The Sanctuary: A Dramatic Sketch Poem Rhyme Scheme

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 2 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Wonderful Women
by Umaru Kanneh Boima
Freedom To Scratch In Peace
by Olute Aete
Happy New Year
by Felix Menda
Human Beings
by Dana Graslie
Lust
by Wisdom Greatness
An Isolated Tree's Song
by Sayeed Abubakar
A Strange Boy
by Sayeed Abubakar
O Soil
by Sayeed Abubakar
No War, No War-monger
by Sayeed Abubakar
Night's Town
by Sayeed Abubakar

Popular Poets

1. Emily Dickinson(2414 poems)
2. Madison Julius Cawein(1231 poems)
3. Ella Wheeler Wilcox(1136 poems)
4. William Wordsworth(1016 poems)
5. Robert Burns(986 poems)
6. Edgar Albert Guest(945 poems)
7. Thomas Moore(849 poems)
8. Robert Service(831 poems)

William Lisle Bowles

The Sanctuary: A Dramatic Sketch Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Write your comment about The Sanctuary: A Dramatic Sketch poem by William Lisle Bowles

Recent Interactions*

New Poems

Popular Poets

In this wise the Duke of Gloucester took upon himself the order and governance of the young King whom with much honour and humble reverence he conveyed towards London But the tidings of this matter came hastily to the Queen a little before the midnight following and that in secret wise her son was taken her brother and other friends arrested and sent no man wist whither to be done with God wot what With which tidings the Queen with great heaviness bewailed her child's reign her friend's mischance and her own misfortune damning the time that ever she dissuaded the gathering of powers about the King got herself in all haste possible with her young son and her daughter out of the palace of Westminster in which they then lay into the Sanctuary lodging herself and company there in the Abbott's place Speed's History of England book ix	A
	-
	-
SCENE I	B
	-
Elizabeth widow of Edward IV in the palace of Westminster watching her youngest son Richard sleeping	C
	-
ELIZ The minster clock tolls midnight I have watched	D
Night after night and heard the same sad sound	E
Knolling the same sad sound night after night	F
As if amid the world's deep silence Time	G
Pausing a moment in his onward flight	F
From yonder solitary moonlit pile	H
More awful spoke as with a voice from heaven	I
Of days and hours departed and of those	A
That are not till like dreams of yesterday	J
The very echo dies	A
Oh my poor child	K
Thou hast been long asleep by the pale lamp	L
I sit and watch thy slumbers thy calm lids	A
Are closed thy lips just parted one hand lies	A
Upon thy breast that scarce is seen to heave	M
Beneath it and thy breath so still is drawn	N
Save to a sleepless mother's listening ear	O
It were inaudible and see a smile	H
Seems even now lighting on thy lip dear boy	P
As thou wert dreaming of delightful things	A
In some celestial region of sweet sounds	A
Or summer fields and skies without a cloud	Q
Ah how unlike this dark and troubled world	R
Let not one kiss awaken thee one kiss	A
Mingled with tears and prayer to God in heaven	I
So dream and never never may those eyes	A
Awake suffused with tears as mine are now	S
To think that life's best hopes are such a dream	T
Now sleeps the city through its vast extent	U
That restless as the ocean waves at morn	V
With its ten thousand voices shall awake	W
Lifting the murmur of its multitude	X
To heaven's still gate Now all is hushed as death	Y
None are awake save those who wake to weep	Z
Like me save those who meditate revenge	A2
Or beckon muttering Murder God of heaven	I
From the hyena panting for their blood	B2
Oh save my youthful Edward and poor child	K
Preserve thy innocence to happier hours	A
Hark There is knocking at the western gate	C2
	-
A messenger enters and announces to her that her brother had been arrested on the road by the Duke of Glo'ster	O
	-
ELIZ O my poor child thou sleepest now in peace	A
Wilt thou sleep thus another year shall I	B
Hang o'er thee with a mother's look of love	D2
