The Casket Of Opals Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCDDEDFEFFDD GHIDHDJ GIGDDKK L LDMD NODO L DPDPQHQHDDDD A L RKK BFBSTTFUFUOVVF TFTWBBF A BBMMDD L DMDM DXDX YZYZ BDBD DVDV A2DA2D A2 BVBVDB2DM L FXFMDC2BBBF L A2NA2BDA2DA2 L DDDD D2DD2D E2DE2D A2BA2B A2 DDC2C2 L B2F2B2F2 BC2BC2 DBDB BDBD DVDV A2 BB L VVA2DA2VD DDMG2MDG2 H2H2I2DI2H2D D2D2BBBD2B BBGVGBV L J2BJ2BMK2MK2A2DA2DDD DDLBLBBL2BL2LDLDI | A |
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Deep smoldering colors of the land and sea | B |
Burn in these stones that by some mystery | B |
Wrap fire in sleep and never are consumed | C |
Scarlet of daybreak sunset gleams half spent | D |
In thick white cloud pale moons that may have lent | D |
Light to love's grieving rose illumined snows | E |
And veins of gold no mine depth ever gloomed | D |
All these and green of thin edged waves are there | F |
I think a tide of feeling through them flows | E |
With blush and pallor as if some being of air | F |
Some soul once human wandering in the snare | F |
Of passion had been caught and henceforth doomed | D |
In misty crystal here to lie entombed | D |
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And so it is indeed Here prisoned sleep | G |
The ardors and the moods and all the pain | H |
That once within a man's heart throbbed He gave | I |
These opals to the woman whom he loved | D |
And now like glinting sunbeams through the rain | H |
The rays of thought that through his spirit moved | D |
Leap out from these mysterious forms again | J |
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The colors of the jewels laugh and weep | G |
As with his very voice In them the wave | I |
Of sorrow and joy that with a changing sweep | G |
Bore him to misery or else made him blest | D |
Still surges in melodious wild unrest | D |
So when each gem in place I touch and take | K |
It murmurs what he thought or what he spake | K |
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FIRST OPAL | L |
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My heart is like an opal | L |
Made to lie upon your breast | D |
In dreams of ardor clouded o'er | M |
By endless joy's unrest | D |
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And forever it shall haunt you | N |
With its mystic changing ray | O |
Its light shall live when we lie dead | D |
With hearts at the heart of day | O |
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SECOND OPAL | L |
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If from a careless hold | D |
One gem of these should fall | P |
No power of art or gold | D |
Its wholeness could recall | P |
The lustrous wonder dies | Q |
In gleams of irised rain | H |
As light fades out from the eyes | Q |
When a soul is crushed by pain | H |
Take heed that from your hold | D |
My love you do not cast | D |
Dim shattered vapor cold | D |
That day would be its last | D |
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II | A |
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THIRD OPAL | L |
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He won her love and so this opal sings | R |
With all its tints in maze that seem to quake | K |
And leap in light as if its heart would break | K |
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Gleam of the sea | B |
Translucent air | F |
Where every leaf alive with glee | B |
Glows in the sun without shadow of grief | S |
You speak of spring | T |
When earth takes wing | T |
And sunlight sunlight is everywhere | F |
Radiant life | U |
Face so fair | F |
Crowned with the gracious glory of wife | U |
Your glance lights all this happy day | O |
Your tender glow | V |
And murmurs low | V |
Make miracle miracle everywhere | F |
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Earth takes wing | T |
With birds do I care | F |
Whether of sorrow or joy they sing | T |
No for they make not my life nor destroy | W |
My soul awakes | B |
At a smile that breaks | B |
In sun and sunlight is everywhere | F |
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III | A |
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Then dawned a mood of musing thoughtfulness | B |
As if he doubted whether he could bless | B |
Her wayward spirit through each fickle hour | M |
With love's serenity of flawless power | M |
Or she remain a vision as when first | D |
She came to soothe his fancy all athirst | D |
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FOURTH OPAL | L |
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We were alone the perfumed night | D |
Moonlighted like a flower | M |
Grew round us and exhaled delight | D |
To bless that one sweet hour | M |
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You stood where 'mid the white and gold | D |
The rose fire through the gloom | X |
Touched hair and cheek and garment's fold | D |
With soft ethereal bloom | X |
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And when the vision seemed to swerve | Y |
'T was but the flickering shine | Z |
That gave new grace a lovelier curve | Y |
To every dream like line | Z |
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O perfect vision Form and face | B |
Of womanhood complete | D |
O rare ideal to embrace | B |
And hold from head to feet | D |
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Could I so hold you ever could | D |
Your eye still catch the glow | V |
Of mine it were an endless good | D |
Together we should grow | V |
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One perfect picture of our love | A2 |
Alas the embers old | D |
Fell and the moonlight fell above | A2 |
Dim shattered vapor cold | D |
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IV | A2 |
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What ill befell these lovers Shall I say | B |
What tragedy of petty care and sorrow | V |
Ye all know who have lived and loved if nay | B |
Then those will know who live and love tomorrow | V |
But here at least is what this opal said | D |
The fifth in number and the next two bore | B2 |
My fancy toward that dim world of the dead | D |
Where waiting spirits muse the past life o'er | M |
