |
| For thou hast heard me speak of that foul stain | Z |
| Of pure religion and the rights of Spain | Z |
| Whilst the high windows shook to night's cold blast | U |
| And echoed to the foot fall as we passed | U |
| They left me faint and breathless with affright | U |
| In a cold cell to solitude and night | U |
| Oh think what horror through the heart must thrill | A2 |
| When the last bolt was barred and all at once was still | A2 |
| Nor day nor night was here but a deep gloom | B2 |
| Sadder than darkness wrapped the living tomb | B2 |
| Some bread and water nature to sustain | Z |
| Duly was brought when eve returned again | C2 |
| And thus I knew hoping it were the last | U |
| Another day of lingering life was passed | U |
| Five years immured in that deep den of night | U |
| I never saw the sweet sun's blessed light | U |
| Once as the grate with sullen sound was barred | U |
| And to the bolts the inmost cavern jarred | U |
| Methought I heard as clanged the iron door | P |
| A dull and hollow echo from the floor | P |
| I stamped the vault and winding caves around | U |
| Returned a long and melancholy sound | U |
| With patient toil I raised a massy stone | N |
| And looked into a depth of shade unknown | N |
| The murky twilight of the lurid place | D2 |
| Helped me at length a secret way to trace | D2 |
| I entered step by step explored the road | U |
| In darkness from my desolate abode | U |
| Till winding through long passages of night | U |
| I saw at distance a dim streak of light | U |
| It was the sun the bright the blessed beam | K |
| Of day I knelt I wept the glittering stream | K |
| Rolled on beneath me as I left the cave | E2 |
| Concealed in woods above the winding wave | E2 |
| I rested on a verdant bank a while | F2 |
| I saw around the summer landscape smile | F2 |
| I gained a peasant's hut nor dared to leave | G2 |
| Till with slow step advanced the glimmering eve | G2 |
| Remembering still affection's fondest hours | H2 |
| I turned my footsteps to the city towers | H2 |
| In pilgrim's dress I traced the streets unknown | N |
| No light in Leonora's lattice shone | N |
| The morning came the busy tumult swells | I2 |
| Knolling to church I heard the minster bells | I2 |
| Involuntary to that scene I strayed | U |
| Disguised where first I saw my faithful maid | U |
| I saw her pallid at the altar stand | U |
| And yield half shrinking her reluctant hand | U |
| She turned her head she saw my hollow eyes | J2 |
| And knew me wasted wan in my disguise | J2 |
| She shrieked and fell breathless I left the fane | Z |
| In agony nor saw her form again | C2 |
| And from that day her voice her look were given | R |
| Her name her memory to the winds of heaven | R |
| Far off I bent my melancholy way | A |
| Heart sick and faint and in this gown of gray | A |
| From every human eye my sorrows hid | U |
| Unknown amidst the tumult of Madrid | U |
| Grief in my heart despair upon my look | K2 |
| With no companion save my beads and book | K2 |
| My morsel with Affliction's sons to share | B |
| To tend the sick and poor my only care | B |
| Forgotten thus I lived till day by day | A |
| Had worn nigh thirteen years of grief away | A |
| One winter's night when I had closed my cell | D |
| And bid the labours of the day farewell | D |
| An aged crone approached with panting breath | L2 |
| And bade me hasten to the house of death | L2 |
| I came With moving lips intent to pray | A |
| A dying woman on a pallet lay | A |
| Her lifted hands were wasted to the bone | N |
| And ghastly on her look the lamp light shone | N |
| Beside the bed a pious daughter stands | M2 |
| Silent and weeping kisses her pale hands | M2 |
| Feebly she spoke and raised her languid head | U |
| Forgive forgive they told me he was dead | U |
| But in the sunshine of that dreadful day | A |
| That gave me to another's arms away | A |
| I saw him like a ghost with deadly stare | B |
| I saw his wasted eye balls' ghastly glare | B |
| I saw his lips oh hide them God of love | N2 |
| I saw his livid lips half muttering move | O2 |
| To curse the maid forgetful of her vow | P2 |
| Perhaps he lives to curse to curse me now | P2 |
| He lives to bless I cried and drawing nigh | G |
| Held up the crucifix her heavy eye | G |
| She raised and scarce pronounced Does he yet live | Q2 |
| Can he his lost his dying child forgive | R2 |
| Will God forgive the Lord who bled will He | F |
| Ah no there is no mercy left for me | F |
| Words were but vain and colours all too faint | U |
| That awful moment of despair to paint | U |
| She knew me her exhausted breath with pain | Z |
| Drawing she pressed my hand and spoke again | C2 |
| By a false guardian's cruel wiles deceived | U |
| The tale of fraudful falsehood I believed | U |
| And thought thee dead he gave the stern command | U |
| And bade me take the rich Antonio's hand | U |
| I knelt implored embraced my guardian's knees | S2 |
| Ruthless inquisitor he held the keys | S2 |
| Of the dark torture house Trembling for life | T2 |
| Yes I became a sad heart broken wife | T2 |
| Yet curse me not of every human care | B |
| Already my full heart has had its share | B |
| Abandoned left in youth to want and woe | U2 |
| Oh let these tears that agonising flow | U2 |
| Witness how deep ev'n now my heart is rent | U |
| Yet one is lovely one is innocent | U |
| Protect protect and faint in death she smiled | U |
| When I am dead protect my orphan child | U |
| The dreadful prison that so long detained | U |
| My wasting life her dying words explained | U |
| The wretched priest who wounded me by stealth | V2 |
| Bartered her love her innocence for wealth | V2 |
| I laid her bones in earth the chanted hymn | W2 |
| Echoed along the hollow cloister dim | W2 |
| I heard far off the bell funereal toll | X2 |
| And sorrowing said Now peace be with her soul | X2 |
| Far o'er the Western Ocean I conveyed | U |
| And Indiana called the orphan maid | U |
| Beneath my eye she grew and | U |
William Lisle Bowles
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