The Unhappy One Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAC DDEBFGFG HHII JJKKLLMMIINN D OOBBPP QQ RSSTTUU VW| HE is false to the heart ' she said stern lipped 'he is all untruth | A |
| He promises fair as a tree in blossom and then | B |
| The fruit is rotten ere ripe Tears prayers and youth | A |
| All withered and wasted and still I love this falsest of men ' | C |
| - | |
| Comfort There is no comfort when the soul sees pain like a sun | D |
| It is better to stare at the blinding truth if it blind one woe is done | D |
| We cling to a coward hope when hope has the seed of the pain | E |
| If we tear out the roots of the grief it will never torment again | B |
| Ay even if part of our life is lost and the deep laid nerves | F |
| That carry all joy to the heart are wounded or killed by the knife | G |
| When a gangrene sinks to the bone it is only half death that serves | F |
| And a life with a cureless pain is only half a life | G |
| - | |
| But why unhealed must the spirit endure There are drugs for the body's dole | H |
| Have we wholly lived for the lower life Is there never a balm for the soul | H |
| O Night cry out for the healer of woe for the priest physician cry | I |
| With the pouring oil for the bleeding grief for the life that may not die | I |
| 'He is false to the heart ' she moaned 'and I love him and cannot hate ' | - |
| Then bitterly fiercely 'What have I done my God for such a fate ' | - |
| - | |
| 'Poor heart ' said the Teacher 'for thee and thy sorrow the daily parables speak | J |
| Thy grief that is dark illumes for me a sign that was dim and weak | J |
| In the heart of my garden I planted a tree I had chosen the noblest shoot | K |
| It was sheltered and tended and hope reached out for the future's precious fruit | K |
| The years of its youth flew past and I looked on a spreading tree | L |
| All gloried with maiden blossoms that smiled their promise to me | L |
| I lingered to gaze on their color and shape I knew I had chosen well | M |
| And I smiled at the death that was promise of life as the beautiful petals fell | M |
| But the joy was chilled though the lip laughed on by the withered proof to the eye | I |
| The blossoms had shielded no tender bud but cradled a barren lie | I |
| Before me it lay the mystery the asking the promise the stone | N |
| The tree that should give good fruit was bare the cause unseen unknown | N |
| - | |
| 'But I said ' Next year it shall bourgeon my part shall be faithfully done | D |
| My love shall be doubled I trust my tree for its beautiful strength alone ' | - |
| But tenderness failed and loving care and the chalice of faith was dried | O |
| When the next spring blossoms had spoken their promise smiled at the sun and lied | O |
| The heart of the petals was withered to dust Then for duty I trusted again | B |
| For who should stand if God were to frown on the twice told failures of men | B |
| Unloving I tended with care increased but never a song or smile | P |
| For duty is love that is dead but is kept from the grave for a while | P |
| - | |
| The third year came with the sweet young leaves and I could not fear or doubt | Q |
| But the petals smiled at the sun and lied and the curse in my blood leaped out | Q |
| 'This corpse ' I cried 'that has cumbered the earth let it hence to the waste be torn ' | - |
| That moment of wrath beheld its death while to me was a life truth born | R |
| The straight young trunk at my feet lay prone and I bent to scan the core | S |
| And there read the pitiful secret the noble sapling bore | S |
| Through the heart of the pith in its softest youth it had bored its secret way | T |
| A gnawing worm a hideous grief and the life it had tortured lay | T |
| Accursed and lost for the cruel devil that nestled its breast within | U |
| Ah me poor heart had I known in time I had cut out the clinging sin | U |
| And saved the life that was all as good and as noble as it seemed ' | - |
| - | |
| He ceased and she rose the unresigned as one who had slept and dreamed | V |
| Her face was radiant with insight 'It is true it is true ' she said | W |
| 'And my love shall not die like your beautiful tree till the hidden pain is dead ' | - |
John Boyle O'reilly
(1)
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