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 Q2RQ2F2Q2Q2A3PM3I | A |
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The girl in the room beneath | B |
Before going to bed | C |
Strums on a mandolin | D |
The three simple tunes she knows | E |
How inadequate they are to tell how her heart feels | F |
When she has finished them several times | G |
She thrums the strings aimlessly with her finger nails | H |
And smiles and thinks happily of many things | I |
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II | A |
- | |
I stood for a long while before the shop window | J |
Looking at the blue butterflies embroidered on tawny silk | K |
The building was a tower before me | L |
Time was loud behind me | L |
Sun went over the housetops and dusty trees | M |
And there they were glistening brilliant motionless | N |
Stitched in a golden sky | A |
By yellow patient fingers long since turned to dust | O |
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III | A |
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The first bell is silver | P |
And breathing darkness I think only of the long scythe of time | Q |
The second bell is crimson | R |
And I think of a holiday night with rockets | S |
Furrowing the sky with red and a soft shatter of stars | T |
The third bell is saffron and slow | J |
And I behold a long sunset over the sea | L |
With wall on wall of castled cloud and glittering balustrades | L |
The fourth bell is color of bronze | L |
I walk by a frozen lake in the dun light of dusk | U |
Muffled crackings run in the ice | L |
Trees creak birds fly | A |
The fifth bell is cold clear azure | P |
Delicately tinged with green | V |
One golden star hangs melting in it | W |
And towards this sleepily I go | J |
The sixth bell is as if a pebble | X |
Had been dropped into a deep sea far above me | L |
Rings of sound ebb slowly into the silence | L |
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IV | - |
- | |
On the day when my uncle and I drove to the cemetery | L |
Rain rattled on the roof of the carriage | Y |
And talkng constrainedly of this and that | Z |
We refrained from looking at the child's coffin on the seat before us | L |
When we reached the cemetery | L |
We found that the thin snow on the grass | L |
Was already transparent with rain | A2 |
And boards had been laid upon it | W |
That we might walk without wetting our feet | B2 |
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V | L |
- | |
When I was a boy and saw bright rows of icicles | L |
In many lengths along a wall | C2 |
I was dissappointed to find | D2 |
That I could not play music upon them | E2 |
I ran my hand lightly across them | E2 |
And they fell tinkling | F2 |
I tell you this young man so that your expectations of life | - |
Will not be too great | G2 |
- | |
VI | - |
- | |
It is now two hours since I left you | H2 |
And the perfume of your hands is still on my hands | L |
And though since then | I2 |
I have looked at the stars walked in the cold blue streets | L |
And heard the dead leaves blowing over the ground | J2 |
Under the trees | L |
I still remember the sound of your laughter | P |
How will it be lady when there is none left to remember you | H2 |
Even as long as this | L |
Will the dust braid your hair | K2 |
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VII | - |
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The day opens with the brown light of snowfall | L2 |
And past the window snowflakes fall and fall | C2 |
I sit in my chair all day and work and work | M2 |
Measuring words against each other | P |
I open the piano and play a tune | N2 |
But find it does not say what I feel | O2 |
I grow tired of measuring words against each other | P |
I grow tired of these four walls | L |
And I think of you who write me that you have just had a daughter | P |
And named her after your first sweetheart | P2 |
And you who break your heart far away | Q2 |
In the confusion and savagery of a long war | R2 |
And you who worn by the bitterness of winter | P |
Will soon go south | S2 |
The snowflakes fall almost straight in the brown light | T2 |
Past my window | J |
And a sparrow finds refuge on my window ledge | U2 |
This alone comes to me out of the world outside | V2 |
As I measure word with word | W2 |
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VIII | - |
- | |
Many things perplex me and leave me troubled | X2 |
Many things are locked away in the white book of stars | L |
Never to be opened by me | L |
The starr'd leaves are silently turned | Y2 |
And the mooned leaves | L |
And as they are turned fall the shadows of life and death | Z2 |
Perplexed and troubled | X2 |
I light a small light in a small room | A3 |
The lighted walls come closer to me | L |
The familiar pictures are clear | B3 |
I sit in my favourite chair and turn in my mind | D2 |
