The Lover-s Secret Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KKLLMMNNAAOPQPRPSPTT UUVWXXAAYYAAAAZZ RRA2A2AAAAAAAAB2B2AA C2C2D2D2E2E2F2F2JJ AAKKAAF2F2 G2G2AAH2H2AA F2 CC I2J2AAF2F2K2K2CCAAL2 M2F2F2N2N2O2O2P2P2A F2F2WHAT ailed young Lucius Art had vainly tried | A |
To guess his ill and found herself defied | A |
The Augur plied his legendary skill | B |
Useless the fair young Roman languished still | B |
His chariot took him every cloudless day | C |
Along the Pincian Hill or Appian Way | C |
They rubbed his wasted limbs with sulphurous oil | D |
Oozed from the far off Orient's heated soil | D |
They led him tottering down the steamy path | E |
Where bubbling fountains filled the thermal bath | E |
Borne in his litter to Egeria's cave | F |
They washed him shivering in her icy wave | F |
They sought all curious herbs and costly stones | G |
They scraped the moss that grew on dead men's bones | G |
They tried all cures the votive tablets taught | H |
Scoured every place whence healing drugs were brought | H |
O'er Thracian hills his breathless couriers ran | I |
His slaves waylaid the Syrian caravan | I |
At last a servant heard a stranger speak | J |
A new chirurgeon's name a clever Greek | J |
Skilled in his art from Pergamus he came | K |
To Rome but lately GALEN was the name | K |
The Greek was called a man with piercing eyes | L |
Who must be cunning and who might be wise | L |
He spoke but little if they pleased he said | M |
He 'd wait awhile beside the sufferer's bed | M |
So by his side he sat serene and calm | N |
His very accents soft as healing balm | N |
Not curious seemed but every movement spied | A |
His sharp eyes searching where they seemed to glide | A |
Asked a few questions what he felt and where | O |
'A pain just here ' 'A constant beating there ' | P |
Who ordered bathing for his aches and ails | Q |
'Charmis the water doctor from Marseilles ' | P |
What was the last prescription in his case | R |
'A draught of wine with powdered chrysoprase ' | P |
Had he no secret grief he nursed alone | S |
A pause a little tremor answer 'None ' | P |
Thoughtful a moment sat the cunning leech | T |
And muttered 'Eros ' in his native speech | T |
In the broad atrium various friends await | U |
The last new utterance from the lips of fate | U |
Men matrons maids they talk the question o'er | V |
And restless pace the tessellated floor | W |
Not unobserved the youth so long had pined | X |
By gentle hearted dames and damsels kind | X |
One with the rest a rich Patrician's pride | A |
The lady Hermia called 'the golden eyed' | A |
The same the old Proconsul fain must woo | Y |
Whom one dark night a masked sicarius slew | Y |
The same black Crassus over roughly pressed | A |
To hear his suit the Tiber knows the rest | A |
Crassus was missed next morning by his set | A |
Next week the fishers found him in their net | A |
She with the others paced the ample hall | Z |
Fairest alas and saddest of them all | Z |
- | |
At length the Greek declared with puzzled face | R |
Some strange enchantment mingled in the case | R |
And naught would serve to act as counter charm | A2 |
Save a warm bracelet from a maiden's arm | A2 |
Not every maiden's many might be tried | A |
Which not in vain experience must decide | A |
Were there no damsels willing to attend | A |
And do such service for a suffering friend | A |
The message passed among the waiting crowd | A |
First in a whisper then proclaimed aloud | A |
Some wore no jewels some were disinclined | A |
For reasons better guessed at than defined | A |
Though all were saints at least professed to be | B2 |
The list all counted there were named but three | B2 |
The leech still seated by the patient's side | A |
Held his thin wrist and watched him eagle eyed | A |
Aurelia first a fair haired Tuscan girl | C2 |
Slipped off her golden asp with eyes of pearl | C2 |
His solemn head the grave physician shook | D2 |
The waxen features thanked her with a look | D2 |
Olympia next a creature half divine | E2 |
Sprung from the blood of old Evander's line | E2 |
Held her white arm that wore a twisted chain | F2 |
Clasped with an opal sheeny cymophane | F2 |
In vain O daughter I said the baffled Greek | J |
The patient sighed the thanks he could not speak | J |
- | |
Last Hermia entered look that sudden start | A |
The pallium heaves above his leaping heart | A |
The beating pulse the cheek's rekindled flame | K |
Those quivering lips the secret all proclaim | K |
The deep disease long throbbing in the breast | A |
The dread enchantment all at once confessed | A |
The case was plain the treatment was begun | F2 |
And Love soon cured the mischief he had done | F2 |
- | |
Young Love too oft thy treacherous bandage slips | G2 |
Down from the eyes it blinded to the lips | G2 |
Ask not the Gods O youth for clearer sight | A |
But the bold heart to plead thy cause aright | A |
And thou fair maiden when thy lovers sigh | H2 |
Suspect thy flattering ear but trust thine eye | H2 |
And learn this secret from the tale of old | A |
No love so true as love that dies untold | A |
- | |
- | |
- | |
'Bravo Annex ' they shouted every one | F2 |
'Not Mrs Kemble's self had better done ' | - |
'Quite so ' she stammered in her awkward way | C |
Not just the thing but something she must say | C |
- | |
The teaspoon chorus tinkled to its close | I2 |
When from his chair the MAN OF LAW arose | J2 |
Called by her voice whose mandate all obeyed | A |
And took the open volume she displayed | A |
Tall stately strong his form begins to own | F2 |
Some slight exuberance in its central zone | F2 |
That comely fulness of the growing girth | K2 |
Which fifty summers lend the sons of earth | K2 |
A smooth round disk about whose margin stray | C |
Above the temples glistening threads of gray | C |
Strong deep cut grooves by toilsome decades wrought | A |
On brow and mouth the battle fields of thought | A |
A voice that lingers in the listener's ear | L2 |
Grave calm far reaching every accent clear | M2 |
Those tones resistless many a foreman knew | F2 |
That shaped their verdict ere the twelve withdrew | F2 |
A statesman's forehead athlete's throat and jaw | N2 |
Such the proud semblance of the Man of Law | N2 |
His eye just lighted on the printed leaf | O2 |
Held as a practised pleader holds his brief | O2 |
One whispered softly from behind his cup | P2 |
'He does not read his book is wrong side up | P2 |
He knows the story that it holds by heart | A |
So like his own How well he'll act his part ' | - |
Then all were silent not a rustling fan | F2 |
Stirred the deep stillness as the voice began | F2 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Lover-s Secret poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Best Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes