Aspiring Miss De Laine Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AAABBCCDD EEEFFGGHH IIJJKKLLGG MMNNHHOOPPJJQQQRR STSTEEUUAA LLQQPPAAVG JJGGPPHHGGQQHHWWGGUU OOGGXXSSJJYYY JJUUGGG UUJJSSGGUUUPPZZGGAA A2A2NNJJQQQJQ JJSSUUB2B2C2D2LSGGQQ AAGGE2E2JJ AJZJF2G2 F2H2LLJJJ GGQQI2I2HHJ2J2

Certain facts which serve to explainA
The physical charms of Miss Addie De LaineA
Who as the common reports obtainA
Surpassed in complexion the lily and roseB
With a very sweet mouth and a retrousse noseB
A figure like Hebe's or that which revolvesC
In a milliner's window and partially solvesC
That question which mentor and moralist painsD
If grace may exist minus feeling or brainsD
-
Of course the young lady had beaux by the scoreE
All that she wanted what girl could ask moreE
Lovers that sighed and lovers that sworeE
Lovers that danced and lovers that playedF
Men of profession of leisure and tradeF
But one who was destined to take the high partG
Of holding that mythical treasure her heartG
This lover the wonder and envy of townH
Was a practicing chemist a fellow called BrownH
-
I might here remark that 'twas doubted by manyI
In regard to the heart if Miss Addie had anyI
But no one could look in that eloquent faceJ
With its exquisite outline and features of graceJ
And mark through the transparent skin how the tideK
Ebbed and flowed at the impulse of passion or prideK
None could look who believed in the blood's circulationL
As argued by Harvey but saw confirmationL
That here at least Nature had triumphed o'er artG
And as far as complexion went she had a heartG
-
But this par parenthesis Brown was the manM
Preferred of all others to carry her fanM
Hook her glove drape her shawl and do all that a belleN
May demand of the lover she wants to treat wellN
Folks wondered and stared that a fellow called BrownH
Abstracted and solemn in manner a clownH
Ill dressed with a lingering smell of the shopO
Should appear as her escort at party or hopO
Some swore he had cooked up some villainous charmP
Or love philter not in the regular PharmP
Acopoeia and thus from pure malice prepenseJ
Had bewitched and bamboozled the young lady's senseJ
Others thought with more reason the secret to lieQ
In a magical wash or indelible dyeQ
While Society with its censorious eyeQ
And judgment impartial stood ready to damnR
What wasn't improper as being a shamR
-
For a fortnight the townfolk had all been agogS
With a party the finest the season had seenT
To be given in honor of Miss PollywogS
Who was just coming out as a belle of sixteenT
The guests were invited but one night beforeE
A carriage drew up at the modest back doorE
Of Brown's lab'ratory and full in the glareU
Of a big purple bottle some closely veiled fairU
Alighted and entered to make matters plainA
Spite of veils and disguises 'twas Addie De LaineA
-
As a bower for true love 'twas hardly the oneL
That a lady would choose to be wooed in or wonL
No odor of rose or sweet jessamine's sighQ
Breathed a fragrance to hallow their pledge of troth byQ
Nor the balm that exhales from the odorous thymeP
But the gaseous effusions of chloride of limeP
And salts which your chemist delights to explainA
As the base of the smell of the rose and the drainA
Think of this O ye lovers of sweetness and knowV
What you smell when you snuff up Lubin or PinaudG
-
I pass by the greetings the transports and blissJ
Which of course duly followed a meeting like thisJ
And come down to business for such the intentG
Of the lady who now o'er the crucible leantG
In the glow of a furnace of carbon and limeP
Like a fairy called up in the new pantomimeP
And give but her words as she coyly looked downH
In reply to the questioning glances of BrownH
I am taking the drops and am using the pasteG
And the little white powders that had a sweet tasteG
Which you told me would brighten the glance of my eyeQ
And the depilatory and also the dyeQ
And I'm charmed with the trial and now my dear BrownH
I have one other favor now ducky don't frownH
Only one for a chemist and genius like youW
But a trifle and one you can easily doW
Now listen to morrow you know is the nightG
Of the birthday soiree of that Pollywog frightG
And I'm to be there and the dress I shall wearU
Is too lovely but But what then ma chereU
Said Brown as the lady came to a full stopO
And glanced round the shelves of the little back shopO
Well I want I want something to fill out the skirtG
To the proper dimensions without being girtG
In a stiff crinoline or caged in a hoopX
