Hattie Howard

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The Charity Ball Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEFFGGDD HHIIJJDD KKLLMMDD NNOOPPDD NNQQARDD NNSSTTDD

There was many a token of festal displayA
And reveling crowds who were never so gayA
And as it were AEolus charming the hoursB
An orchestra hidden by foliage and flowersB
There were tapestries fit for the home of a queenC
And mirrors that glistened in wonderful sheenC
There was feasting and mirth in the banqueting hallD
For this was the annual Charity BallD
-
There were pompous civilians in wealth who abideE
Displaying their purses the source of their prideE
And plethoric dealers in margins and stocksF
And owners of acres of elegant blocksF
And tenement landlords who cling to a centG
When from the poor widow exacting her rentG
Immovable stern as an adamant wallD
And yet who came down to this Charity BallD
-
There was Beauty whose toilet superb and uniqueH
Cost underpaid industry many a weekH
Of arduous labor of eye and heartacheI
Its starving inadequate pittance to makeI
There were mischievous maidens and cavaliers boldJ
Whose blushes and glances and coquetry toldJ
A tale of the monarch who held them in thrallD
Who met as by chance at the Charity BallD
-
There were delicate viands the poor never tasteK
And dollars were lavished in prodigal wasteK
To pamper the palate of epicures richL
Who drew from the wine cellar's cavernous nicheL
Excelsior brands of the rarest champagnesM
To loosen their tongues though it pilfered their brainsM
Oh sad if a step in some woeful downfallD
Should ever be traced to a Charity BallD
-
Outside of the window pressed close to the paneN
And furrowed by tears that had fallen like rainN
Was the face of a woman so spectral in hueO
With great liquid eyes like twin oceans of blueO
And cheeks in whose hollows were written the linesP
That pitiless hunger so often definesP
Who muttered as closer she gathered the shawlD
Oh never for me is this Charity BallD
-
From liveried hirelings who bade her begoneN
By uniformed minions compelled to move onN
Out into the street again driven to roamQ
For friends she had none neither fortune nor homeQ
While carnival goers in morning's dull grayA
As homeward returning fatigued and blaseR
A vision encountered their hearts to appallD
And banish all thought of the Charity BallD
-
As if seeking warmth from the icy curb stoneN
A form half reclining half clad and unknownN
Dead eyes looking up with a meaningless stareS
Lay close to the crowded and broad thoroughfareS
A form so emaciate the spirit had fledT
But the pulpit and press and the public all saidT
As society's doings they sought to recallD
That a brilliant success was the Charity BallD

Hattie Howard



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