The Monster Diamond Poem Rhyme Scheme

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A TALE OF THE PENAL COLONY OF WEST AUSTRALIA	A
	-
	-
'I LL have it I tell you Curse you there '	-
The long knife glittered was sheathed and was bare	B
The sawyer staggered and tripped and fell	C
And falling he uttered a frightened yell	C
His face to the sky he shuddered and gasped	D
And tried to put from him the man he had grasped	D
A moment before in the terrible strife	E
'I'll have it I tell you or have your life	E
Where is it ' The sawyer grew weak but still	F
His brown face gleamed with a desperate will	F
'Where is it ' he heard and the red knife's drip	G
In his slayer's hand fell down on his lip	G
'Will you give it ' 'Never ' A curse the knife	E
Was raised and buried	H
	-
Thus closed the life	E
Of Samuel Jones known as 'Number Ten'	I
On his Ticket of Leave and of all the men	I
In the Western Colony bond or free	J
None had manlier heart or hand than he	J
	-
In digging a sawpit while all alone	I
For his mate was sleeping Sam struck a stone	I
With the edge of the spade and it gleamed like fire	K
And looked at Sam from its bed in the mire	L
Till he dropped the spade and stooped and raised	M
The wonderful stone that glittered and blazed	M
As if it were mad at the spade's rude blow	N
But its blaze set the sawyer's heart aglow	N
As he looked and trembled then turned him round	O
And crept from the pit and lay on the ground	O
Looking over the mold heap at the camp	P
Where his mate still slept Then down to the swamp	Q
He ran with the stone and washed it bright	R
And felt like a drunken man at the sight	R
Of a diamond pure as spring water and sun	I
And larger than ever man's eyes looked on	I
	-
Then down sat Sam with the stone on his knees	S
And fancies came to him like swarms of bees	S
To a sugar creamed hive and he dreamed awake	T
Of the carriage and four in which he'd take	T
His pals from the Dials to Drury Lane	I
The silks and the satins for Susan Jane	I
The countless bottles of brandy and beer	U
He'd call for and pay for and every year	U
The dinner he'd give to the Brummagem lads	V
He'd be king among cracksmen and chief among pads	V
And he'd sport a	A
Over him stooped his mate	W
A pick in his hand and his face all hate	W
Sam saw the shadow and guessed the pick	X
And closed his dream with a spring so quick	X
The purpose was baffled of Aaron Mace	Y
And the sawyer mates stood face to face	Y
Sam folded his arms across his chest	Z
Having thrust the stone in his loose shirt breast	Z
While he tried to think where he dropped the spade	A2
But Aaron Mace wore a long keen blade	A2
In his belt he drew it sprang on his man	I
What happened you read when the tale began	I
	-
Then he looked the murderer Aaron Mace	Y
At the gray blue lines in the dead man's face	Y
And he turned away for he feared its frown	I
More in death than life Then he knelt him down	I
Not to pray but he shrank from the staring eyes	B2
And felt in the breast for the fatal prize	B2
And this was the man and this was the way	C2
That he took the stone on its natal day	C2
And for this he was cursed for evermore	D2
By the West Australian Koh i nor	D2
	-
In the half dug pit the corpse was thrown	I
And the murderer stood in the camp alone	I
Alone No no never more was he	J
To part from the terrible company	J
Of that gray blue face and the bleeding breast	Z
And the staring eyes in their awful rest	Z
The evening closed on the homicide	E2
And the blood of the buried sawyer cried	E2
Through the night to God and the shadows dark	F2
That crossed the camp had the stiff and stark	F2
And horrible look of a murdered man	I
Then he piled the fire and crept within	I
The ring of its light that closed him in	I
Like tender mercy and drove away	C2
For a time the specters that stood at bay	C2
And waited to clutch him as demons wait	W
Shut out from the sinner by Faith's bright gate	W
But the fire burnt low and the slayer slept	G2
And the key of his sleep was always kept	G2
By the leaden hand of him he had slain	I
That oped the door but to drench the brain	I
With agony cruel The night wind crept	G2
Like a snake on the shuddering form that slept	G2
And dreamt and woke and shrieked for there	B
With its gray blue lines and its ghastly stare	B
Cutting into the vitals of Aaron Mace	Y
In the flickering light was the sawyer's face	Y
Evermore 'twas with him that dismal sight	R
The white face set in the frame of night	R
	-
He wandered away from the spot but found	O
No inch of the West Australian ground	O
Where he could hide from the bleeding breast	Z
Or sink his head in a dreamless rest	Z
	-
And always with him he bore the prize	B2
In a pouch of leather the staring eyes	B2
Might burn his soul but the diamond's gleam	H2
Was solace and joy for the haunted dream	H2
	-
So the years rolled on while the murderer's mind	I2
Was bent on a futile quest to find	I2
A way of escape from the blood stained soil	J2
And the terrible wear of the penal toil	J2
	-
But this was a part of the diamond's curse	K2
The toil that was heavy before grew worse	K2
Till the panting wretch in his fierce unrest	Z
Would clutch the pouch as it lay on his breast	Z
And waking cower with sob and moan	I
Or shriek wild curses against the stone	I
That was only a stone for he could not sell	C
And he dare not break and he feared to tell	C
Of his wealth so he bore it through hopes and fears	L2
His God and his devil for years and years	L2
	-
And thus did he draw near the end of his race	Y
With a form bent double and horror lined face	Y
And a piteous look as if asking for grace	Y
Or for kindness from some one but no kind word	M2
Was flung to his misery shunned abhorred	N2
E'en by wretches themselves till his life was a curse	K2
And he thought that e'en death could bring nothing worse	K2
Than the phantoms that stirred at the diamond's weight	W
His own life's ghost and the ghost of his mate	W
So he turned one day from the haunts of men	I
And their friendless faces an old man then	I
In a convict's garb with white flowing hair	B
And a brow deep seared with the word 'Despair '	-
He gazed not back as his way he took	O2
To the untrod forest and oh the look	O2
The piteous look in his sunken eyes	B2
Told that life was the bitterest sacrifice	P2
	-
But little was heard of his later days	Q2
'Twas deemed in the West that in change of ways	Q2
He tried with his tears to wash out the sin	I
'Twas told by some natives who once came in	I
From the Kojunnp Hills that lonely there	B
They had seen a figure with long white hair	B
They encamped close by where his hut was made	A2
And were scared at night when they saw he prayed	A2
To the white man's God and on one wild night	R
They had heard his voice till the morning light	R
	-
Years passed and a sandal wood cutter stood	R2
At a ruined hut in a Kojunup wood	R2
The rank weeds covered the desolate floor	D2
And an ant hill stood on the fallen door	D2
The cupboard within to the snakes was loot	S2
And the hearth was the home of the bandicoot	S2
But neither at hut nor snake nor rat	T2
Was the woodcutter staring intent but at	T2
A human skeleton clad in gray	C2
The hands clasped over the breast as they	C2
Had fallen in peace when he ceased to pray	C2
	-
As the bushman looked on the form he saw	U2
In the breast a paper he stooped to draw	U2
What might tell him the story but at his touch	V2
From under the hands rolled a leathern pouch	W2
And he raised it too on the paper's face	Y
He read 'Ticket of Leave of Aaron Mace '	-
Then he opened the pouch and in dazed surprise	B2
At its contents strange he unblessed his eyes	B2
'Twas a lump of quartz a pound weight in full	X2
And it fell from his hand on the skeleton's skull	Y2

John Boyle O'reilly

The Monster Diamond Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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