The Card-dealer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDBEFGHIHJKLKMKLN OOLOKKOKPKFQKQRQOSKS TSOUVUCUOQWQXQ| Could you not drink her gaze like wine | A |
| Yet though its splendour swoon | B |
| Into the silence languidly | C |
| As a tune into a tune | B |
| Those eyes unravel the coiled night | D |
| And know the stars at noon | B |
| The gold that's heaped beside her hand | E |
| In truth rich prize it were | F |
| And rich the dreams that wreathe her brows | G |
| With magic stillness there | H |
| And he were rich who should unwind | I |
| That woven golden hair | H |
| Around her where she sits the dance | J |
| Now breathes its eager heat | K |
| And not more lightly or more true | L |
| Fall there the dancers' feet | K |
| Than fall her cards on the bright board | M |
| As 'twere a heart that beat | K |
| Her fingers let them softly through | L |
| Smooth polished silent things | N |
| And each one as it falls reflects | O |
| In swift light shadowings | O |
| Blood red and purple green and blue | L |
| The great eyes of her rings | O |
| Whom plays she with With thee who lov'st | K |
| Those gems upon her hand | K |
| With me who search her secret brows | O |
| With all men bless'd or bann'd | K |
| We play together she and we | P |
| Within a vain strange land | K |
| A land without any order | F |
| Day even as night one saith | Q |
| Where who lieth down ariseth not | K |
| Nor the sleeper awakeneth | Q |
| A land of darkness as darkness itself | R |
| And of the shadow of death | Q |
| What be her cards you ask Even these | O |
| The heart that doth but crave | S |
| More having fed the diamond | K |
| Skilled to make base seem brave | S |
| The club for smiting in the dark | T |
| The spade to dig a grave | S |
| And do you ask what game she plays | O |
| With me 'tis lost or won | U |
| With thee it is playing still with him | V |
| It is not well begun | U |
| But 'tis a game she plays with all | C |
| Beneath the sway o' the sun | U |
| Thou seest the card that falls she knows | O |
| The card that followeth | Q |
| Her game in thy tongue is called Life | W |
| As ebbs thy daily breath | Q |
| When she shall speak thou'lt learn her tongue | X |
| And know she calls it Death | Q |
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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