Improvisations: Light And Snow Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHI A JKLLMNAO A PQRSTJLLLULAPVWJXLL LYZLLLA2WB2 L LC2D2E2E2F2 G2 H2LI2LJ2LPH2LK2 L2C2M2PN2O2PLPP2Q2R2 PS2T2JU2V2W2 X2LLY2LZ2X2A3LB3D2RF 2K2 C3I2D3PQ2 Q2 LQ2LQ2I2 Q2Q2T2E3T2H2LQ2E2Q2F 3RJ Q2 F2Q2G3Q2Q2H3 Q2P2RQ2JF2 F2JQ2W2LI3Q2 L Q2JRJ3LF2JQ2 K2K2R2I2R L Q2 K3H2 L Q2L3RQ2JA2M3N3 Q2M3Q2 F2DM3F2O3JI2M3Q2 Q2 Q2RQ2F2Q2Q2A3PM3

IA
-
The girl in the room beneathB
Before going to bedC
Strums on a mandolinD
The three simple tunes she knowsE
How inadequate they are to tell how her heart feelsF
When she has finished them several timesG
She thrums the strings aimlessly with her finger nailsH
And smiles and thinks happily of many thingsI
-
IIA
-
I stood for a long while before the shop windowJ
Looking at the blue butterflies embroidered on tawny silkK
The building was a tower before meL
Time was loud behind meL
Sun went over the housetops and dusty treesM
And there they were glistening brilliant motionlessN
Stitched in a golden skyA
By yellow patient fingers long since turned to dustO
-
IIIA
-
The first bell is silverP
And breathing darkness I think only of the long scythe of timeQ
The second bell is crimsonR
And I think of a holiday night with rocketsS
Furrowing the sky with red and a soft shatter of starsT
The third bell is saffron and slowJ
And I behold a long sunset over the seaL
With wall on wall of castled cloud and glittering balustradesL
The fourth bell is color of bronzeL
I walk by a frozen lake in the dun light of duskU
Muffled crackings run in the iceL
Trees creak birds flyA
The fifth bell is cold clear azureP
Delicately tinged with greenV
One golden star hangs melting in itW
And towards this sleepily I goJ
The sixth bell is as if a pebbleX
Had been dropped into a deep sea far above meL
Rings of sound ebb slowly into the silenceL
-
IV-
-
On the day when my uncle and I drove to the cemeteryL
Rain rattled on the roof of the carriageY
And talkng constrainedly of this and thatZ
We refrained from looking at the child's coffin on the seat before usL
When we reached the cemeteryL
We found that the thin snow on the grassL
Was already transparent with rainA2
And boards had been laid upon itW
That we might walk without wetting our feetB2
-
VL
-
When I was a boy and saw bright rows of iciclesL
In many lengths along a wallC2
I was dissappointed to findD2
That I could not play music upon themE2
I ran my hand lightly across themE2
And they fell tinklingF2
I tell you this young man so that your expectations of life-
Will not be too greatG2
-
VI-
-
It is now two hours since I left youH2
And the perfume of your hands is still on my handsL
And though since thenI2
I have looked at the stars walked in the cold blue streetsL
And heard the dead leaves blowing over the groundJ2
Under the treesL
I still remember the sound of your laughterP
How will it be lady when there is none left to remember youH2
Even as long as thisL
Will the dust braid your hairK2
-
VII-
-
The day opens with the brown light of snowfallL2
And past the window snowflakes fall and fallC2
I sit in my chair all day and work and workM2
Measuring words against each otherP
I open the piano and play a tuneN2
But find it does not say what I feelO2
I grow tired of measuring words against each otherP
I grow tired of these four wallsL
And I think of you who write me that you have just had a daughterP
And named her after your first sweetheartP2
And you who break your heart far awayQ2
In the confusion and savagery of a long warR2
And you who worn by the bitterness of winterP
Will soon go southS2
The snowflakes fall almost straight in the brown lightT2
Past my windowJ
And a sparrow finds refuge on my window ledgeU2
This alone comes to me out of the world outsideV2
As I measure word with wordW2
-
VIII-
-
Many things perplex me and leave me troubledX2
Many things are locked away in the white book of starsL
Never to be opened by meL
The starr'd leaves are silently turnedY2
And the mooned leavesL
And as they are turned fall the shadows of life and deathZ2
Perplexed and troubledX2
I light a small light in a small roomA3
