Towns In Colour Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B CD EFGHIJ KLBM NOPQ RS QT UQVV W XB A H I LYZTJKA2B2B2C2XD2ZE2 TF2G2MH2GNI2NI2TI2I2 I2I2I2I2I2T XVTNJ2K2C2I2N A I2 L2I2TI2I2I2TTI2I2I2T M2TI2I2I2I2TTTTI2TI2 N2TTO2HI2TP2I2TTTO2I 2TQ2 T I2R2I2MO2TI2I2TTI2S2 T2NAU2I2V2I2XTI2I2I2 I2I2I2I2I2O2I2W2HI2U 2I2X2VI2I2O2I2O2U2I2 I2I2O2R2HTI2Y2 X Z2 I2I2I2TUI2KTI2J2A3NJ 2I2I2I2I2I2I2I2I2KMI 2TTI2I2I2A3A3A3B3C3A 3KI2I2TI2NTNI2I2I2D3 I2O2I2TI2TTO2I2 TI2I | A |
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Red Slippers | B |
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Red slippers in a shop window and outside in the street flaws of grey | C |
windy sleet | D |
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Behind the polished glass the slippers hang in long threads of red | E |
festooning from the ceiling like stalactites of blood flooding the eyes | F |
of passers by with dripping colour jamming their crimson reflections | G |
against the windows of cabs and tram cars screaming their claret and salmon | H |
into the teeth of the sleet plopping their little round maroon lights | I |
upon the tops of umbrellas | J |
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The row of white sparkling shop fronts is gashed and bleeding | K |
it bleeds red slippers They spout under the electric light | L |
fluid and fluctuating a hot rain and freeze again to red slippers | B |
myriadly multiplied in the mirror side of the window | M |
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They balance upon arched insteps like springing bridges of crimson lacquer | N |
they swing up over curved heels like whirling tanagers sucked | O |
in a wind pocket they flatten out heelless like July ponds | P |
flared and burnished by red rockets | Q |
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Snap snap they are cracker sparks of scarlet in the white monotonous | R |
block of shops | S |
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They plunge the clangour of billions of vermilion trumpets | Q |
into the crowd outside and echo in faint rose over the pavement | T |
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People hurry by for these are only shoes and in a window farther down | U |
is a big lotus bud of cardboard whose petals open every few minutes | Q |
and reveal a wax doll with staring bead eyes and flaxen hair | V |
lolling awkwardly in its flower chair | V |
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One has often seen shoes but whoever saw a cardboard lotus bud before | W |
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The flaws of grey windy sleet beat on the shop window where there are only | X |
red slippers | B |
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II | A |
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Thompson's Lunch Room Grand Central Station | H |
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Study in Whites | I |
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Wax white | L |
Floor ceiling walls | Y |
Ivory shadows | Z |
Over the pavement | T |
Polished to cream surfaces | J |
By constant sweeping | K |
The big room is coloured like the petals | A2 |
Of a great magnolia | B2 |
And has a patina | B2 |
Of flower bloom | C2 |
Which makes it shine dimly | X |
Under the electric lamps | D2 |
Chairs are ranged in rows | Z |
Like sepia seeds | E2 |
Waiting fulfilment | T |
The chalk white spot of a cook's cap | F2 |
Moves unglossily against the vaguely bright wall | G2 |
Dull chalk white striking the retina like a blow | M |
Through the wavering uncertainty of steam | H2 |
Vitreous white of glasses with green reflections | G |
Ice green carboys shifting greener bluer with the jar of moving water | N |
Jagged green white bowls of pressed glass | I2 |
Rearing snow peaks of chipped sugar | N |
Above the lighthouse shaped castors | I2 |
Of grey pepper and grey white salt | T |
Grey white placards 'Oyster Stew Cornbeef Hash Frankfurters' | I2 |
Marble slabs veined with words in meandering lines | I2 |
Dropping on the white counter like horn notes | I2 |
Through a web of violins | I2 |
The flat yellow lights of oranges | I2 |
The cube red splashes of apples | I2 |
In high plated epergnes' | I2 |
The electric clock jerks every half minute | T |
'Coming Past ' | - |
'Three beef steaks and a chicken pie ' | - |
Bawled through a slide while the clock jerks heavily | X |
A man carries a china mug of coffee to a distant chair | V |
Two rice puddings and a salmon salad | T |
Are pushed over the counter | N |
The unfulfilled chairs open to receive them | J2 |
A spoon falls upon the floor with the impact of metal striking stone | K2 |
And the sound throws across the room | C2 |
Sharp invisible zigzags | I2 |
Of silver | N |
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III | A |
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An Opera House | I2 |
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Within the gold square of the proscenium arch | L2 |
A curtain of orange velvet hangs in stiff folds | I2 |
Its tassels jarring slightly when someone crosses the stage behind | T |
Gold carving edges the balconies | I2 |
Rims the boxes | I2 |
Runs up and down fluted pillars | I2 |
Little knife stabs of gold | T |
Shine out whenever a box door is opened | T |
Gold clusters | I2 |
Flash in soft explosions | I2 |
