Senlin: His Futile Preoccupations Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Conrad Potter Aiken

Senlin: His Futile Preoccupations Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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	A
	-
I am a house says Senlin locked and darkened	B
Sealed from the sun with wall and door and blind	C
Summon me loudly and you'll hear slow footsteps	D
Ring far and faint in the galleries of my mind	C
You'll hear soft steps on an old and dusty stairway	E
Peer darkly through some corner of a pane	F
You'll see me with a faint light coming slowly	G
Pausing above some gallery of the brain	F
	-
I am a city In the blue light of evening	H
Wind wanders among my streets and makes them fair	I
I am a room of rock a maiden dances	J
Lifting her hands tossing her golden hair	I
She combs her hair the room of rock is darkened	B
She extends herself in me and I am sleep	K
It is my pride that starlight is above me	G
I dream amid waves of air my walls are deep	K
	-
I am a door before me roils the darkness	L
Behind me ring clear waves of sound and light	M
Stand in the shadowy street outside and listen	N
The crying of violins assails the night	M
My walls are deep but the cries of music pierce them	O
They shake with the sound of drums yet it is strange	P
That I should know so little what means this music	Q
Hearing it always within me change and change	P
	-
Knock on the door and you shall have an answer	R
Open the heavy walls to set me free	G
And blow a horn to call me into the sunlight	M
And startled then what a strange thing you will see	G
Nuns murderers and drunkards saints and sinners	S
Lover and dancing girl and sage and clown	T
Will laugh upon you and you will find me nowhere	I
I am a room a house a street a town	T
	-
	-
	-
It is morning Senlin says and in the morning	H
When the light drips through the shutters like the dew	U
I arise I face the sunrise	V
And do the things my fathers learned to do	U
Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops	W
Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die	X
And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet	Y
Stand before a glass and tie my tie	X
	-
Vine leaves tap my window	Z
Dew drops sing to the garden stones	A2
The robin chips in the chinaberry tree	G
Repeating three clear tones	A2
	-
It is morning I stand by the mirror	R
And tie my tie once more	B2
While waves far off in a pale rose twilight	M
Crash on a white sand shore	B2
I stand by a mirror and comb my hair	I
How small and white my face	C2
The green earth tilts through a sphere of air	I
And bathes in a flame of space	C2
There are houses hanging above the stars	D2
And stars hung under a sea	G
And a sun far off in a shell of silence	E2
Dapples my walls for me	G
	-
It is morning Senlin says and in the morning	H
Should I not pause in the light to remember God	F2
Upright and firm I stand on a star unstable	G2
He is immense and lonely as a cloud	H2
I will dedicate this moment before my mirror	R
To him alone and for him I will comb my hair	I
Accept these humble offerings cloud of silence	E2
I will think of you as I descend the stair	I
	-
Vine leaves tap my window	Z
The snail track shines on the stones	A2
Dew drops flash from the chinaberry tree	G
Repeating two clear tones	A2
	-
It is morning I awake from a bed of silence	E2
Shining I rise from the starless waters of sleep	K
The walls are about me still as in the evening	H
I am the same and the same name still I keep	K
The earth revolves with me yet makes no motion	N
The stars pale silently in a coral sky	X
In a whistling void I stand before my mirror	R
Unconcerned I tie my tie	X
	-
There are horses neighing on far off hills	I2
Tossing their long white manes	J2
And mountains flash in the rose white dusk	K2
Their shoulders black with rains	J2
	-
It is morning I stand by the mirror	R
And surprise my soul once more	B2
The blue air rushes above my ceiling	H
There are suns beneath my floor	B2
	-
It is morning Senlin says I ascend from darkness	L
And depart on the winds of space for I know not where	I
My watch is wound a key is in my pocket	Y
And the sky is darkened as I descend the stair	I
There are shadows across the windows clouds in heaven	N
And a god among the stars and I will go	Z
Thinking of him as I might think of daybreak	L2
And humming a tune I know	Z
	-
Vine leaves tap at the window	Z
Dew drops sing to the garden stones	A2
The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree	G
Repeating three clear tones	A2
	-
	-
	-
I walk to my work says Senlin along a street	M2
Superbly hung in space	C2
I lift these mortal stones and with my trowel	N2
I tap them into place	C2
But is god perhaps a giant who ties his tie	X
Grimacing before a colossal glass of sky	X
	-
These stones are heavy these stones decay	E
These stones are wet with rain	F
I build them into a wall today	E
Tomorrow they fall again	O2
	-
Does god arise from a chaos of starless sleep	K
Rise from the dark and stretch his arms and yawn	P2
And drowsily look from the window at his garden	N
And rejoice at the dewdrop sparkeling on his lawn	P2
	-
Does he remember suddenly with amazement	Q2
The yesterday he left in sleep his name	R2
Or the glittering street superbly hung in wind	C
Along which in the dusk he slowly came	R2
	-
I devise new patterns for laying stones	A2
And build a stronger wall	S2
One drop of rain astonishes me	G
And I let my trowel fall	S2
	-
The flashing of leaves delights my eyes	V
Blue air delights my face	C2
I will dedicate this stone to god	F2
And tap it into its place	C2
	-
	-
	-
That woman did she try to attract my attention	N
Is it true I saw her smile and nod	F2
She turned her head and smiled was it for me	G
It is better to think of work or god	F2
The clouds pile coldly above the houses	J
Slow wind revolves the leaves	T2
It begins to rain and the first long drops	W
Are slantingly blown from eaves	T2
	-
But it is true she tried to attract my attention	N
She pressed a rose to her chin and smiled	U2
Her hand was white by the richness of her hair	I
Her eyes were those of a child	U2
It is true she looked at me as if she liked me	G
And turned away afraid to look too long	V2
She watched me out of the corners of her eyes	V
And tapping time with fingers hummed a song	V2
	-
Nevertheless I will think of work	W2
With a trowel in my hands	X2
Or the vague god who blows like clouds	Y2
Above these dripping lands	X2
	-
But is it sure she tried to attract my attention	N
She leaned her elbow in a peculiar way	E
There in the crowded room she touched my hand	Z2
She must have known and yet she let it stay	E
Music of flesh Music of root and sod	F2
Leaf touching leaf in the rain	F
Impalpable clouds of red ascend	A3
Red clouds blow over my brain	F
	-
Did she await from me some sign of acceptance	E2
I smoothed my hair with a faltering hand	Z2
I started a feeble smile but the smile was frozen	N
Perhaps I thought I misunderstood	B3
Is it to be conceived that I could attract her	R
This dull and futile flesh attract such fire	R
I with a trowel's dullness in hand and brain	F
Take on some godlike aspect rouse desire	R
Incredible delicious I will wear	I
A brighter color of tie arranged with care	I
I will delight in god as I comb my hair	I
	-
And the conquests of my bolder past return	C3
Like strains of music some lost tune	D3
Recalled from youth and a happier time	E3
I take my sweetheart's arm in the dusk once more	B2
One more we climb	E3
	-
Up the forbidden stairway	E
Under the flickering light along the railing	H
I catch her hand in the dark we laugh once more	B2
I hear the rustle of silk and follow swiftly	G
And softly at last we close the door	B2
	-
Yes it is true that woman tried to attract me	G
It is true she came out of time for me	G
Came from the swirling and savage forest of earth	F3
The cruel eternity of the sea	G
She parted the leaves of waves and rose from silence	E2
Shining with secrets she did not know	Z
Music of dust Music of web and web	G3
And I bewildered let her go	Z
	-
I light my pipe The flame is yellow	Z
Edged underneath with blue	U
These thoughts are truer of god perhaps	H3
Than thoughts	I3