The First Night Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC DEF GHB ICJ KLM DNO PCQ ERS TUV| Before I opened you Jim nez | A |
| it never occurred to me that day and night | B |
| would continue to circle each other in the ring of death | C |
| - | |
| but now you have me wondering | D |
| if there will also be a sun and a moon | E |
| and will the dead gather to watch them rise and set | F |
| - | |
| then repair each soul alone | G |
| to some ghastly equivalent of a bed | H |
| Or will the first night be the only night | B |
| - | |
| a darkness for which we have no other name | I |
| How feeble our vocabulary in the face of death | C |
| How impossible to write it down | J |
| - | |
| This is where language will stop | K |
| the horse we have ridden all our lives | L |
| rearing up at the edge of a dizzying cliff | M |
| - | |
| The word that was in the beginning | D |
| and the word that was made flesh | N |
| those and all the other words will cease | O |
| - | |
| Even now reading you on this trellised porch | P |
| how can I describe a sun that will shine after death | C |
| But it is enough to frighten me | Q |
| - | |
| into paying more attention to the world's day moon | E |
| to sunlight bright on water | R |
| or fragmented in a grove of trees | S |
| - | |
| and to look more closely here at these small leaves | T |
| these sentinel thorns | U |
| whose employment it is to guard the rose | V |
Billy Collins
(1)
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About The First Night
The First Night is a poem by Billy Collins. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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