The Prioress-s Tale [from Chaucer] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CDCDE FG GHII CJCJJKK KCKCCLM C NKOKKFF PCQCCCC CGCMLKC RCSCCFF F CMCTFF F F CMCTMCC F CKCKKFF F FFFFFC F FCFCCG C CCCC K KKFF UKUKKF CFCFFCC C C CC F CQCVKCK F CCCCCWN F CCCCCCC F FFFFF F CCCCCXX CXCXXCC YFYFFMT RL| 'Call up him who left half told | A |
| The story of Cambuscan bold ' | B |
| - | |
| I | - |
| - | |
| 'O LORD our Lord how wondrously ' quoth she | C |
| 'Thy name in this large world is spread abroad | D |
| For not alone by men of dignity | C |
| Thy worship is performed and precious laud | D |
| But by the mouths of children gracious God | E |
| Thy goodness is set forth they when they lie | - |
| Upon the breast thy name do glorify | - |
| - | |
| II | - |
| - | |
| 'Wherefore in praise the worthiest that I may | F |
| Jesu of thee and the white Lily flower | G |
| Which did thee bear and is a Maid for aye | - |
| To tell a story I will use my power | G |
| Not that I may increase her honour's dower | H |
| For she herself is honour and the root | I |
| Of goodness next her Son our soul's best boot | I |
| - | |
| III | - |
| - | |
| 'O Mother Maid O Maid and Mother free | C |
| O bush unburnt burning in Moses' sight | J |
| That down didst ravish from the Deity | C |
| Through humbleness the spirit that did alight | J |
| Upon thy heart whence through that glory's might | J |
| Conceived was the Father's sapience | K |
| Help me to tell it in thy reverence | K |
| - | |
| IV | - |
| - | |
| 'Lady thy goodness thy magnificence | K |
| Thy virtue and thy great humility | C |
| Surpass all science and all utterance | K |
| For sometimes Lady ere men pray to thee | C |
| Thou goest before in thy benignity | C |
| The light to us vouchsafing of thy prayer | L |
| To be our guide unto thy Son so dear | M |
| - | |
| V | C |
| - | |
| 'My knowledge is so weak O blissful Queen | N |
| To tell abroad thy mighty worthiness | K |
| That I the weight of it may not sustain | O |
| But as a child of twelvemonths old or less | K |
| That laboureth his language to express | K |
| Even so fare I and therefore I thee pray | F |
| Guide thou my song which I of thee shall say | F |
| - | |
| VI | - |
| - | |
| 'There was in Asia in a mighty town | P |
| 'Mong Christian folk a street where Jews might be | C |
| Assigned to them and given them for their own | Q |
| By a great Lord for gain and usury | C |
| Hateful to Christ and to his company | C |
| And through this street who list might ride and wend | C |
| Free was it and unbarred at either end | C |
| - | |
| VII | - |
| - | |
| 'A little school of Christian people stood | C |
| Down at the farther end in which there were | G |
| A nest of children come of Christian blood | C |
| That learned in that school from year to year | M |
| Such sort of doctrine as men used there | L |
| That is to say to sing and read also | K |
| As little children in their childhood do | C |
| - | |
| VIII | - |
| - | |
| 'Among these children was a Widow's son | R |
| A little scholar scarcely seven years old | C |
| Who day by day unto this school hath gone | S |
| And eke when he the image did behold | C |
| Of Jesu's Mother as he had been told | C |
| This Child was wont to kneel adown and say | F |
| 'Ave Marie ' as he goeth by the way | F |
| - | |
| IX | F |
| - | |
| 'This Widow thus her little Son hath taught | C |
| Our blissful Lady Jesu's Mother dear | M |
| To worship aye and he forgat it not | C |
| For simple infant hath a ready ear | T |
| Sweet is the holiness of youth and hence | F |
| Calling to mind this matter when I may | F |
| Saint Nicholas in my presence standeth aye | - |
| For he so young to Christ did reverence | F |
| - | |
| X | F |
| - | |
| 'This little Child while in the school he sate | C |
| His Primer conning with an earnest cheer | M |
| The whilst the rest their anthem book repeat | C |
| The 'Alma Redemptoris' did he hear | T |
| And as he durst he drew him near and near | M |
| And hearkened to the words and to the note | C |
| Till the first verse he learned it all by rote | C |
| - | |
| XI | F |
| - | |
| 'This Latin knew he nothing what it said | C |
| For he too tender was of age to know | K |
| But to his comrade he repaired and prayed | C |
| That he the meaning of this song would show | K |
| And unto him declare why men sing so | K |
| This oftentimes that he might be at ease | F |
| This child did him beseech on his bare knees | F |
| - | |
| XII | F |
| - | |
| 'His Schoolfellow who elder was than he | F |
| Answered him thus 'This song I have heard say | F |
| Was fashioned for our blissful Lady free | F |
| Her to salute and also her to pray | F |
| To be our help upon our dying day | F |
| If there is more in this I know it not | C |
| Song do I learn small grammar I have got ' | - |
| - | |
| XIII | F |
| - | |
| ''And is this song fashioned in reverence | F |
| Of Jesu's Mother ' said this Innocent | C |
| 'Now certes I will use my diligence | F |
| To con it all ere Christmas tide be spent | C |