Thus bend beside thy bed thus part the hair	O
Upon thy forehead and thus kiss thy cheek	E2
Richard awake the tiger is abroad	F2
We must to sanctuary instantly	G2
	-
Richard awaking	E2
	-
RICH Oh I have had the sweetest dreams dear mother	O
Methought my brother Edward and myself	H2
And	I2
	-
ELIZ Come these are no times to talk of dreams	A
We must to sanctuary my poor boy	P
We'll talk of dreams hereafter Kneel with me	G2
	-
Takes him from his couch and kisses him	J2
	-
RICH Mother why do you weep and tremble so	A
	-
ELIZ I have a pain at heart Come stir thee boy	P
Lift up thy innocent hands to Heaven here kneel	K2
And pray with me before this crucifix	A
	-
Her daughters enter and they all kneel together	O
	-
	-
SCENE II	B
	-
The Sanctuary at Westminster	O
	-
RICH O my dear mother why do we sit here	O
Amid these dusky walls and arches dim	J2
When it is summer in the fields without	L2
And sunshine Say is not my brother king	E2
Why will he not come here to play with me	G2
Shall I not see my brother	O
	-
ELIZ My own child	K
Oh let me hide these tears upon thy head	M2
Thy brother shalt thou see him Yes I hope	N2
Come I will tell a tale There was a boy	P
Who had a cruel uncle	O2
	-
RICH I have heard	P2
My uncle Glo'ster was a cruel man	Q2
But he was always kind to me and said	M2
That I should be a king if Edward died	R2
I'd rather be a bird to fly away	J
Or sing	E2
	-
ELIZ The serpent's eye of fire	O
With slow and deadly glare poor bird I fear	O
Is fixed on thee and Edward God avert it	S2
	-
RICH And therefore must not I go out to play	J
	-
ELIZ Go play among the tombs I will go too	T2
Go play with skulls and bones or see the train	U2
Of sceptred kings come slowly through the gloom	V2
And widowed queens move in the shroud of death	Y
Along the glimmering aisles and hollow vaults	A
Would I were with them I shall be so soon	W2
	-
RICH Mother methought I saw him yesterday	J
	-
ELIZ Saw whom	V2
	-
RICH My father and he seemed to look	E2
I cannot say how sadly Could it be	G2
His spirit He was armed but very pale	X2
And sorrowful his countenance I heard	P2
No sound of footsteps when he moved away	J
And disappeared among the distant tombs	A
In further darkness	A
	-
ELIZ O my son my son	I
Thou hadst a king thy father he is dead	M2
Thou hadst been happier as a peasant's child	K
	-
RICH Oh how I wish I were a shepherd's boy	P
For then dear mother I would run and play	J
With Edward and we two in primrose time	G
Would wander out among the villages	A
Or go a Maying by some river's side	R2
And mark the minnow shoals when morning shone	Y2
Upon the yellow gravel shoot away	J
Beneath the old gray arch or bring home cowslips	A
For all my sisters for Elizabeth	Z2
And you dear mother if you would not weep so	A
	-
ELIZ Richard break not my heart give me your hand	A3
And kneel with me by this cold monument	B3
Spirit of my loved husband now in heaven	I
If at this moment thou dost see thy son	I
And me thus broken hearted oh if aught	B3
Yet human touches thee assist these prayers	A
That him and me and my poor family	G2
God in the hour of peril may protect	B3
Let not my heart yet break	E2
Come my poor boy	P
	-
	-
SCENE III	B
	-
The Cardinal of York Queen Richard	B3
	-
ELIZ Now my Lord Cardinal what is the will	C3
Of our great lords with me Your Grace well knows	A
I am a helpless woman have no power	O
My only wish for what of life remains	A
Prayer and repose and for my poor child here	O
Safety	G2
	-
CAR The Council madam wish no less	A
But for your son they deem his durance here	O
Breeds ill report This separation too	B3
Of those in blood allied almost of years	A
The same who have been cradled in one lap	D3
What can it say but that one brother stands	A
In peril of the other And besides	A
Were it not for the comfort of them both	E3
That they should be together Sport not care	O
Becomes their early years	A
	-
ELIZ I say not nay	J
It is most fitting that my youngest son	I
Were with the king his brother in good faith	F3
