Workshop Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EFGHIJKL MNOPQR ECESSRFFTU VGWTXY ZVA2B2XC2CXXVD2SVE2 E2F2C G2FXF2XXH2I2AFXJ2FFK 2VG2| I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title | A |
| It gets me right away because I'm in a workshop now | B |
| so immediately the poem has my attention | C |
| like the Ancient Mariner grabbing me by the sleeve | D |
| - | |
| And I like the first couple of stanzas | E |
| the way they establish this mode of self pointing | F |
| that runs through the whole poem | G |
| and tells us that words are food thrown down | H |
| on the ground for other words to eat | I |
| I can almost taste the tail of the snake | J |
| in its own mouth | K |
| if you know what I mean | L |
| - | |
| But what I'm not sure about is the voice | M |
| which sounds in places very casual very blue jeans | N |
| but other times seems standoffish | O |
| professorial in the worst sense of the word | P |
| like the poem is blowing pipe smoke in my face | Q |
| But maybe that's just what it wants to do | R |
| - | |
| What I did find engaging were the middle stanzas | E |
| especially the fourth one | C |
| I like the image of clouds flying like lozenges | E |
| which gives me a very clear picture | S |
| And I really like how this drawbridge operator | S |
| just appears out of the blue | R |
| with his feet up on the iron railing | F |
| and his fishing pole jigging I like jigging | F |
| a hook in the slow industrial canal below | T |
| I love slow industrial canal below All those l's | U |
| - | |
| Maybe it's just me | V |
| but the next stanza is where I start to have a problem | G |
| I mean how can the evening bump into the stars | W |
| And what's an obbligato of snow | T |
| Also I roam the decaffeinated streets | X |
| At that point I'm lost I need help | Y |
| - | |
| The other thing that throws me off | Z |
| and maybe this is just me | V |
| is the way the scene keeps shifting around | A2 |
| First we're in this big aerodrome | B2 |
| and the speaker is inspecting a row of dirigibles | X |
| which makes me think this could be a dream | C2 |
| Then he takes us into his garden | C |
| the part with the dahlias and the coiling hose | X |
| though that's nice the coiling hose | X |
| but then I'm not sure where we're supposed to be | V |
| The rain and the mint green light | D2 |
| that makes it feel outdoors but what about this wallpaper | S |
| Or is it a kind of indoor cemetery | V |
| There's something about death going on here | E2 |
| - | |
| In fact I start to wonder if what we have here | E2 |
| is really two poems or three or four | F2 |
| or possibly none | C |
| - | |
| But then there's that last stanza my favorite | G2 |
| This is where the poem wins me back | F |
| especially the lines spoken in the voice of the mouse | X |
| I mean we've all seen these images in cartoons before | F2 |
| but I still love the details he uses | X |
| when he's describing where he lives | X |
| The perfect little arch of an entrance in the baseboard | H2 |
| the bed made out of a curled back sardine can | I2 |
| the spool of thread for a table | A |
| I start thinking about how hard the mouse had to work | F |
| night after night collecting all these things | X |
| while the people in the house were fast asleep | J2 |
| and that gives me a very strong feeling | F |
| a very powerful sense of something | F |
| But I don't know if anyone else was feeling that | K2 |
| Maybe that was just me | V |
| Maybe that's just the way I read it | G2 |
Billy Collins
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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About Workshop
Workshop is a poem by Billy Collins. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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