The Crystal of Earth is a solemn poetic form intended to amuse the audience concerning mining, originating in The Dungeon of Verses. The rules of the form are applied by poets to produce individual poems which can be recited. The poem is a single quintain. Use of assonance and metaphor is characteristic of the form. Each line has eight syllables. The third line must make use of ambiguity. The rhyme scheme of the poem is AABBB.