The Red Lacquer Music-stand Poem Rhyme Scheme

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A music stand of crimson lacquer long since brought	A
In some fast clipper ship from China quaintly wrought	A
With bossed and carven flowers and fruits in blackening gold	B
The slender shaft all twined about and thickly scrolled	B
With vine leaves and young twisted tendrils whirling curling	C
Flinging their new shoots over the four wings and swirling	C
Out on the three wide feet in golden lumps and streams	D
Petals and apples in high relief and where the seams	D
Are worn with handling through the polished crimson sheen	E
Long streaks of black the under lacquer shine out clean	E
Four desks adjustable to suit the heights of players	F
Sitting to viols or standing up to sing four layers	F
Of music to serve every instrument are there	G
And on the apex a large flat topped golden pear	G
It burns in red and yellow dusty smouldering lights	H
When the sun flares the old barn chamber with its flights	H
And skips upon the crystal knobs of dim sideboards	H
Legless and mouldy and hops glint to glint on hoards	H
Of scythes and spades and dinner horns so the old tools	H
Are little candles throwing brightness round in pools	H
With Oriental splendour red and gold the dust	B
Covering its flames like smoke and thinning as a gust	B
Of brighter sunshine makes the colours leap and range	I
The strange old music stand seems to strike out and change	I
To stroke and tear the darkness with sharp golden claws	H
To dart a forked vermilion tongue from open jaws	H
To puff out bitter smoke which chokes the sun and fade	B
Back to a still faint outline obliterate in shade	B
Creeping up the ladder into the loft the Boy	J
Stands watching very still prickly and hot with joy	J
He sees the dusty sun mote slit by streaks of red	B
He sees it split and stream and all about his head	B
Spikes and spears of gold are licking pricking flicking	C
Scratching against the walls and furniture and nicking	C
The darkness into sparks chipping away the gloom	K
The Boy's nose smarts with the pungence in the room	K
The wind pushes an elm branch from before the door	L
And the sun widens out all along the floor	L
Filling the barn chamber with white straightforward light	B
So not one blurred outline can tease the mind to fright	B
	-
O All ye Works of the Lord Bless ye the Lord Praise Him and Magnify Him	M
for ever	N
O let the Earth Bless the Lord Yea let it Praise Him and Magnify Him	M
for ever	N
O ye Mountains and Hills Bless ye the Lord Praise Him and Magnify Him	M
for ever	N
O All ye Green Things upon the Earth Bless ye the Lord Praise Him	M
and Magnify Him for ever	N
	-
The Boy will praise his God on an altar builded fair	G
Will heap it with the Works of the Lord In the morning air	G
Spices shall burn on it and by their pale smoke curled	B
Like shoots of all the Green Things the God of this bright World	B
Shall see the Boy's desire to pay his debt of praise	H
The Boy turns round about seeking with careful gaze	H
An altar meet and worthy but each table and chair	G
Has some defect each piece is needing some repair	G
To perfect it the chairs have broken legs and backs	H
The tables are uneven and every highboy lacks	H
A handle or a drawer the desks are bruised and worn	O
And even a wide sofa has its cane seat torn	O
Only in the gloom far in the corner there	G
The lacquer music stand is elegant and rare	G
Clear and slim of line with its four wings outspread	B
The sound of old quartets a tenuous faint thread	B
Hanging and floating over it it stands supreme	P
Black and gold and crimson in one twisted scheme	P
	-
A candle on the bookcase feels a draught and wavers	H
Stippling the white washed walls with dancing shades and quavers	H
A bed post grown colossal jigs about the ceiling	C
And shadows strangely altered stain the walls revealing	C
Eagles and rabbits and weird faces pulled awry	Q
And hands which fetch and carry things incessantly	R
Under the Eastern window where the morning sun	S
Must touch it stands the music stand and on each one	S
Of its broad platforms is a pyramid of stones	H
And metals and dried flowers and pine and hemlock cones	H
An oriole's nest with the four eggs neatly blown	T
The rattle of a rattlesnake and three large brown	U
Butternuts uncracked six butterflies impaled	B
With a green luna moth a snake skin freshly scaled	B
Some sunflower seeds wampum and a bloody tooth shell	V
A blue jay feather all together piled pell mell	V
