The Old Women Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEBFFGGHIJK JLLMMNNOOPOOOQQRRSST TU OOOOOOVWOO| They pass upon their old tremulous feet | A |
| Creeping with little satchels down the street | A |
| And they remember many years ago | B |
| Passing that way in silks They wander slow | B |
| And solitary through the city ways | C |
| And they alone remember those old days | C |
| Men have forgotten In their shaking heads | D |
| A dancer of old carnivals yet treads | D |
| The measure of past waltzes and they see | E |
| The candles lit again the patchouli | B |
| Sweeten the air and the warm cloud of musk | F |
| Enchant the passing of the passionate dusk | F |
| Then you will see a light begin to creep | G |
| Under the earthen eyelids dimmed with sleep | G |
| And a new tremor happy and uncouth | H |
| Jerking about the corners of the mouth | I |
| Then the old head drops down again and shakes | J |
| Muttering | K |
| - | |
| Sometimes when the swift gaslight wakes | J |
| The dreams and fever of the sleepless town | L |
| A shaking huddled thing in a black gown | L |
| Will steal at midnight carrying with her | M |
| Violet bags of lavender | M |
| Into the taproom full of noisy light | N |
| Or at the crowded earlier hour of night | N |
| Sidle with matches up to some who stand | O |
| About a stage door and with furtive hand | O |
| Appealing quot I too was a dancer when | P |
| Your fathers would have been young gentlemen quot | O |
| And sometimes out of some lean ancient throat | O |
| A broken voice with here and there a note | O |
| Of unspoiled crystal suddenly will arise | Q |
| Into the night while a cracked fiddle cries | Q |
| Pantingly after and you know she sings | R |
| The passing of light famous passing things | R |
| And sometimes in the hours past midnight reels | S |
| Out of an alley upon staggering heels | S |
| Or into the dark keeping of the stones | T |
| About a doorway a vague thing of bones | T |
| And draggled hair | U |
| - | |
| And all these have been loved | O |
| And not one ruinous body has not moved | O |
| The heart of man's desire nor has not seemed | O |
| Immortal in the eyes of one who dreamed | O |
| The dream that men call love This is the end | O |
| Of much fair flesh it is for this you tend | O |
| Your delicate bodies many careful years | V |
| To be this thing of laughter and of tears | W |
| To be this living judgment of the dead | O |
| An old gray woman with a shaking head | O |
Arthur Symons
(1)
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