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 A2B2A2B2You 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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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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