Her Last Letter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCADAD EFGFHIHI JKJKJIJI ALALMMMM NOMOPIQI AKAKPRPR NSNSNTNT DUDUVMVM PIPIMNMN AMAMHMWM AXAXNRNR MIMIYMYM Z AMAMA2IA2I B2MC2MAD2AD2 NNNNAMAMBeing A Reply To His Answer | A |
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June th Do you know what that date means | B |
June th By this air and these pines | C |
Well only you know how I hate scenes | B |
These might be my very last lines | C |
For perhaps sir you'll kindly remember | A |
If some OTHER things you've forgot | D |
That you last wrote the th of DECEMBER | A |
Just six months ago I from this spot | D |
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From this spot that you said was the fairest | E |
For once being held in my thought | F |
Now really I call that the barest | G |
Of well I won't say what I ought | F |
For here I am back from my riches | H |
My triumphs my tours and all that | I |
And YOU'RE not to be found in the ditches | H |
Or temples of Poverty Flat | I |
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From Paris we went for the season | J |
To London when pa wired Stop | K |
Mama says his HEALTH was the reason | J |
I've heard that some things took a drop | K |
But she said if my patience I'd summon | J |
I could go back with him to the Flat | I |
Perhaps I was thinking of some one | J |
Who of me well was not thinking THAT | I |
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Of course you will SAY that I never | A |
Replied to the letter you wrote | L |
That is just like a man But however | A |
I read it or how could I quote | L |
And as to the stories you've heard No | M |
Don't tell me you haven't I know | M |
You'll not believe one blessed word Joe | M |
But just whence they came let them go | M |
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And they came from Sade Lotski of Yolo | N |
Whose father sold clothes on the Bar | O |
You called him Job lotski you know Joe | M |
And the boys said HER value was par | O |
Well we met her in Paris just flaring | P |
With diamonds and lost in a hat | I |
And she asked me how Joseph was faring | Q |
In his love suit on Poverty Flat | I |
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She thought it would shame me I met her | A |
With a look Joe that made her eyes drop | K |
And I said that your love suit fared better | A |
Than any suit out of THEIR shop | K |
And I didn't blush THEN as I'm doing | P |
To find myself here all alone | R |
And left Joe to do all the sueing | P |
To a lover that's certainly flown | R |
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In this brand new hotel called The Lily | N |
I wonder who gave it that name | S |
I really am feeling quite silly | N |
To think I was once called the same | S |
And I stare from its windows and fancy | N |
I'm labeled to each passer by | T |
Ah gone is the old necromancy | N |
For nothing seems right to my eye | T |
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On that hill there are stores that I knew not | D |
There's a street where I once lost my way | U |
And the copse where you once tied my shoe knot | D |
Is shamelessly open as day | U |
And that bank by the spring I once drank there | V |
And you called the place Eden you know | M |
Now I'm banished like Eve though the bank there | V |
Is belonging to Adams and Co | M |
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There's the rustle of silk on the sidewalk | P |
Just now there passed by a tall hat | I |
But there's gloom in this boom and this wild talk | P |
Of the future of Poverty Flat | I |
There's a decorous chill in the air Joe | M |
Where once we were simple and free | N |
And I hear they've been making a mayor Joe | M |
Of the man who shot Sandy McGee | N |
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But there's still the lap lap of the river | A |
There's the song of the pines deep and low | M |
How my longing for them made me quiver | A |
In the park that they call Fontainebleau | M |
There's the snow peak that looked on our dances | H |
And blushed when the morning said Go | M |
There's a lot that remains which one fancies | W |
But somehow there's never a Joe | M |
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Perhaps on the whole it is better | A |
For you might have been changed like the rest | X |
Though it's strange that I'm trusting this letter | A |
To papa just to have it addressed | X |
He thinks he may find you and really | N |
Seems kinder now I'm all alone | R |
You might have been here Joe if merely | N |
To LOOK what I'm willing to OWN | R |
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Well well that's all past so good night Joe | M |
Good night to the river and Flat | I |
Good night to what's wrong and what's right Joe | M |
Good night to the past and all that | I |
To Harrison's barn and its dancers | Y |
To the moon and the white peak of snow | M |
And good night to the canyon that answers | Y |
My Joe with its echo of No | M |
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P S | Z |
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I've just got your note You deceiver | A |
How dared you how COULD you Oh Joe | M |
To think I've been kept a believer | A |
In things that were six months ago | M |
And it's YOU'VE built this house and the bank too | A2 |
And the mills and the stores and all that | I |
And for everything changed I must thank YOU | A2 |
Who have struck it on Poverty Flat | I |
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How dared you get rich you great stupid | B2 |
Like papa and some men that I know | M |
Instead of just trusting to Cupid | C2 |
And to me for your money Ah Joe | M |
Just to think you sent never a word dear | A |
Till you wrote to papa for consent | D2 |
Now I know why they had me transferred here | A |
And the health of papa what THAT meant | D2 |
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Now I know why they call this The Lily | N |
Why the man who shot Sandy McGee | N |
You made mayor 'Twas because oh you silly | N |
He once went down the middle with me | N |
I've been fooled to the top of my bent here | A |
So come and ask pardon you know | M |
That you've still got to get MY consent dear | A |
And just think what that echo said Joe | M |
Bret Harte
(1)
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