Senlin: His Cloudy Destiny Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDEFGFHIJ FKLMNOPOQO MMCC RSNTNURDVDBWUWQXYXBZ UUUA2B2A2VKC2KQD2QD2 A2A2E2 B2F2KF2E2A2LA2G2DQD MMA2A2| A | |
| - | |
| Senlin sat before us and we heard him | B |
| He smoked his pipe before us and we saw him | B |
| Was he small with reddish hair | C |
| Did he light his pipe with a meditative stare | C |
| And a twinkling flame reflected in blue eyes | D |
| 'I am alone' said Senlin 'in a forest of leaves | E |
| The single leaf that creeps and falls | F |
| The single blade of grass in a desert of grass | G |
| That none foresaw and none recalls | F |
| The single shell that a green wave shatters | H |
| In tiny specks of whiteness on brown sands | I |
| How shall you understand me with your hearts | J |
| Who cannot reach me with your hands ' | - |
| - | |
| The city dissolves about us and its walls | F |
| Are the sands beside a sea | K |
| We plunge in a chaos of dunes white waves before us | L |
| Crash on kelp tumultuously | M |
| Gulls wheel over foam the clouds blow tattered | N |
| The sun is swallowed Has Senlin become a shore | O |
| Is Senlin a grain of sand beneath our footsteps | P |
| A speck of shell upon which waves will roar | O |
| Senlin we cry Senlin again no answer | Q |
| Only the crash of sea on a shell white shore | O |
| - | |
| Yet we would say this is no shore at all | M |
| But a small bright room with lamplight on the wall | M |
| And the familiar chair | C |
| Where Senlin sat with lamplight on his hair | C |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| Senlin alone before us played a music | R |
| Was it himself he played We sat and listened | S |
| Perplexed and pleased and tired | N |
| 'Listen ' he said 'and you will learn a secret | T |
| Though it is not the secret you desired | N |
| I have not found a meaning that will praise you | U |
| Out of the heart of silence comes this music | R |
| Quietly speaks and dies | D |
| Look there is one white star above black houses | V |
| And a tiny man who climbs toward the skies | D |
| Where does he walk to What does he leave behind him | B |
| What was his foolish name | W |
| What did he stop to say before he left you | U |
| As simply as he came | W |
| Death did it sound like love and god and laughter | Q |
| Sunlight and work and pain | X |
| No it appears to me that these were symbols | Y |
| Of simple truths he found no way to explain | X |
| He spoke but found you could not understand him | B |
| You were alone and he was alone | Z |
| - | |
| He sought to touch you and found he could not reach you | U |
| He sought to understand you and could not hear you | U |
| And so this music which I play before you | U |
| Does it mean only what it seems to mean | A2 |
| Or is it a dance of foolish waves in sunlight | B2 |
| Above a desperate depth of things unseen | A2 |
| Listen Do you not hear the singing voices | V |
| Out of the darkness of this sea | K |
| But no you cannot hear them for if you heard them | C2 |
| You would have heard and captured me | K |
| Yet I am here talking of laughter | Q |
| Laughter and love and work and god | D2 |
| As I shall talk of these same things hereafter | Q |
| In wave and sod | D2 |
| Walk on a hill and call me Senlin Senlin | A2 |
| Will I not answer you as clearly as now | A2 |
| Listen to rain and you will hear me speaking | E2 |
| Look for my heart in the breaking of a bough ' | - |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| Senlin stood before us in the sunlight | B2 |
| And laughed and walked away | F2 |
| Did no one see him leaving the doors of the city | K |
| Looking behind him as if he wished to stay | F2 |
| Has no one in the forests of the evening | E2 |
| Heard the sad horn of Senlin slowly blown | A2 |
| For somewhere in the worlds in worlds about us | L |
| He changes still unfriended and alone | A2 |
| Is he the star on which we walk at daybreak | G2 |
| The light that blinds our eyes | D |
| 'Senlin ' we cry 'Senlin ' again no answer | Q |
| Only the soulless brilliance of blue skies | D |
| - | |
| Yet we would say this was no man at all | M |
| But a dream we dreamed and vividly recall | M |
| And we are mad to walk in wind and rain | A2 |
| Hoping to find somewhere that dream again | A2 |
Conrad Potter Aiken
(1)
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