| Although I for my Primer shall be shent | C |
| And shall be beaten three times in an hour | G |
| Our Lady I will praise with all my power ' | - |
| - | |
| XIV | - |
| - | |
| 'His Schoolfellow whom he had so besought | C |
| As they went homeward taught him privily | - |
| And then he sang it well and fearlessly | - |
| From word to word according to the note | C |
| Twice in a day it passed through his throat | C |
| Homeward and schoolward whensoe'er he went | C |
| On Jesu's Mother fixed was his intent | C |
| - | |
| XV | - |
| - | |
| 'Through all the Jewry this before said I | - |
| This little Child as he came to and fro | K |
| Full merrily then would he sing and cry | - |
| O 'Alma Redemptoris ' high and low | K |
| The sweetness of Christ's Mother pierced so | K |
| His heart that her to praise to her to pray | F |
| He cannot stop his singing by the way | F |
| - | |
| XVI | - |
| - | |
| 'The Serpent Satan our first foe that hath | U |
| His wasp's nest in Jew's heart upswelled 'O woe | K |
| O Hebrew people ' said he in his wrath | U |
| 'Is it an honest thing Shall this be so | K |
| That such a Boy where'er he lists shall go | K |
| In your despite and sing his hymns and saws | F |
| Which is against the reverence of our laws ' | - |
| - | |
| XVII | - |
| - | |
| 'From that day forward have the Jews conspired | C |
| Out of the world this Innocent to chase | F |
| And to this end a Homicide they hired | C |
| That in an alley had a privy place | F |
| And as the Child 'gan to the school to pace | F |
| This cruel Jew him seized and held him fast | C |
| And cut his throat and in a pit him cast | C |
| - | |
| XVIII | - |
| - | |
| 'I say that him into a pit they threw | C |
| A loathsome pit whence noisome scents exhale | - |
| O cursed folk away ye Herods new | C |
| What may your ill intentions you avail | - |
| Murder will out certes it will not fail | - |
| Know that the honour of high God may spread | C |
| The blood cries out on your accursed deed | C |
| - | |
| XIX | F |
| - | |
| 'O Martyr 'stablished in virginity | C |
| Now may'st thou sing for aye before the throne | Q |
| Following the Lamb celestial ' quoth she | C |
| 'Of which the great Evangelist Saint John | V |
| In Patmos wrote who saith of them that go | K |
| Before the Lamb singing continually | C |
| That never fleshly woman they did know | K |
| - | |
| XX | F |
| - | |
| 'Now this poor widow waiteth all that night | C |
| After her little Child and he came not | C |
| For which by earliest glimpse of morning light | C |
| With face all pale with dread and busy thought | C |
| She at the School and elsewhere him hath sought | C |
| Until thus far she learned that he had been | W |
| In the Jews' street and there he last was seen | N |
| - | |
| XXI | F |
| - | |
| 'With Mother's pity in her breast enclosed | C |
| She goeth as she were half out of her mind | C |
| To every place wherein she hath supposed | C |
| By likelihood her little Son to find | C |
| And ever on Christ's Mother meek and kind | C |
| She cried till to the Jewry she was brought | C |
| And him among the accursed Jews she sought | C |
| - | |
| XXII | F |
| - | |
| 'She asketh and she piteously doth pray | F |
| To every Jew that dwelleth in that place | F |
| To tell her if her child had passed that way | F |
| They all said Nay but Jesu of his grace | F |
| Gave to her thought that in a little space | F |
| She for her Son in that same spot did cry | - |
| Where he was cast into a pit hard by | - |
| - | |
| XXIII | F |
| - | |
| 'O thou great God that dost perform thy laud | C |
| By mouths of Innocents lo here thy might | C |
| This gem of chastity this emerald | C |
| And eke of martyrdom this ruby bright | C |
| There where with mangled throat he lay upright | C |
| The 'Alma Redemptoris' 'gan to sing | X |
| So loud that with his voice the place did ring | X |
| - | |
| XXIV | - |
| - | |
| 'The Christian folk that through the Jewry went | C |
| Come to the spot in wonder at the thing | X |
| And hastily they for the Provost sent | C |
| Immediately he came not tarrying | X |
| And praiseth Christ that is our heavenly King | X |
| And eke his Mother honour of Mankind | C |
| Which done he bade that they the Jews should bind | C |
| - | |
| XXV | - |
| - | |
| 'This Child with piteous lamentation then | Y |
| Was taken up singing his song alway | F |
| And with procession great and pomp of men | Y |
| To the next Abbey him they bare away | F |
| His Mother swooning by the body lay | F |
| And scarcely could the people that were near | M |
| Remove this second Rachel from the bier | T |
| - | |
| XXVI | - |
| - | |
| 'Torment and shameful death to every one | R |
| This Provost doth for those bad Jews prepare | L |
William Wordsworth
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About The Prioress-s Tale [from Chaucer]
The Prioress-s Tale [from Chaucer] is a poem by William Wordsworth. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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