I know it would be comfort to them both	E3
But when I think upon the tender years	A
Even of the eldest I must also think	E2
A mother's custody were best for either	O
You have no children else I would not ask	E2
Is there a guardian like a mother's love	D2
Richard look up This good man here intends	A
No harm to me or you Look up my boy	P
No power on earth nothing but death itself	H2
Shall sever us	A
What would you more my Lord	B3
	-
CAR Madam no man contendeth that your Grace	A
Is not the fittest guardian of your child	B3
And tenderest but if so it pleases you	B3
Here to lie hid shut out from all the world	B3
Be it for humour or for jealousy	G2
We hold it meetest that no power on earth	G3
Should so detain a brother of the King	E2
And let me add when reasons of the state	B3
Required the absence of your eldest son	I
Yourself were well content	B3
	-
ELIZ Not very well	H3
Nor is the case the same one was in health	I3
The other here declines and let me marvel	O2
That he the Lord Protector of this realm	J3
Should wish him out for should aught ill betide	B3
Suspicion in some tempers might arise	A
Against the keeping of his Grace My Lord	B3
Do they complain that my child Richard here	O
Is with his desolate and widowed mother	O
Who has no other comfort Do they claim	K3
His presence for that here his residence	A
Consorts not with his fortunes I am fixed	B3
Not to come forth and jeopardy his life	L3
	-
CAR Jeopardy Where and how why should indeed	B3
Your friends have any fears Can you say why	B
	-
ELIZ Truly nor why in prison they should be	G2
As now they are I know no reason why	B
But this I know that they who without colour	O
Have cast them into prison if they will	C3
Their deaths may compass with as little cause	A
My Lord no more of this	A
	-
CAR My gracious queen	M3
This only let me say if by arrest	B3
Your Grace's high and honourable kin	N3
Be now confined when trial has been had	B3
They shall do well and for your Grace's self	H2
There never was nor can be jeopardy	G2
	-
ELIZ Why should I trust That I am innocent	B3
And were they guilty That I am more loved	B3
Even by those enemies who only hate	B3
Them for my sake	E2
Therefore I will not forth	O3
Nor shall my son here will we both abide	B3
These shrines shall be the world to him and me	G2
These monuments our sad companions	A
Or when as now the morning sunshine streams	A
Slant from the rich hued window's height and rests	A
On yonder tomb it shall discourse to me	G2
Of the brief sunshine in the gloom of life	L3
No of heaven's light upon the silent grave	P3
Of the tired traveller's eternal home	Q3
Of hope and joy beyond this vale of tears	A
	-
CAR Then pardon me We will not bandy words	A
Further If it shall please you generous queen	M3
To yield your son I pledge my life and soul	R3
Not only for a surety but estate	B3
If resolutely still you answer no	A
We shall forthwith depart for nevermore	O
Will I be suitor in this business	A
Unto your Majesty who thus accuse	A
Either of want of knowledge or of truth	S3
Those who would stake their lives on the event	B3
Madam farewell	H3
	-
ELIZ after a pause Stay let me think again	T3
If you say sooth and I have found you ever	O
My Lord a faithful friend and counsellor	O
Into your hands I here resign in trust	B3
My dearest treasure upon earth my son	I
Of you I will require him before Heaven	I
Yet for the love which his dead father bore you	B3
For kindnesses of old and for that trust	B3
The king my husband ever placed in you	B3
Think if a wretched mother fear too much	U3
Oh think and be you wary lest you fear	O
Too little	O2
My poor child here then we part	B3
Richard Almighty God shower on your head	B3
His blessings when your mother is no more	O
Farewell my own sweet son Yet ere we part	B3
Kiss me again God only knows poor babe	V3
Whether in this world we shall meet again	T3
Nay my boy Richard let me dry thy tears	A
Or hide them in my bosom dearest child	B3
God's blessing rest with thee farewell farewell	H3
My heart is almost broken oh farewell	H3