The Old Player Poem Rhyme Scheme

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THE curtain rose in thunders long and loud	A
The galleries rung the veteran actor bowed	A
In flaming line the telltales of the stage	B
Showed on his brow the autograph of age	B
Pale hueless waves amid his clustered hair	C
And umbered shadows prints of toil and care	C
Round the wide circle glanced his vacant eye	D
He strove to speak his voice was but a sigh	D
	-
Year after year had seen its short lived race	E
Flit past the scenes and others take their place	E
Yet the old prompter watched his accents still	F
His name still flaunted on the evening's bill	F
Heroes the monarchs of the scenic floor	G
Had died in earnest and were heard no more	G
Beauties whose cheeks such roseate bloom o'er spread	H
They faced the footlights in unborrowed red	H
Had faded slowly through successive shades	I
To gray duennas foils of younger maids	I
Sweet voices lost the melting tones that start	J
With Southern throbs the sturdy Saxon heart	J
While fresh sopranos shook the painted sky	D
With their long breathless quivering locust cry	D
Yet there he stood the man of other days	K
In the clear present's full unsparing blaze	K
As on the oak a faded leaf that clings	L
While a new April spreads its burnished wings	L
	-
How bright yon rows that soared in triple tier	M
Their central sun the flashing chandelier	N
How dim the eye that sought with doubtful aim	O
Some friendly smile it still might dare to claim	O
How fresh these hearts his own how worn and cold	P
Such the sad thoughts that long drawn sigh had told	P
No word yet faltered on his trembling tongue	Q
Again again the crashing galleries rung	Q
As the old guardsman at the bugle's blast	R
Hears in its strain the echoes of the past	R
So as the plaudits rolled and thundered round	S
A life of memories startled at the sound	S
He lived again the page of earliest days	K
Days of small fee and parsimonious praise	K
Then lithe young Romeo hark that silvered tone	T
From those smooth lips alas they were his own	T
Then the bronzed Moor with all his love and woe	U
Told his strange tale of midnight melting snow	U
And dark plumed Hamlet with his cloak and blade	V
Looked on the royal ghost himself a shade	V
All in one flash his youthful memories came	O
Traced in bright hues of evanescent flame	O
As the spent swimmer's in the lifelong dream	W
While the last bubble rises through the stream	W
	-
Call him not old whose visionary brain	X
Holds o'er the past its undivided reign	X
For him in vain the envious seasons roll	Y
Who bears eternal summer in his soul	Y
If yet the minstrel's song the poet's lay	Z
Spring with her birds or children at their play	Z
Or maiden's smile or heavenly dream of art	J
Stir the few life drops creeping round his heart	J
Turn to the record where his years are told	P
Count his gray hairs they cannot make him old	P
What magic power has changed the faded mime	A2
One breath of memory on the dust of time	A2
As the last window in the buttressed wall	B2
Of some gray minster tottering to its fall	B2
Though to the passing crowd its hues are spread	H
A dull mosaic yellow green and red	H
Viewed from within a radiant glory shows	C2
When through its pictured screen the sunlight flows	C2
And kneeling pilgrims on its storied pane	X
See angels glow in every shapeless stain	X
So streamed the vision through his sunken eye	D
Clad in the splendors of his morning sky	D
All the wild hopes his eager boyhood knew	D2
All the young fancies riper years proved true	D2
The sweet low whispered words the winning glance	E2
From queens of song from Houris of the dance	E2
Wealth's lavish gift and Flattery's soothing phrase	K
And Beauty's silence when her blush was praise	K
And melting Pride her lashes wet with tears	F2
Triumphs and banquets wreaths and crowns and cheers	G2
Pangs of wild joy that perish on the tongue	Q
And all that poets dream but leave unsung	Q
	-
In every heart some viewless founts are fed	H
From far off hillsides where the dews were shed	H
On the worn features of the weariest face	E
Some youthful memory leaves its hidden trace	E
As in old gardens left by exiled kings	L
The marble basins tell of hidden springs	L
But gray with dust and overgrown with weeds	H2
Their choking jets the passer little heeds	H2
Till time's revenges break their seals away	Z
And clad in rainbow light the waters play	Z
	-
Good night fond dreamer let the curtain fall	B2
The world's a stage and we are players all	B2
A strange rehearsal Kings without their crowns	I2
And threadbare lords and jewel wearing clowns	I2
Speak the vain words that mock their throbbing hearts	J2
As Want stern prompter spells them out their parts	J2
The tinselled hero whom we praise and pay	Z
Is twice an actor in a twofold play	Z
We smile at children when a painted screen	K2
Seems to their simple eyes a real scene	K2
Ask the poor hireling who has left his throne	T
To seek the cheerless home he calls his own	T
Which of his double lives most real seems	L2
The world of solid fact or scenic dreams	L2
Canvas or clouds the footlights or the spheres	G2
The play of two short hours or seventy years	G2
Dream on Though Heaven may woo our open eyes	M2
Through their closed lids we look on fairer skies	M2
Truth is for other worlds and hope for this	N2
The cheating future lends the present's bliss	N2
Life is a running shade with fettered hands	O2
That chases phantoms over shifting sands	O2
Death a still spectre on a marble seat	P2
With ever clutching palms and shackled feet	P2
The airy shapes that mock life's slender chain	X
The flying joys he strives to clasp in vain	X
Death only grasps to live is to pursue	D2
Dream on there 's nothing but illusion true	D2

Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Old Player Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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