The Princes' Quest - Part The Seventh Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DEFGGHH IIJJIIKKLLLMNNII OOPPQQPPIIIIRRLLGG PPPPPPSSPPTTKKUUP PPPVVHHIIWWPPIIXXQQY YKKZZA2A2KKYY B2C2PPD2D2LLIILLLLII A2A2QQIIPPPP IIE2E2LLF2F2IIIIIILL IIE2E2ZZG2G2L LIIIIRRA2A2

But Sleep who makes a mist about the senseA
Doth ope the eyelids of the soul and thenceA
Lifteth a heavier cloud than that wherebyB
He veils the vision of the fleshly eyeB
And not alone by dreams doth Sleep make knownC
The seal d things and covert not aloneC
In-
visionsD
of the night do mortals hearE
The fatal feet and whispering wings draw nearF
But dimly and in darkness doth the soulG
Drink of the streams of slumber as they rollG
And win fine secrets from their waters deepH
Yea of a truth the spirit doth grow in sleepH
-
Howbeit I know not whether as he sleptI
A voice from out the depth of dream upleaptI
And whispered in his ear or whether heJ
Grew to the knowledge blindly as a treeJ
Waxes from bloom to fruitage knowing notI
The manner of its growth but this I wotI
That rising from that sleep beside the springK
The Prince had knowledge of a certain thingK
Whereof he had not wist until that hourL
To wit that two contending spirits had powerL
OverL
hisM
spirit ruling him with swayN
Altern as 'twere dominion now of DayN
And now of Dark for one was of the lightI
And one was of the blackness of the nightI
-
Now there be certain evil spirits whomO
The mother of the darkness in her wombO
Conceived ere darkness' self and one of theseP
Did rule that island of the middle seasP
Hemmed round with silence and enchantment dimQ
Nothing in all the world so pleasured himQ
As filling human hearts with dolorousnessP
And banning where another sprite did blessP
But chiefly did his malice take delightI
In thwarting lovers' hopes and breathing blightI
Into the blossoms newly open dI
Of sweet desire till all of sweet were fledI
And for he knew what secret hopes did fillR
The minds of men 'twas even now his willR
To step between the Prince and his desireL
Nor suffer him to fare one furlong nigherL
Unto that distant shining golden goalG
That beacon'd through the darkness to his soulG
-
And so the days the sultry summer daysP
Went by and wimpled over with fine hazeP
The noiseless nights stole after them as stealsP
The moon made shadow at some traveller's heelsP
And day by day and night by night the PrinceP
Dwelt in that island of enchantment sinceP
The hour when Evil Hap in likeness ofS
An eagle swooping from the clouds aboveS
Did bind him body and soul unto that placeP
And in due time the summer waxed apaceP
And in due time the summer waned and nowT
The withered leaf had fallen from the boughT
And now the winter came and now the springK
Yea summer's self was toward on the wingK
From wandering overseas and all this whileU
The Prince abode in that enchanted isleU
Marvelling much at Fortune and her waysP
-
And by degrees the slowly sliding daysP
Gathered themselves together into yearsP
And oftentimes his spirit welled in tearsP
From dawn to darkness and from dark to dawnV
By reason of the light of life withdrawnV
And if the night brought sleep a fitful sleepH
The phantoms of a buried time would creepH
Out of their hollow hiding places vastI
Peopling his Present from the wizard PastI
Sometimes between the whirl of dream and dreamW
All in a doubtful middle world a gleamW
Went shivering past him through the chill grey spaceP
And lo he knew it for his mother's faceP
And wept and all the silence where he stoodI
Wept with him And at times the dreamer wouldI
Dream himself back beneath his father's roofX
At eventide and there would hold aloofX
In silence clothed upon with shadows dimQ
To hear if any spake concerning himQ
But the hours came and went and went and cameY
And no man's mouth did ever name his nameY
And year by year he saw the queen and kingK
Wax older and beheld a shadowy thingK
Lurking behind them till it came betweenZ
His dreamsight and the semblance of the queenZ
From which time forth he saw her not and whenA2
Another year had been it came againA2
And after that he saw his sire the kingK
No more by reason of the shadowy thingK
Stepping between and all the place becameY
As darkness and the echo of a nameY
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
What need to loiter o'er the chronicleB2
Of days that brought no change What boots it tellC2
The tale of hours whereof each moment wasP
As like its fellow as one blade of grassP
Is to another when the dew doth fallD2
Without respect of any amongst them allD2
Enow that time in that enchanted airL
Nor slept nor tarried more than otherwhereL
And so at last the captive lived to seeI
The fiftieth year of his captivityI
And on a day within that fiftieth yearL
He wandered down unto the beach to hearL
The breaking of the breakers on the shoreL
As he had heard them ofttimes heretoforeL
In days when he would sit and watch the seaI
If peradventure there some ship might beI
But now his soul no longer yearned as thenA2
To win her way back to the world of menA2
For what could now his freedom profit himQ
The hope that filled youth's beaker to its brimQ
The tremulous hand of age had long outspilledI
And whence might now the vessel be refilledI
Moreover after length of days and yearsP
The soul had ceased to beat her barriersP
And like a freeborn bird that cag d singsP
Had grown at last forgetful of her wingsP
-
And so he took his way toward the seaI
Not as in former days if haply heI
Might spy some ship upon the nether blueE2
And beckon with his hands unto the crewE2
But rather with an easeful heart to hearL
What things the waves might whisper to his earL
Of counsel wise and comfortable speechF2
But while he walked about the yellow beachF2
There came upon his limbs an heavinessI
For languor of the sultry time's excessI
And so he lay him down under a treeI
Hard by a little cove and there the seaI
Sang him to sleep And sleeping thus he dreamedI
A dream of very wonderment himseemedI
The spirit that half an hundred years beforeL
In likeness of an eagle came and boreL
His body to that island on a dayI
Came yet again and found him where he layI
And taking him betwixt his talons flewE2
O'er seas and far off countries till they drewE2
Nigh to a city that was built betweenZ
Four mountains in a pleasant land and greenZ
And there upon the highest mountain's topG2
The bird that was no bird at all let dropG2
Its burthen and was seen of him no moreL
-
Thereat he waked and issuing from the doorL
Of dream did marvel in his heart becauseI
He found he had but dreamed the thing that wasI
For there assuredly was neither seaI
Nor Isle Enchanted and assuredlyI
He sat upon the peak of a great hillR
And far below him looking strangely stillR
Uptowered a city exceeding fair to kenA2
And murmurous with multitude of menA2

William Watson



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