The Princes Quest - Part The Sixth Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Even as one voice the great sea sang From out	A
The green heart of the waters round about	A
Welled as a bubbling fountain silverly	B
The overflowing song of the great sea	C
Until the Prince by dint of listening long	D
Divined the purport of that mystic song	D
For so do all things breathe articulate breath	E
Into his ears who rightly harkeneth	E
And if indeed he heard that harmony	C
Aright in this wise came the song of the sea	C
	-
'Behold all ye that stricken of love do lie	B
Wherefore in manacles of a maiden's eye	B
Lead ye the life of bondmen and of slaves	F
Lo in the caverns and the depths of Me	C
A thousand mermaids dwell beneath the waves	F
A thousand maidens meet for love have I	B
Ev'n I the virgin hearted cold chaste sea	C
Behold all ye that weary of life do lie	B
There is no rest at all beneath the sky	B
Save in the nethermost deepness of the deep	G
Only the silence and the midst of Me	C
Can still the sleepless soul that fain would sleep	G
For such a cool death and a sweet have I	B
Ev'n I the crystal hearted cool sweet sea	C
Behold all ye that in my lap do lie	B
To love is sweet and sweeter still to die	B
And woe to him that laugheth me to scorn	H
Lo in a little while the anger of Me	C
Shall make him mourn the day that he was born	H
For in mine hour of wrath no ruth have I	B
Ev'n I the tempest hearted pitiless sea '	-
	-
So sang the waters if indeed 'twere they	E
That sang unto the Prince's ears that day	E
Since in the ship was not a soul besides	I
Could hear that burden of the voiceful tides	I
For when he told the sailors of this thing	J
And ev'n what words the waters seemed to sing	J
They stared astonishment and some that had	K
More churlish souls than others held him mad	K
And laughed before his face outright But when	L
The captain heard the gossip of his men	L
Touching this marvel the strange news begot	M
No merry mood in him who wist not what	N
Should be the meaning of the miracle	B
Nor whether 'twere an omen good or ill	B
Wherefore the old seafarer having heard	O
The tale retold with many an afterword	O
The mariners' own most fruitful wit supplied	O
To grace the telling took the Prince aside	O
And ask'd him sundry questions privily	B
Concerning this same singing of the sea	C
So the Prince told him all there was to tell	B
And when that he had heard the old man fell	B
To meditating much and shook his head	O
As one exceeding ill at ease and said	O
'I doubt the singing thou hast heard was no	P
Voice of the waters billowing below	P
But rather of some evil spirit near	Q
Who sought with singing to beguile thine ear	R
Spreading a snare to catch the soul of thee	C
In meshes of entangling melody	C
Which taketh captive the weak minds of men	L
Therefore if thou should'st hear the sound again	L
Look thou content thee not with hearkening	J
But cast thine eyes around and mark what thing	J
Thou se st and let no man know but me '	-
	-
So spake the white haired wanderer of the sea	C
And on the morrow when the sealine grew	S
O'erhazed with visible heat and no wind blew	S
And the half stifled morning dropt aswoon	L
Into the panting bosom of the noon	L
There came into the Prince's ears anew	L
The song that yestermorn had hearkened to	L
And lifting up his eyes in hope to see	C
What lips they were that made such melody	C
And filled him with the fulness of their sound	O
He saw the sun at highest of his round	O
Show as a shield with one dark bloodstain blurred	O
By reason of the body of some great bird	O
Like to an eagle with wide wings outspread	O
Athwart the sunfire hovering duskly red	O
So to the master of the ship he told	O
What he had witnessed bidding him behold	O
The marvel with his own eyes if he would	O
Who though he strained his vision all he could	O
Yet might not once endure to look the sun	L
I' the face and calling to him one by one	L
The whole ship's crew he bade each mariner look	J
Sunward who could but no man's eyes might brook	J
The glare upon them of the noontide rays	T
And lidless fervour of that golden gaze	T
So none of them beheld the bodeful bird	O
	-
Then said the greybeard captain hardly heard	O