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FIFTH OPAL | L |
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I dreamed my kisses on your hair | F |
Turned into roses Circling bloom | X |
Crowned the loose lifted tresses there | F |
O Love I cried forever | M |
Dwell wreathed and perfume haunted | D |
By my heart's deep honey breath | C2 |
But even as I bending looked I saw | B |
The roses were not and instead there lay | B |
Pale feathered flakes and scentless | B |
Ashes upon your hair | F |
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SIXTH OPAL | L |
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The love I gave the love I gave | A2 |
Wherewith I sought to win you | N |
Ah long and close to you it clave | A2 |
With life and soul and sinew | B |
My gentleness with scorn you cursed | D |
You knew not what I gave | A2 |
The strongest man may die of thirst | D |
My love is in its grave | A2 |
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SEVENTH OPAL | L |
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You say these jewels were accurst | D |
With evil omen fraught | D |
You should have known it from the first | D |
This was the truth they taught | D |
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No treasured thing in heaven or earth | D2 |
Holds potency more weird | D |
Than our hearts hold that throb from birth | D2 |
With wavering flames insphered | D |
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And when from me the gems you took | E2 |
On that strange April day | D |
My nature too I gave that shook | E2 |
With passion's fateful play | D |
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The mingled fate my love should give | A2 |
In these mute emblems shone | B |
That more intensely burn and live | A2 |
While I am turned to stone | B |
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V | A2 |
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Listen now to what is said | D |
By the eighth opal flashing red | D |
And pale by turns with every breath | C2 |
The voice of the lover after death | C2 |
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EIGHTH OPAL | L |
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I did not know before | B2 |
That we dead could rise and walk | F2 |
That our voices as of yore | B2 |
Would blend in gentle talk | F2 |
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I did not know her eyes | B |
Would so haunt mine after death | C2 |
Or that she could hear my sighs | B |
Low as the harp string's breath | C2 |
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But ah last night we met | D |
From our stilly trance we rose | B |
Thrilled with all the old regret | D |
The grieving that God knows | B |
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She asked Am I forgiven | B |
And dost thou forgive I said | D |
Ah how long for joy we'd striven | B |
But now our hearts were dead | D |
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Alas for the lips I kissed | D |
And the sweet hope long ago | V |
On her grave chill hangs the mist | D |
On mine white lies the snow | V |
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VI | A2 |
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Hearkening still I hear this strain | B |
From the ninth opal's varied vein | B |
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NINTH OPAL | L |
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In the mountains of Mexico | V |
Where the barren volcanoes throw | V |
Their fierce peaks high to the sky | A2 |
With the strength of a tawny brute | D |
That sees heaven but to defy | A2 |
And the soft white hand of the snow | V |
Touches and makes them mute | D |
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Firm in the clasp of the ground | D |
The opal is found | D |
By the struggle of frost and fire | M |
Created yet caught in a spell | G2 |
From which only human desire | M |
Can free it what passion profound | D |
In its dim sweet bosom may dwell | G2 |
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So was it with us I think | H2 |
Whose souls were formed on the brink | H2 |
Of a crater where rain and flame | I2 |
Had mingled and crystallized | D |
One venturous day Love came | I2 |
Found us and bound with a link | H2 |
Of gold the jewels he prized | D |
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The agonies old of the earth | D2 |
Its plenitude and its dearth | D2 |
The torrents of flame and of tears | B |
All these in our souls were inborn | B |
And we must endure through the years | B |
The glory and burden of birth | D2 |
That filled us with fire of the morn | B |
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Let the diamond lie in its mine | B |
Let ruby and topaz shine | B |
The beryl sleep and the emerald keep | G |
Its sunned leaf green We know | V |
The joy of sufferings deep | G |
That blend with a love divine | B |
And the hidden warmth of the snow | V |
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TENTH OPAL | L |
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Colors that tremble and perish | J2 |
Atoms that follow the law | B |
You mirror the truth which we cherish | J2 |
You mirror the spirit we saw | B |
Glow of the daybreak tender | M |
Flushed with an opaline gleam | K2 |
And passionate sunset splendor | M |
Ye both but embody a dream | K2 |
Visions of cloud hidden glory | A2 |
Breaking from sources of light | D |
Mimic the mist of life's story | A2 |
Mingled of scarlet and white | D |
Sunset clouds iridescent | D |
Opals and mists of the day | D |
Are thrilled alike with the crescent | D |
Delight of a deathless ray | D |
Shot through the hesitant trouble | L |
Of particles floating in space | B |
And touching each wandering bubble | L |
With tints of a rainbowed grace | B |
So through the veil of emotion | B |
Trembles the light of the truth | L2 |
And so may the light of devotion | B |
Glorify life age and youth | L2 |
Sufferings pangs that seem cruel | L |
These are but atoms adrift | D |
The light streams through and a jewel | L |
Is formed for us Heaven's own gift | D |
George Parsons Lathrop
(1)
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