The Princes' Quest - Part The Seventh Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DEFGGHH IIJJIIKKLLLMNNII OOPPQQPPIIIIRRLLGG PPPPPPSSPPTTKKUUP PPPVVHHIIWWPPIIXXQQY YKKZZA2A2KKYY B2C2PPD2D2LLIILLLLII A2A2QQIIPPPP IIE2E2LLF2F2IIIIIILL IIE2E2ZZG2G2L LIIIIRRA2A2But Sleep who makes a mist about the sense | A |
Doth ope the eyelids of the soul and thence | A |
Lifteth a heavier cloud than that whereby | B |
He veils the vision of the fleshly eye | B |
And not alone by dreams doth Sleep make known | C |
The seal d things and covert not alone | C |
In | - |
visions | D |
of the night do mortals hear | E |
The fatal feet and whispering wings draw near | F |
But dimly and in darkness doth the soul | G |
Drink of the streams of slumber as they roll | G |
And win fine secrets from their waters deep | H |
Yea of a truth the spirit doth grow in sleep | H |
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Howbeit I know not whether as he slept | I |
A voice from out the depth of dream upleapt | I |
And whispered in his ear or whether he | J |
Grew to the knowledge blindly as a tree | J |
Waxes from bloom to fruitage knowing not | I |
The manner of its growth but this I wot | I |
That rising from that sleep beside the spring | K |
The Prince had knowledge of a certain thing | K |
Whereof he had not wist until that hour | L |
To wit that two contending spirits had power | L |
Over | L |
his | M |
spirit ruling him with sway | N |
Altern as 'twere dominion now of Day | N |
And now of Dark for one was of the light | I |
And one was of the blackness of the night | I |
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Now there be certain evil spirits whom | O |
The mother of the darkness in her womb | O |
Conceived ere darkness' self and one of these | P |
Did rule that island of the middle seas | P |
Hemmed round with silence and enchantment dim | Q |
Nothing in all the world so pleasured him | Q |
As filling human hearts with dolorousness | P |
And banning where another sprite did bless | P |
But chiefly did his malice take delight | I |
In thwarting lovers' hopes and breathing blight | I |
Into the blossoms newly open d | I |
Of sweet desire till all of sweet were fled | I |
And for he knew what secret hopes did fill | R |
The minds of men 'twas even now his will | R |
To step between the Prince and his desire | L |
Nor suffer him to fare one furlong nigher | L |
Unto that distant shining golden goal | G |
That beacon'd through the darkness to his soul | G |
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And so the days the sultry summer days | P |
Went by and wimpled over with fine haze | P |
The noiseless nights stole after them as steals | P |
The moon made shadow at some traveller's heels | P |
And day by day and night by night the Prince | P |
Dwelt in that island of enchantment since | P |
The hour when Evil Hap in likeness of | S |
An eagle swooping from the clouds above | S |
Did bind him body and soul unto that place | P |
And in due time the summer waxed apace | P |
And in due time the summer waned and now | T |
The withered leaf had fallen from the bough | T |
And now the winter came and now the spring | K |
Yea summer's self was toward on the wing | K |
From wandering overseas and all this while | U |
The Prince abode in that enchanted isle | U |
Marvelling much at Fortune and her ways | P |
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And by degrees the slowly sliding days | P |
Gathered themselves together into years | P |
And oftentimes his spirit welled in tears | P |
From dawn to darkness and from dark to dawn | V |
By reason of the light of life withdrawn | V |
And if the night brought sleep a fitful sleep | H |
The phantoms of a buried time would creep | H |
Out of their hollow hiding places vast | I |
Peopling his Present from the wizard Past | I |
Sometimes between the whirl of dream and dream | W |
All in a doubtful middle world a gleam | W |
Went shivering past him through the chill grey space | P |
And lo he knew it for his mother's face | P |
And wept and all the silence where he stood | I |
Wept with him And at times the dreamer would | I |
Dream himself back beneath his father's roof | X |
At eventide and there would hold aloof | X |
In silence clothed upon with shadows dim | Q |
To hear if any spake concerning him | Q |
But the hours came and went and went and came | Y |
And no man's mouth did ever name his name | Y |
And year by year he saw the queen and king | K |
Wax older and beheld a shadowy thing | K |
Lurking behind them till it came between | Z |
His dreamsight and the semblance of the queen | Z |
From which time forth he saw her not and when | A2 |
Another year had been it came again | A2 |
And after that he saw his sire the king | K |
No more by reason of the shadowy thing | K |
Stepping between and all the place became | Y |
As darkness and the echo of a name | Y |
- | |
- | |
- | |
- | |
- | |
- | |
- | |
What need to loiter o'er the chronicle | B2 |
Of days that brought no change What boots it tell | C2 |
The tale of hours whereof each moment was | P |
As like its fellow as one blade of grass | P |
Is to another when the dew doth fall | D2 |
Without respect of any amongst them all | D2 |
Enow that time in that enchanted air | L |
Nor slept nor tarried more than otherwhere | L |
And so at last the captive lived to see | I |
The fiftieth year of his captivity | I |
And on a day within that fiftieth year | L |
He wandered down unto the beach to hear | L |
The breaking of the breakers on the shore | L |
As he had heard them ofttimes heretofore | L |
In days when he would sit and watch the sea | I |
If peradventure there some ship might be | I |
But now his soul no longer yearned as then | A2 |
To win her way back to the world of men | A2 |
For what could now his freedom profit him | Q |
The hope that filled youth's beaker to its brim | Q |
The tremulous hand of age had long outspilled | I |
And whence might now the vessel be refilled | I |
Moreover after length of days and years | P |
The soul had ceased to beat her barriers | P |
And like a freeborn bird that cag d sings | P |
Had grown at last forgetful of her wings | P |
- | |
And so he took his way toward the sea | I |
Not as in former days if haply he | I |
Might spy some ship upon the nether blue | E2 |
And beckon with his hands unto the crew | E2 |
But rather with an easeful heart to hear | L |
What things the waves might whisper to his ear | L |
Of counsel wise and comfortable speech | F2 |
But while he walked about the yellow beach | F2 |
There came upon his limbs an heaviness | I |
For languor of the sultry time's excess | I |
And so he lay him down under a tree | I |
Hard by a little cove and there the sea | I |
Sang him to sleep And sleeping thus he dreamed | I |
A dream of very wonderment himseemed | I |
The spirit that half an hundred years before | L |
In likeness of an eagle came and bore | L |
His body to that island on a day | I |
Came yet again and found him where he lay | I |
And taking him betwixt his talons flew | E2 |
O'er seas and far off countries till they drew | E2 |
Nigh to a city that was built between | Z |
Four mountains in a pleasant land and green | Z |
And there upon the highest mountain's top | G2 |
The bird that was no bird at all let drop | G2 |
Its burthen and was seen of him no more | L |
- | |
Thereat he waked and issuing from the door | L |
Of dream did marvel in his heart because | I |
He found he had but dreamed the thing that was | I |
For there assuredly was neither sea | I |
Nor Isle Enchanted and assuredly | I |
He sat upon the peak of a great hill | R |
And far below him looking strangely still | R |
Uptowered a city exceeding fair to ken | A2 |
And murmurous with multitude of men | A2 |
William Watson
(1)
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