Amid the babble of voices great and small	B
'The bird thou se st is no bird at all	B
But some unholy spirit in guise of one	L
And I do fear that we are all undone	L
If any amongst us hearken to its voice	U
For of its mouth I doubt not was the noise	V
Thou heardest as of dulcet carolling	J
When at thine ear the waters seemed to sing '	-
	-
And truly many a wiser man than he	C
Herein had farther strayed from verity	C
For that great bird that seemed to fan the sun's	W
Face with its wings was even the same as once	X
Flew screaming westward o'er the Prince's head	O
Beguiling him to follow where it fled	O
And bird it was not but a spirit of ill	B
Man hating and of mankind hated still	B
And slave to one yet mightier demon sprite	O
Whose dwelling is the shadow of the night	O
	-
So the days passed and always on the next	O
The bird sprite like a baleful vision vexed	O
The happy hearted sunlight and each time	Y
Its false sweet song was wedded to the rhyme	Y
And chime of wind and wave although it dropped	O
As honey changed to music the Prince stopped	O
His ears and would not hear and so the Sprite	O
Seeing his charm d songcraft of no might	O
Him to ensnare who hearkened not at all	B
On the tenth day with dreadful noise let fall	B
A tempest shaken from the wings of him	Z
Whereat the eyes of heaven wox thunderous dim	Z
Till the day darkness blinded them and fell	B
Holding the world in night unseasonable	B
And from his beak d mouth the demon blew	B
A breath as of a hundred winds and flew	B
Downward aswoop upon the labouring bark	J
And covered of the blear untimely Dark	J
Clutch'd with his gripple claws the Prince his prey	E
And backward through the tempest soared away	E
Bearing that royal burden and his eyes	A2
Were wandering wells of lightning to the skies	A2
	-
Long time the Prince was held in swound and knew	B
Nor outer world nor inner as they flew	B
From darkness unto darkness till at last	O
The fierce flight over and his body cast	O
Somewhere alone in a strange place the life	B2
Stirred in him faintly as at feeble strife	B2
With covetous Death for ownership of him	Z
And 'fore his eyes the world began to swim	Z
All vague and doubtful as a dream that lies	A2
Folded within another petal wise	A2
And therewithal himself but half believed	O
His own eyes' testimony and perceived	O
The things that were about him as who hears	C2
A distant music throbbing toward his ears	D2
At noontide in a flowery hollow of June	L
And listens till he knows not if the tune	L
And he be one or twain or near or far	E2
But only feels that sound and perfume are	E2
And tremulous light and leafy umbrage so	P
The Prince beheld unknowing nor fain to know	P
	-
About him was a ruinous fair place	F2
Which Time who still delighteth to abase	F2
The highest and throw down what men do build	O
With splendid prideful barrenness had filled	O
And dust of immemorial dreams and breath	E
Of silence which is next of kin to death	E
A weedy wilderness it seemed that was	F2
In days forepast a garden but the grass	F2
Grew now where once the flowers and hard by	B
A many throated fountain had run dry	B
Which erst all day a web of rainbows wove	G2
Out of the body of the sun its love	H2
And but a furlong's space beyond there towered	O
In middest of that silent realm deflowered	O
A palace builded of black marble whence	F2
The shadow of a swart magnificence	F2
Falling upon the outer space begot	O
A dream of darkness when the night was not	O
Which while the Prince beheld a wonderment	O
Laid hold upon him that he rose and went	O
Toward the palace portico apace	F2
Thinking to read the riddle of the place	F2
And entering in for open was the door	I2
From hall to hall he passed from floor to floor	I2
Through all the spacious house and saving where	J2
The subtile spider had his darksome lair	J2
No living creature could he find in it	O
Howbeit by certain writing that was writ	O
Upon the wall of one dark room and bare	J2
He guessed that some great sorcerer had there	J2
Inhab	B

William Watson

The Princes Quest - Part The Sixth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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