The Ride Back Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCA BDBEB FGFGF HIHIH JKJKJ LMLML NOPON MIMIM QMQMQ RSRSR TMTMT IMIUI IVIVIBefore the coming of the dark he dreamed | A |
An old world faded story of a knight | B |
Much like in need to him who was no knight | B |
And of a road much like the road his soul | C |
Groped over desperate to meet Her soul | C |
Beside the bed Death waited And he dreamed | A |
- | |
- | |
His limbs were heavy from the fight | B |
His mail was dark with dust and blood | D |
On his good horse they bound him tight | B |
And on his breast they bound the rood | E |
To help him in the ride that night | B |
- | |
When he crashed through the wood's wet rim | F |
About the dabbled reeds a breeze | G |
Went moaning broken words and dim | F |
The haggard shapes of twilight trees | G |
Caught with their scrawny hands at him | F |
- | |
Between the doubtful aisles of day | H |
Strange folk and lamentable stood | I |
To maze and beckon him astray | H |
But through the grey wrath of the wood | I |
He held right on his bitter way | H |
- | |
When he came where the trees were thin | J |
The moon sat waiting there to see | K |
On her worn palm she laid her chin | J |
And laughed awhile in sober glee | K |
To think how strong this knight had been | J |
- | |
When he rode past the pallid lake | L |
The withered yellow stems of flags | M |
Stood breast high for his horse to break | L |
Lewd as the palsied lips of hags | M |
The petals in the moon did shake | L |
- | |
When he came by the mountain wall | N |
The snow upon the heights looked down | O |
And said The sight is pitiful | P |
The nostrils of his steed are brown | O |
With frozen blood and he will fall | N |
- | |
The iron passes of the hills | M |
With question were importunate | I |
And but the sharp tongued icy rills | M |
Had grown for once compassionate | I |
The spiteful shades had had their wills | M |
- | |
Just when the ache in breast and brain | Q |
And the frost smiting at his face | M |
Had sealed his spirit up with pain | Q |
He came out in a better place | M |
And morning lay across the plain | Q |
- | |
He saw the wet snails crawl and cling | R |
On fern stalks where the rime had run | S |
The careless birds went wing and wing | R |
And in the low smile of the sun | S |
Life seemed almost a pleasant thing | R |
- | |
Right on the panting charger swung | T |
Through the bright depths of quiet grass | M |
The knight's lips moved as if they sung | T |
And through the peace there came to pass | M |
The flattery of lute and tongue | T |
- | |
From the mid flowering of the mead | I |
There swelled a sob of minstrelsy | M |
Faint sackbuts and the dreamy reed | I |
And plaintive lips of maids thereby | U |
And songs blown out like thistle seed | I |
- | |
Forth from her maidens came the bride | I |
And as his loosened rein fell slack | V |
He muttered In their throats they lied | I |
Who said that I should ne'er win back | V |
To kiss her lips before I died | I |
William Vaughn Moody
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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