Battledore And Shuttlecock Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJIFKLHMJNJO NJHPJIIQHIJHHRRHSJ TIIIJJHHUVHWIHIIWHXJ JJUY JJIJJWUIIIRRJZJ IHA2NIB2NJIThe shuttlecock soars upward | A |
In a parabola of whiteness | B |
Turns | C |
And sinks to a perfect arc | D |
Plat the battledore strikes it | E |
And it rises again | F |
Without haste | G |
Winged and curving | H |
Tracing its white flight | I |
Against the clipped hemlock trees | J |
Plat | I |
Up again | F |
Orange and sparkling with sun | K |
Rounding under the blue sky | L |
Dropping | H |
Fading to grey green | M |
In the shadow of the coned hemlocks | J |
Ninety one Ninety two Ninety three | N |
The arms of the little girls | J |
Come up and up | O |
Precisely | N |
Like mechanical toys | J |
The battledores beat at nothing | H |
And toss the dazzle of snow | P |
Off their parchment drums | J |
Ninety four Plat | I |
Ninety five Plat | I |
Back and forth | Q |
Goes the shuttlecock | H |
Icicle white | I |
Leaping at the sharp edged clouds | J |
Overturning | H |
Falling | H |
Down | R |
And down | R |
Tinctured with pink | H |
From the upthrusting shine | S |
Of Oriental poppies | J |
- | |
The little girls sway to the counting rhythm | T |
Left foot | I |
Right foot | I |
Plat Plat | I |
Yellow heat twines round the handles of the battledores | J |
The parchment cracks with dryness | J |
But the shuttlecock | H |
Swings slowly into the ice blue sky | H |
Heaving up on the warm air | U |
Like a foam bubble on a wave | V |
With feathers slanted and sustaining | H |
Higher | W |
Until the earth turns beneath it | I |
Poised and swinging | H |
With all the garden flowing beneath it | I |
Scarlet and blue and purple and white | I |
Blurred colour reflections in rippled water | W |
Changing streaming | H |
For the moment that Stella takes to lift her arm | X |
Then the shuttlecock relinquishes | J |
Bows | J |
Descends | J |
And the sharp blue spears of the air | U |
Thrust it to earth | Y |
- | |
Again it mounts | J |
Stepping up on the rising scents of flowers | J |
Buoyed up and under by the shining heat | I |
Above the foxgloves | J |
Above the guelder roses | J |
Above the greenhouse glitter | W |
Till the shafts of cooler air | U |
Meet it | I |
Deflect it | I |
Reject it | I |
Then down | R |
Down | R |
Past the greenhouse | J |
Past the guelder rose bush | Z |
Past the foxgloves | J |
- | |
Ninety nine Stella's battledore springs to the impact | I |
Plunk Like the snap of a taut string | H |
Oh Minna | A2 |
The shuttlecock drops zigzagedly | N |
Out of orbit | I |
Hits the path | B2 |
And rolls over quite still | N |
Dead white feathers | J |
With a weight at the end | I |
Amy Lowell
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Battledore And Shuttlecock poem by Amy Lowell
Best Poems of Amy Lowell