Mirage Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCBB DDEEFG HHIIJJ BBKLBB MMNNBO PPBDQQ RRSSQQ QQTTUU VVQQWW XXQQQX XYYYXX XXYYYX XYYYX YYXXQQ QQQQZZ XXDDQQ TTA2A2QQHe closed his eyes yet still could see | A |
The leprous hills loom thirstily | B |
The mesquit glimmering and the dust | C |
Of alkali and rimmed with rust | C |
Of emerald a mineral pool | B |
From which his horse had drunk him full | B |
- | |
Now he would drink how good to die | D |
After the torture days gone by | D |
And so he rose and through the sage | E |
And sand groped blind with thirst and rage | E |
At God whose hand in hate had wrought | F |
This trap of hell where he was caught | G |
- | |
Now what was this that held him fast | H |
Had he then reached relief at last | H |
After long years of heat and hate | I |
Surely there rose a marble gate | I |
A towered castle and the sand | J |
And sage had vanished from the land | J |
- | |
He entered where a fountain fell | B |
On foaming crystal Like a spell | B |
He caught its freshness Then his ear | K |
Heard lute like music drawing near | L |
And through a rainbowed mist a girl | B |
Beckoned her beauty like a pearl | B |
- | |
And there two slave girls on a mat | M |
Two naked Nubians drowsing sat | M |
Fingering dim gemmed and nacreous lutes | N |
He knew at once that they were mutes | N |
And this the same Seraglio | B |
Where love had met him lives ago | O |
- | |
The entrance doors he knew were nine | P |
Three were of agate red as wine | P |
And three of lapis lazuli | B |
Cerulean blue as is the sky | D |
And three of feldspar veined with gold | Q |
Each leading to her bower of old | Q |
- | |
Behind a lattice or a screen | R |
He knew she smiled and watched unseen | R |
He felt her presence in the gloom | S |
As one may sense a strange perfume | S |
And musk of myrrh and sandalwood | Q |
Were guides to lead him where she stood | Q |
- | |
Once more he'd see her hold her fast | Q |
Come back again from out the past | Q |
And locked in her divine embrace | T |
Watch in the heaven of her face | T |
The ardor of her heart's desire | U |
Change her dark eyes to starry fire | U |
- | |
And then far off he heard a horn | V |
And turning saw that it was morn | V |
And there she rode in dawn and dew | Q |
And with her Chevaliers he knew | Q |
The horn led on he heard its song | W |
The air he had forgot so long | W |
- | |
'How good ' it sang 'How good at dawn | X |
To ride with her of Roussillon | X |
To ride with her through dawn and dew | Q |
Beneath a heaven gentian blue | Q |
With hawk on wrist a madcap crew | Q |
That wild the horn leads on | X |
- | |
With her of Roussillon | X |
To hear the falcons' jesses ringing | Y |
Bells that set the pulses singing | Y |
To see the heron wildly winging | Y |
O'er mountained Roussillon | X |
Far towered Roussillon | X |
- | |
'How good to hear by wood and lawn | X |
Our Lady laugh of Roussillon | X |
Where wild the torrent leaps the crag | Y |
Through mists that on the mountain lag | Y |
As in the forest leaps the stag | Y |
While clear the horn leads on | X |
- | |
With her of Roussillon | X |
How good to hear the falcon crying | Y |
To see it strike the quarry flying | Y |
And watch the stricken lapwing dying | Y |
By towered Roussillon | X |
Old mountained Roussillon ' | - |
- | |
The music died His hot head swung | Y |
Upon his neck as wire hung | Y |
And he awoke to see again | X |
The thirsty peaks the fevered plain | X |
Shutting him in with all their hate | Q |
Malignantly content to wait | Q |
- | |
Was it a dream of some old past | Q |
Or would he see her there at last | Q |
He sat and thought no thing occurred | Q |
The desert watched him never stirred | Q |
Like some gaunt beast with burning eyes | Z |
It stared at him with all its skies | Z |
- | |
Around he gazed and searched again | X |
The peaks like blisters on the plain | X |
No creature moved The pool nearby | D |
With its green glitter caught his eye | D |
Yes he would drink and know at last | Q |
That secret of the long gone past | Q |
- | |
They found him in that poisoned place | T |
With blackened lips and twisted face | T |
Dead with seared eyes on something far | A2 |
Some unknown thing perhaps a star | A2 |
Or was 't the gold for which he 'd sought | Q |
The far mirage that turned to naught | Q |
Madison Julius Cawein
(1)
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