Analysis of Adieux à Marie Stuart
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
QUEEN, for whose house my fathers fought,
With hopes that rose and fell,
Red star of boyhood’s fiery thought,
Farewell
They gave their lives, and I, my queen,
Have given you of my life,
Seeing your brave star burn high between
Men’s strife.
The strife that lightened round their spears
Long since fell still: so long
Hardly may hope to last in years
My song.
But still through strife of time and thought
Your light on me too fell:
Queen, in whose name we sang or fought,
Farewell.
There beats no heart on either border
Wherethrough the north blasts blow
But keeps your memory as a warder
His beacon-fire aglow.
Long since it fired with love and wonder
Mine, for whose April age
Blithe midsummer made banquet under
The shade of Hermitage.
Soft sang the burn’s blithe notes, that gather
Strength to ring true:
And air and trees and sun and heather
Remembered you.
Old border ghosts of fight or fairy
Or love or teen,
These they forgot, remembering Mary
The Queen.
Queen once of Scots and ever of ours
Whose sires brought forth for you
Their lives to strew your way like flowers,
Adieu.
Dead is full many a dead man’s name
Who died for you this long
Time past: shall this too fare the same,
My song?
But surely, though it die or live,
Your face was worth
All that a man may think to give
On earth.
No darkness cast of years between
Can darken you:
Man’s love will never bid my queen
Adieu.
Love hangs like light about your name
As music round the shell:
No heart can take of you a tame
Farewell.
Yet, when your very face was seen,
Ill gifts were yours for giving:
Love gat strange guerdons of my queen
When living.
O diamond heart unflawed and clear,
The whole world’s crowning jewel!
Was ever heart so deadly dear
So cruel?
Yet none for you of all that bled
Grudged once one drop that fell:
Not one to life reluctant said
Farewell
Strange love they have given you, love disloyal,
Who mock with praise your name,
To leave a head so rare and royal
Too low for praise or blame.
You could not love nor hate, they tell us,
You had nor sense nor sting:
In God’s name, then, what plague befell us
To fight for such a thing?
‘Some faults the gods will give’ to fetter
Man’s highest intent:
But surely you were something better
Than innocent !
No maid that strays with steps unwary
Through snares unseen,
But one to live and die for; Mary,
The Queen.
Forgive them all their praise, who blot
Your fame with praise of you:
Then love may say, and falter not
Adieu.
Yet some you hardly would forgive
Who did you much less wrong
Once: but resentment should not live
Too long.
They never saw your lip’s bright bow,
Your swordbright eyes,
The bluest of heavenly things below
The skies.
Clear eyes that love’s self finds most like
A swordblade’s blue,
A swordblade’s ever keen to strike,
Adieu.
Though all things breathe or sound of fight
That yet make up your spell,
To bid you were to bid the light
Farewell
Farewell the song says only, being
A star whose race is run:
Farewell the soul says never, seeing
The sun.
Yet, wellnigh as with flash of tears,
The song must say but so
That took your praise up twenty years
Ago,
More bright than stars or moons that vary,
Sun kindling heaven and hell,
Here, after all these years, Queen Mary,
Farewell
Scheme | abaB cdcd efeF abaB ghgh gxgx gigi jcjC kikI lflF mnon cicI lblB cpcp qrqr sbsB rlrl tptp gxgx jcjC uiuI ofmf xvhv wiwI xbxB pypy xheh jbjB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (93%) |
Metre | 11111101 111101 11111001 1 11110111 1101111 101111101 11 01110111 111111 10111101 11 11111101 111111 10111111 1 111111010 10111 1111001010 1101001 1111011010 111101 111011010 011100 110111110 1111 010101010 0101 110111110 1111 1101010010 01 1111010110 111111 111111110 01 111100111 111111 11111101 11 11011111 1111 11011111 11 11011101 1101 11110111 01 11110111 110101 11111101 1 11110111 1101110 1111111 110 1101101 0111010 11011101 110 11111111 111111 11110101 1 11111011010 111111 110111010 111111 111111111 111111 011111011 111101 110111110 11001 110101010 1100 111111010 1101 111101110 01 01111111 111111 11110101 01 11110101 111111 11010111 11 11011111 111 0101100101 01 11111111 011 0110111 01 11111111 111111 11101101 1 10111010 011111 10111010 01 1111111 011111 11111101 01 111111110 1101001 110111110 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 3,172 |
Words | 607 |
Sentences | 32 |
Stanzas | 28 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 112 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 90 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:02 min read
- 58 Views
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"Adieux à Marie Stuart" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1259/adieux-%C3%A0-marie-stuart>.
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