On the blue darkness | I2 |
Suck back to a point | T |
And disappear | M2 |
Hoops of gold | T |
Circle necks wrists fingers | I2 |
Pierce ears | I2 |
Poise on heads | I2 |
And fly up above them in coloured sparkles | I2 |
Gold | T |
Gold | T |
The opera house is a treasure box of gold | T |
Gold in a broad smear across the orchestra pit | T |
Gold of horns trumpets tubas | I2 |
Gold spun gold twittering gold snapping gold | T |
Of harps | I2 |
The conductor raises his baton | N2 |
The brass blares out | T |
Crass crude | T |
Parvenu fat powerful | O2 |
Golden | H |
Rich as the fat clapping hands in the boxes | I2 |
Cymbals gigantic coin shaped | T |
Crash | P2 |
The orange curtain parts | I2 |
And the prima donna steps forward | T |
One note | T |
A drop transparent iridescent | T |
A gold bubble | O2 |
It floats floats | I2 |
And bursts against the lips of a bank president | T |
In the grand tier | Q2 |
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IV | - |
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Afternoon Rain in State Street | T |
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Cross hatchings of rain against grey walls | I2 |
Slant lines of black rain | R2 |
In front of the up and down wet stone sides of buildings | I2 |
Below | M |
Greasy shiny black horizontal | O2 |
The street | T |
And over it umbrellas | I2 |
Black polished dots | I2 |
Struck to white | T |
An instant | T |
Stream in two flat lines | I2 |
Slipping past each other with the smoothness of oil | S2 |
Like a four sided wedge | T2 |
The Custom House Tower | N |
Pokes at the low flat sky | A |
Pushing it farther and farther up | U2 |
Lifting it away from the house tops | I2 |
Lifting it in one piece as though it were a sheet of tin | V2 |
With the lever of its apex | I2 |
The cross hatchings of rain cut the Tower obliquely | X |
Scratching lines of black wire across it | T |
Mutilating its perpendicular grey surface | I2 |
With the sharp precision of tools | I2 |
The city is rigid with straight lines and angles | I2 |
A chequered table of blacks and greys | I2 |
Oblong blocks of flatness | I2 |
Crawl by with low geared engines | I2 |
And pass to short upright squares | I2 |
Shrinking with distance | I2 |
A steamer in the basin blows its whistle | O2 |
And the sound shoots across the rain hatchings | I2 |
A narrow level bar of steel | W2 |
Hard cubes of lemon | H |
Superimpose themselves upon the fronts of buildings | I2 |
As the windows light up | U2 |
But the lemon cubes are edged with angles | I2 |
Upon which they cannot impinge | X2 |
Up straight down straight square | V |
Crumpled grey white papers | I2 |
Blow along the side walks | I2 |
Contorted horrible | O2 |
Without curves | I2 |
A horse steps in a puddle | O2 |
And white glaring water spurts up | U2 |
In stiff outflaring lines | I2 |
Like the rattling stems of reeds | I2 |
The city is heraldic with angles | I2 |
A sombre escutcheon of argent and sable | O2 |
And countercoloured bends of rain | R2 |
Hung over a four square civilization | H |
When a street lamp comes out | T |
I gaze at it for fully thirty seconds | I2 |
To rest my brain with the suffusing round brilliance of its globe | Y2 |
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V | X |
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An Aquarium | Z2 |
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Streaks of green and yellow iridescence | I2 |
Silver shiftings | I2 |
Rings veering out of rings | I2 |
Silver gold | T |
Grey green opaqueness sliding down | U |
With sharp white bubbles | I2 |
Shooting and dancing | K |
Flinging quickly outward | T |
Nosing the bubbles | I2 |
Swallowing them | J2 |
Fish | A3 |
Blue shadows against silver saffron water | N |
The light rippling over them | J2 |
In steel bright tremors | I2 |
Outspread translucent fins | I2 |
Flute fold and relapse | I2 |
The threaded light prints through them on the pebbles | I2 |
In scarcely tarnished twinklings | I2 |
Curving of spotted spines | I2 |
Slow up shifts | I2 |
Lazy convolutions | I2 |
Then a sudden swift straightening | K |
And darting below | M |
Oblique grey shadows | I2 |
Athwart a pale casement | T |
Roped and curled | T |
Green man eating eels | I2 |
Slumber in undulate rhythms | I2 |
With crests laid horizontal on their backs | I2 |
Barred fish | A3 |
Striped fish | A3 |
Uneven disks of fish | A3 |
Slip slide whirl turn | B3 |
And never touch | C3 |
Metallic blue fish | A3 |
With fins wide and yellow and swaying | K |
Like Oriental fans | I2 |
Hold the sun in their bellies | I2 |
And glow with light | T |
Blue brilliance cut by black bars | I2 |
An oblong pane of straw coloured shimmer | N |
Across it in a tangent | T |
A smear of rose black silver | N |
Short twists and upstartings | I2 |
Rose black in a setting of bubbles | I2 |
Sunshine playing between red and black flowers | I2 |
On a blue and gold lawn | D3 |
Shadows and polished surfaces | I2 |
Facets of mauve and purple | O2 |
A constant modulation of values | I2 |
Shaft shaped | T |
With green bead eyes | I2 |
Thick nosed | T |
Heliotrope coloured | T |
Swift spots of chrysolite and coral | O2 |
In the midst of green pearl amethyst irradiations | I2 |
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Outside | T |
A willow tree flickers | I2 |
Amy Lowell
(1)
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