The lighted walls come closer to meL
The familiar pictures are clearB3
I sit in my favourite chair and turn in my mindD2
The tiny pages of my own life whereon so little is writtenR
And hear at the eastern window the pressure of a long wind comingF2
From I know not whereK2
-
How many times have I sat hereC3
How many times will I sit here againI2
Thinking these same things over and over in solitudeD3
As a child says over and overP
The first word he has learned to sayQ2
-
IXQ2
-
This girl gave her heart to meL
And this and thisQ2
This one looked at me as if she loved meL
And silently walked awayQ2
This one I saw once and loved and never saw her againI2
-
Shall I count them for you upon my fingersQ2
Or like a priest solemnly sliding beadsQ2
Or pretend they are roses pale pink yellow and whiteT2
And arrange them for you in a wide bowlE3
To be set in sunlightT2
See how nicely it sounds as I count them for youH2
'This girl gave her heart to meL
And this and thisQ2
And nevertheless my heart breaks when I think of themE2
When I think their namesQ2
And how like leaves they have changed and blownF3
And will lie at last forgottenR
Under the snowJ
-
XQ2
-
It is night time and cold and snow is fallingF2
And no wind grieves the wallsQ2
In the small world of light around the arc lampG3
A swarm of snowflakes falls and fallsQ2
The street grows silent The last stranger passesQ2
The sound of his feet in the snow is indistinctH3
-
What forgotten sadness is it on a night like thisQ2
Takes possession of my heartP2
Why do I think of a camellia tree in a southern gardenR
With pink blossoms among dark leavesQ2
Standing surprised in the snowJ
Why do I think of springF2
-
The snowflakes helplessly veeringF2
Fall silently past my windowJ
They come from darkness and enter darknessQ2
What is it in my heart is surprised and bewilderedW2
Like that camellia treeL
Beautiful still in its glittering anguishI3
And spring so far awayQ2
-
XIL
-
As I walked through the lamplit gardensQ2
On the thin white crust of snowJ
So intensely was I thinking of my misfortuneR
So clearly were my eyes fixedJ3
On the face of this grief which has come to meL
That I did not notice the beautiful pale colouringF2
Of lamplight on the snowJ
Nor the interlaced long blue shadows of treesQ2
-
And yet these things were thereK2
And the white lamps and the orange lamps and the lamps of lilac were thereK2
As I have seen them so often beforeR2
As they will be so often againI2
Long after my grief is forgottenR
-
And still though I know this and say this it cannot console meL
-
XIIQ2
-
How many times have we been interruptedK3
Just as I was about to make up a story for youH2
One time it was because we suddenly saw a firefly-
Lighting his green lantern among the boughs of a fir treeL
Marvellous Marvellous He is making for himself-
A little tent of light in the darknessQ2
And one time it was because we saw a lilac lightning flashL3
Run wrinkling into the blue top of the mountainR
We heard boulders of thunder rolling down upon usQ2
And the plat plat of drops on the windowJ
And we ran to watch the rainA2
Charging in wavering clouds across the long grass of the fieldM3
Or at other times it was because we saw a starN3
Slipping easily out of the sky and falling far off-
Among pine dark hillsQ2
Or because we found a crimson eftM3
Darting in the cold grassQ2
-
These things interrupted us and left us wonderingF2
And the stories whatever they might have beenD
Were never toldM3
A fairy binding a daisy down and laughingF2
A golden haired princess caught in a cobwebO3
A love story of long agoJ
Some day just as we are beginning againI2
Just as we blow the first sweet noteM3
Death itself will interrupt usQ2
-
XIIIQ2
-
My heart is an old house and in that forlorn old houseQ2
In the very centre dark and forgottenR
Is a locked room where an enchanted princessQ2
Lies sleepingF2
But sometimes in that dark houseQ2
As if almost from the stars far awayQ2
Sounds whisper in that secret roomA3
Faint voices music a dying trill of laughterP
And suddM3

Conrad Potter Aiken



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