Japan Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC ADE FAG FHI FAF HJK LM ANL OPQ CLR SLB TUV| Today I pass the time reading | A |
| a favorite haiku | B |
| saying the few words over and over | C |
| - | |
| It feels like eating | A |
| the same small perfect grape | D |
| again and again | E |
| - | |
| I walk through the house reciting it | F |
| and leave its letters falling | A |
| through the air of every room | G |
| - | |
| I stand by the big silence of the piano and say it | F |
| I say it in front of a painting of the sea | H |
| I tap out its rhythm on an empty shelf | I |
| - | |
| I listen to myself saying it | F |
| then I say it without listening | A |
| then I hear it without saying it | F |
| - | |
| And when the dog looks up at me | H |
| I kneel down on the floor | J |
| and whisper it into each of his long white ears | K |
| - | |
| It's the one about the one ton temple bell | L |
| with the moth sleeping on its surface | M |
| - | |
| and every time I say it I feel the excruciating | A |
| pressure of the moth | N |
| on the surface of the iron bell | L |
| - | |
| When I say it at the window | O |
| the bell is the world | P |
| and I am the moth resting there | Q |
| - | |
| When I say it at the mirror | C |
| I am the heavy bell | L |
| and the moth is life with its papery wings | R |
| - | |
| And later when I say it to you in the dark | S |
| you are the bell | L |
| and I am the tongue of the bell ringing you | B |
| - | |
| and the moth has flown | T |
| from its line | U |
| and moves like a hinge in the air above our bed | V |
Billy Collins
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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