The Lover-s Secret Poem Rhyme Scheme

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WHAT 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

The Lover-s Secret Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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