That shows through one's skirt like the bars of a coopX
Something light that a lady may waltz in or polkS
With a freedom that none but you masculine folkS
Ever know For however poor woman aspiresJ
She's always bound down to the earth by these wiresJ
Are you listening Nonsense don't stare like a spoonY
Idiotic some light thing and spacious and soonY
Something like well in fact something like a balloonY
-
Here she paused and here Brown overcome by surpriseJ
Gave a doubting assent with still wondering eyesJ
And the lady departed But just at the doorU
Something happened 'tis true it had happened beforeU
In this sanctum of science a sibilant soundG
Like some element just from its trammels unboundG
Or two substances that their affinities foundG
-
The night of the anxiously looked for soireeU
Had come with its fair ones in gorgeous arrayU
With the rattle of wheels and the tinkle of bellsJ
And the How do ye do's and the Hope you are well'sJ
And the crush in the passage and last lingering lookS
You give as you hang your best hat on the hookS
The rush of hot air as the door opens wideG
And your entry that blending of self possessed prideG
And humility shown in your perfect bred stareU
At the folk as if wondering how they got thereU
With other tricks worthy of Vanity FairU
Meanwhile the safe topic the beat of the roomP
Already was losing its freshness and bloomP
Young people were yawning and wondering whenZ
The dance would come off and why didn't it thenZ
When a vague expectation was thrilling the crowdG
Lo the door swung its hinges with utterance proudG
And Pompey announced with a trumpet like strainA
The entrance of Brown and Miss Addie De LaineA
-
She entered but oh how imperfect the verbA2
To express to the senses her movement superbA2
To say that she sailed in more clearly might tellN
Her grace in its buoyant and billowy swellN
Her robe was a vague circumambient spaceJ
With shadowy boundaries made of point laceJ
The rest was but guesswork and well might defyQ
The power of critical feminine eyeQ
To define or describe 'twere as futile to tryQ
The gossamer web of the cirrus to traceJ
Floating far in the blue of a warm summer skyQ
-
'Midst the humming of praises and glances of beauxJ
That greet our fair maiden wherever she goesJ
Brown slipped like a shadow grim silent and blackS
With a look of anxiety close in her trackS
Once he whispered aside in her delicate earU
A sentence of warning it might be of fearU
Don't stand in a draught if you value your lifeB2
Nothing more such advice might be given your wifeB2
Or your sweetheart in times of bronchitis and coughC2
Without mystery romance or frivolous scoffD2
But hark to the music the dance has begunL
The closely draped windows wide open are flungS
The notes of the piccolo joyous and lightG
Like bubbles burst forth on the warm summer nightG
Round about go the dancers in circles they flyQ
Trip trip go their feet as their skirts eddy byQ
And swifter and lighter but somewhat too plainA
Whisks the fair circumvolving Miss Addie De LaineA
Taglioni and Cerito well might have pinedG
For the vigor and ease that her movements combinedG
E'en Rigelboche never flung higher her robeE2
In the naughtiest city that's known on the globeE2
'Twas amazing 'twas scandalous lost in surpriseJ
Some opened their mouths and a few shut their eyesJ
-
But hark At the moment Miss Addie De LaineA
Circling round at the outer edge of an ellipseJ
Which brought her fair form to the window againZ
From the arms of her partner incautiously slipsJ
And a shriek fills the air and the music is stillF2
And the crowd gather round where her partner forlornG2
-
Still frenziedly points from the wide window sillF2
Into space and the night for Miss Addie was goneH2
Gone like the bubble that bursts in the sunL
Gone like the grain when the reaper is doneL
Gone like the dew on the fresh morning grassJ
Gone without parting farewell and alasJ
Gone with a flavor of hydrogen gasJ
-
When the weather is pleasant you frequently meetG
A white headed man slowly pacing the streetG
His trembling hand shading his lack lustre eyeQ
Half blind with continually scanning the skyQ
Rumor points him as some astronomical sageI2
Re perusing by day the celestial pageI2
But the reader sagacious will recognize BrownH
Trying vainly to conjure his lost sweetheart downH
And learn the stern moral this story must teachJ2
That Genius may lift its love out of its reachJ2

Bret Harte (francis)



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