The tiny pages of my own life whereon so little is written | R |
And hear at the eastern window the pressure of a long wind coming | F2 |
From I know not where | K2 |
- | |
How many times have I sat here | C3 |
How many times will I sit here again | I2 |
Thinking these same things over and over in solitude | D3 |
As a child says over and over | P |
The first word he has learned to say | Q2 |
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IX | Q2 |
- | |
This girl gave her heart to me | L |
And this and this | Q2 |
This one looked at me as if she loved me | L |
And silently walked away | Q2 |
This one I saw once and loved and never saw her again | I2 |
- | |
Shall I count them for you upon my fingers | Q2 |
Or like a priest solemnly sliding beads | Q2 |
Or pretend they are roses pale pink yellow and white | T2 |
And arrange them for you in a wide bowl | E3 |
To be set in sunlight | T2 |
See how nicely it sounds as I count them for you | H2 |
'This girl gave her heart to me | L |
And this and this | Q2 |
And nevertheless my heart breaks when I think of them | E2 |
When I think their names | Q2 |
And how like leaves they have changed and blown | F3 |
And will lie at last forgotten | R |
Under the snow | J |
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X | Q2 |
- | |
It is night time and cold and snow is falling | F2 |
And no wind grieves the walls | Q2 |
In the small world of light around the arc lamp | G3 |
A swarm of snowflakes falls and falls | Q2 |
The street grows silent The last stranger passes | Q2 |
The sound of his feet in the snow is indistinct | H3 |
- | |
What forgotten sadness is it on a night like this | Q2 |
Takes possession of my heart | P2 |
Why do I think of a camellia tree in a southern garden | R |
With pink blossoms among dark leaves | Q2 |
Standing surprised in the snow | J |
Why do I think of spring | F2 |
- | |
The snowflakes helplessly veering | F2 |
Fall silently past my window | J |
They come from darkness and enter darkness | Q2 |
What is it in my heart is surprised and bewildered | W2 |
Like that camellia tree | L |
Beautiful still in its glittering anguish | I3 |
And spring so far away | Q2 |
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XI | L |
- | |
As I walked through the lamplit gardens | Q2 |
On the thin white crust of snow | J |
So intensely was I thinking of my misfortune | R |
So clearly were my eyes fixed | J3 |
On the face of this grief which has come to me | L |
That I did not notice the beautiful pale colouring | F2 |
Of lamplight on the snow | J |
Nor the interlaced long blue shadows of trees | Q2 |
- | |
And yet these things were there | K2 |
And the white lamps and the orange lamps and the lamps of lilac were there | K2 |
As I have seen them so often before | R2 |
As they will be so often again | I2 |
Long after my grief is forgotten | R |
- | |
And still though I know this and say this it cannot console me | L |
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XII | Q2 |
- | |
How many times have we been interrupted | K3 |
Just as I was about to make up a story for you | H2 |
One time it was because we suddenly saw a firefly | - |
Lighting his green lantern among the boughs of a fir tree | L |
Marvellous Marvellous He is making for himself | - |
A little tent of light in the darkness | Q2 |
And one time it was because we saw a lilac lightning flash | L3 |
Run wrinkling into the blue top of the mountain | R |
We heard boulders of thunder rolling down upon us | Q2 |
And the plat plat of drops on the window | J |
And we ran to watch the rain | A2 |
Charging in wavering clouds across the long grass of the field | M3 |
Or at other times it was because we saw a star | N3 |
Slipping easily out of the sky and falling far off | - |
Among pine dark hills | Q2 |
Or because we found a crimson eft | M3 |
Darting in the cold grass | Q2 |
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These things interrupted us and left us wondering | F2 |
And the stories whatever they might have been | D |
Were never told | M3 |
A fairy binding a daisy down and laughing | F2 |
A golden haired princess caught in a cobweb | O3 |
A love story of long ago | J |
Some day just as we are beginning again | I2 |
Just as we blow the first sweet note | M3 |
Death itself will interrupt us | Q2 |
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XIII | Q2 |
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My heart is an old house and in that forlorn old house | Q2 |
In the very centre dark and forgotten | R |
Is a locked room where an enchanted princess | Q2 |
Lies sleeping | F2 |
But sometimes in that dark house | Q2 |
As if almost from the stars far away | Q2 |
Sounds whisper in that secret room | A3 |
Faint voices music a dying trill of laughter | P |
And sudd | M3 |
Conrad Potter Aiken
(1)
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