The stand will hold no more The Boy with humming head	B
Looks once again blows out the light and creeps to bed	B
	-
The Boy keeps solemn vigil while outside the wind	B
Blows gustily and clear and slaps against the blind	B
He hardly tries to sleep so sharp his ecstasy	R
It burns his soul to emptiness and sets it free	R
For adoration only for worship Dedicate	B
His unsheathed soul is naked in its novitiate	B
The hours strike below from the clock on the stair	G
The Boy is a white flame suspiring in prayer	G
Morning will bring the sun the Golden Eye of Him	M
Whose splendour must be veiled by starry cherubim	M
Whose Feet shimmer like crystal in the streets of Heaven	S
Like an open rose the sun will stand up even	W
Fronting the window sill and when the casement glows	H
Rose red with the new blown morning then the fire which flows	H
From the sun will fall upon the altar and ignite	B
The spices and his sacrifice will burn in perfumed light	B
Over the music stand the ghosts of sounds will swim	M
'Viols d'amore' and 'hautbois' accorded to a hymn	M
The Boy will see the faintest breath of angels' wings	H
Fanning the smoke and voices will flower through the strings	H
He dares no farther vision and with scalding eyes	H
Waits upon the daylight and his great emprise	H
	-
The cold grey light of dawn was whitening the wall	X
When the Boy fine drawn by sleeplessness started his ritual	Y
He washed all shivering and pointed like a flame	M
He threw the shutters open and in the window frame	M
The morning glimmered like a tarnished Venice glass	H
He took his Chinese pastilles and put them in a mass	H
Upon the mantelpiece till he could seek a plate	B
Worthy to hold them burning Alas He had been late	B
In thinking of this need and now he could not find	B
Platter or saucer rare enough to ease his mind	B
The house was not astir and he dared not go down	U
Into the barn chamber lest some door should be blown	T
And slam before the draught he made as he went out	B
The light was growing yellower and still he looked about	B
A flash of almost crimson from the gilded pear	G
Upon the music stand startled him waiting there	G
The sun would rise and he would meet it unprepared	B
Labelled a fool in having missed what he had dared	B
He ran across the room took his pastilles and laid	B
Them on the flat topped pear most carefully displayed	B
To light with ease then stood a little to one side	B
Focussed a burning glass and painstakingly tried	B
To hold it angled so the bunched and prismed rays	H
Should leap upon each other and spring into a blaze	H
Sharp as a wheeling edge of disked carnation flame	M
Gem hard and cutting upward slowly the round sun came	M
The arrowed fire caught the burning glass and glanced	B
Split to a multitude of pointed spears and lanced	B
A deeper hotter flame it took the incense pile	Z
Which welcomed it and broke into a little smile	Z
Of yellow flamelets creeping crackling thrusting up	A2
A golden red slashed lily in a lacquer cup	A2
	-
O ye Fire and Heat Bless ye the Lord Praise Him and Magnify Him	M
for ever	N
O ye Winter and Summer Bless ye the Lord Praise Him and Magnify Him	M
for ever	N
O ye Nights and Days Bless ye the Lord Praise Him and Magnify Him	M
for ever	N
O ye Lightnings and Clouds Bless ye the Lord Praise Him and Magnify Him	M
for ever	N
	-
A moment so it hung wide curved bright petalled seeming	C
A chalice foamed with sunrise The Boy woke from his dreaming	C
A spike of flame had caught the card of butterflies	H
The oriole's nest took fire soon all four galleries	H
Where he had spread his treasures were become one tongue	C
Of gleaming brutal fire The Boy instantly swung	C
His pitcher off the wash stand and turned it upside down	U
The flames drooped back and sizzled and all his senses grown	T
Acute by fear the Boy grabbed the quilt from his bed	B
And flung it over all and then with aching head	B
He watched the early sunshine glint on the remains	H
Of his holy offering The lacquer stand had stains	H
Ugly and charred all over and where the golden pear	G
Had been a deep black hole gaped miserably His dear	B2
Treasures were puffs of ashes only the stones were there	G
Winking in the brightness	H
The clock upon the stair	G
Struck five and in the kitchen someone shook a grate	B
The Boy began to dress for it was getting late	B

Amy Lowell

The Red Lacquer Music-stand Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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