A Hedge Of Rubber Trees Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKL MNOPDQRSHHTU IVWXYZA2QB2C2D2E2 F2FG2H2I2GB2J2ZHK2L2 M2N2O2P2Q2Q2HR2S2T2Q 2 U2Q2V2W2XQ2S2X2Q2S2Q 2Y2| The West Village by then was changing before long | A |
| the rundown brownstones at its farthest edge | B |
| would have slipped into trendier hands She lived | C |
| impervious to trends behind a potted hedge of | D |
| rubber trees with three cats a canary refuse | E |
| from whose cage kept sifting down and then | F |
| germinating a yearning seedling choir around | G |
| the saucers on the windowsill and an inexorable | H |
| cohort of roaches she was too nearsighted to deal | I |
| with though she knew they were there and would | J |
| speak of them ruefully as of an affliction that | K |
| might once long ago have been prevented | L |
| - | |
| Unclassifiable castoffs misfits marginal cases | M |
| when you're one yourself or close to it there's | N |
| a reassurance in proving you haven't quite gone | O |
| under by taking up with somebody odder than you are | P |
| Or trying to 'They're my friends ' she'd say of | D |
| her cats Mollie Mitzi and Caroline their names were | Q |
| and she was forever taking one or another in a cab | R |
| to the vet as though she had no others The roommate | S |
| who'd become a nun the one who was Jewish the couple | H |
| she'd met on a foliage tour one fall were all people | H |
| she no longer saw She worked for a law firm said all | T |
| the judges were alcoholic had never voted | U |
| - | |
| But would sometimes have me to dinner breaded veal | I |
| white wine strawberry Bavarian and sometimes from | V |
| what she didn't know she was saying I'd snatch a shred | W |
| or two of her threadbare history Baltic cold Being | X |
| sent home in a troika when her feet went numb In | Y |
| summer carriage rides A swarm of gypsy children | Z |
| driven off with whips An octogenarian father bishop | A2 |
| of a dying schismatic sect A very young mother | Q |
| who didn't want her A half brother she met just once | B2 |
| Cousins in Wisconsin one of whom phoned her from a candy | C2 |
| store out of the blue while she was living in Chicago | D2 |
| What had brought her there or when remained unclear | E2 |
| - | |
| As did much else We'd met in church I noticed first | F2 |
| a big soaring soprano with a wobble in it then | F |
| the thickly wreathed and braided crimp in the mouse | G2 |
| gold coiffure Old Young She was of no age | H2 |
| Through rimless lenses she looked out of a child's | I2 |
| or a doll's globular blue Wore Keds the year round | G |
| tended otherwise to overdress Owned a mandolin Once | B2 |
| I got her to take it down from the mantel and plink out | J2 |
| through a warm fuddle of sauterne a lot of giddy Italian | Z |
| airs from a songbook whose pages had started to crumble | H |
| The canary fluffed and quivered and the cats amazed | K2 |
| came out from under the couch and stared | L2 |
| - | |
| What could the offspring of the schismatic age and a | M2 |
| reluctant child bride expect from life Not much | N2 |
| Less and less A dream she'd had kept coming back | O2 |
| years after She'd taken a job in Washington with | P2 |
| some right wing lobby and lived in one of those | Q2 |
| bow windowed mansions that turn into roominghouses | Q2 |
| and her room there had a full length mirror oval | H |
| with a molding is the way I picture it In her dream | R2 |
| something woke her she got up to look and there | S2 |
| in the glass she'd had was covered over she gave it | T2 |
| a wondering emphasis with gray veils | Q2 |
| - | |
| The West Village was changing I was changing The last | U2 |
| time I asked her to dinner she didn't show Hours | Q2 |
| or was it days later she phoned to explain she hadn't | V2 |
| been able to find my block a patrolman had steered her home | W2 |
| I spent my evenings canvassing for Gene McCarthy Passing | X |
| I'd see her shades drawn no light behind the rubber trees | Q2 |
| She wasn't out she didn't own a TV She was in there | S2 |
| getting gently blotto What came next I wasn't brave | X2 |
| enough to know Only one day passing I saw | Q2 |
| new shades quick chic matchstick bamboo going up where | S2 |
| the waterstained old ones had been and where the seedlings | Q2 |
| O gray veils gray veils had risen and gone down | Y2 |
Amy Clampitt
(1)
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