The Dilemma Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEFFGGDD HHIIJJDD FFKKLLAA AAGGMMNN OOPPQQRR| Now by the blessed Paphian queen | A |
| Who heaves the breast of sweet sixteen | A |
| By every name I cut on bark | B |
| Before my morning star grew dark | B |
| By Hymen s torch by Cupid s dart | C |
| By all that thrills the beating heart | C |
| The bright black eye the melting blue | D |
| I cannot choose between the two | D |
| - | |
| I had a vision in my dreams | E |
| I saw a row of twenty beams | E |
| From every beam a rope was hung | F |
| In every rope a lover swung | F |
| I asked the hue of every eye | G |
| That bade each luckless lover die | G |
| Ten shadowy lips said heavenly blue | D |
| And ten accused the darker hue | D |
| - | |
| I asked a matron which she deemed | H |
| With fairest light of beauty beamed | H |
| She answered some thought both were fair | I |
| Give her blue eyes and golden hair | I |
| I might have liked her judgment well | J |
| But as she spoke she rung the bell | J |
| And all her girls nor small nor few | D |
| Came marching in their eyes were blue | D |
| - | |
| I asked a maiden back she flung | F |
| The locks that round her forehead hung | F |
| And turned her eye a glorious one | K |
| Bright as a diamond in the sun | K |
| On me until beneath its rays | L |
| I felt as if my hair would blaze | L |
| She liked all eyes but eyes of green | A |
| She looked at me what could she mean | A |
| - | |
| Ah many lids Love lurks between | A |
| Nor heeds the coloring of his screen | A |
| And when his random arrows fly | G |
| The victim falls but knows not why | G |
| Gaze not upon his shield of jet | M |
| The shaft upon the string is set | M |
| Look not beneath his azure veil | N |
| Though every limb were cased in mail | N |
| - | |
| Well both might make a martyr break | O |
| The chain that bound him to the stake | O |
| And both with but a single ray | P |
| Can melt our very hearts away | P |
| And both when balanced hardly seem | Q |
| To stir the scales or rock the beam | Q |
| But that is dearest all the while | R |
| That wears for us the sweetest smile | R |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About The Dilemma
The Dilemma is a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The Dilemma poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Best Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes