Old Love Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IFIF JDJD KLKL DMDM KNKN OPQP RKKK QSOT MUMV WXWX RYRY KGKG ZRZR A2B2A2B2| You must be very old Sir Giles | A |
| I said he said Yea very old | B |
| Whereat the mournfullest of smiles | A |
| Creased his dry skin with many a fold | B |
| - | |
| They hammer'd out my basnet point | C |
| Into a round salade he said | D |
| The basnet being quite out of joint | C |
| Natheless the salade rasps my head | D |
| - | |
| He gazed at the great fire awhile | E |
| And you are getting old Sir John | F |
| He said this with that cunning smile | E |
| That was most sad we both wear on | F |
| - | |
| Knights come to court and look at me | G |
| With eyebrows up except my lord | H |
| And my dear lady none I see | G |
| That know the ways of my old sword | H |
| - | |
| My lady at that word no pang | I |
| Stopp'd all my blood But tell me John | F |
| Is it quite true that Pagans hang | I |
| So thick about the east that on | F |
| - | |
| The eastern sea no Venice flag | J |
| Can fly unpaid for True I said | D |
| And in such way the miscreants drag | J |
| Christ's cross upon the ground I dread | D |
| - | |
| That Constantine must fall this year | K |
| Within my heart these things are small | L |
| This is not small that things outwear | K |
| I thought were made for ever yea all | L |
| - | |
| All things go soon or late I said | D |
| I saw the duke in court next day | M |
| Just as before his grand great head | D |
| Above his gold robes dreaming lay | M |
| - | |
| Only his face was paler there | K |
| I saw his duchess sit by him | N |
| And she she was changed more her hair | K |
| Before my eyes that used to swim | N |
| - | |
| And make me dizzy with great bliss | O |
| Once when I used to watch her sit | P |
| Her hair is bright still yet it is | Q |
| As though some dust were thrown on it | P |
| - | |
| Her eyes are shallower as though | R |
| Some grey glass were behind her brow | K |
| And cheeks the straining bones show through | K |
| Are not so good for kissing now | K |
| - | |
| Her lips are drier now she is | Q |
| A great duke's wife these many years | S |
| They will not shudder with a kiss | O |
| As once they did being moist with tears | T |
| - | |
| Also her hands have lost that way | M |
| Of clinging that they used to have | U |
| They look'd quite easy as they lay | M |
| Upon the silken cushions brave | V |
| - | |
| With broidery of the apples green | W |
| My Lord Duke bears upon his shield | X |
| Her face alas that I have seen | W |
| Look fresher than an April field | X |
| - | |
| This is all gone now gone also | R |
| Her tender walking when she walks | Y |
| She is most queenly I well know | R |
| And she is fair still As the stalks | Y |
| - | |
| Of faded summer lilies are | K |
| So is she grown now unto me | G |
| This spring time when the flowers star | K |
| The meadows birds sing wonderfully | G |
| - | |
| I warrant once she used to cling | Z |
| About his neck and kiss'd him so | R |
| And then his coming step would ring | Z |
| Joy bells for her some time ago | R |
| - | |
| Ah sometimes like an idle dream | A2 |
| That hinders true life overmuch | B2 |
| Sometimes like a lost heaven these seem | A2 |
| This love is not so hard to smutch | B2 |
William Morris
(1)
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