The House Of Dust: Part 01: 06: Over The Darkened City, The City Of Towers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCCDEFGE DHIJKI JLDMNNIOPO IQRDQ ST DUT V W XX Y ZA2B2Z MLDM ZC2ZC2D2D2E2E2IIF2F2 IIG2G2C2C2ZIH2II2J2N J2TCTCDK2L2 RD2M2N2M2 O2IP2Q2P2 MIER2E S2TT2R2T2 R2R2RYR GD II U2V2MB2 R2R2ZR2Over the darkened city the city of towers | A |
The city of a thousand gates | B |
Over the gleaming terraced roofs the huddled towers | A |
Over a somnolent whisper of loves and hates | B |
The slow wind flows drearily streams and falls | C |
With a mournful sound down rain dark walls | C |
On one side purples the lustrous dusk of the sea | D |
And dreams in white at the city's feet | E |
On one side sleep the plains with heaped up hills | F |
Oaks and beeches whisper in rings about it | G |
Above the trees are towers where dread bells beat | E |
- | |
The fisherman draws his streaming net from the sea | D |
And sails toward the far off city that seems | H |
Like one vague tower | I |
The dark bow plunges to foam on blue black waves | J |
And shrill rain seethes like a ghostly music about him | K |
In a quiet shower | I |
- | |
Rain with a shrill sings on the lapsing waves | J |
Rain thrills over the roofs again | L |
Like a shadow of shifting silver it crosses the city | D |
The lamps in the streets are streamed with rain | M |
And sparrows complain beneath deep eaves | N |
And among whirled leaves | N |
The sea gulls blowing from tower to lower tower | I |
From wall to remoter wall | O |
Skim with the driven rain to the rising sea sound | P |
And close grey wings and fall | O |
- | |
Hearing great rain above me I now remember | I |
A girl who stood by the door and shut her eyes | Q |
Her pale cheeks glistened with rain she stood and shivered | R |
Into a forest of silver she vanished slowly | D |
Voices about me rise | Q |
- | |
Voices clear and silvery voices of raindrops mdash | S |
'We struck with silver claws we struck her down | T |
We are the ghosts of the singing furies ' | - |
A chorus of elfin voices blowing about me | D |
Weaves to a babel of sound Each cries a secret | U |
I run among them reach out vain hands and drown | T |
- | |
'I am the one who stood beside you and smiled | V |
Thinking your face so strangely young ' | - |
'I am the one who loved you but did not dare ' | - |
'I am the one you followed through crowded streets | W |
The one who escaped you the one with red gleamed hair ' | - |
- | |
'I am the one you saw to day who fell | X |
Senseless before you hearing a certain bell | X |
A bell that broke great memories in my brain ' | - |
'I am the one who passed unnoticed before you | Y |
Invisible in a cloud of secret pain ' | - |
- | |
'I am the one who suddenly cried beholding | Z |
The face of a certain man on the dazzling screen | A2 |
They wrote me that he was dead It was long ago | B2 |
I walked in the streets for a long while hearing nothing | Z |
And returned to see it again And it was so ' | - |
- | |
- | |
Weave weave weave you streaks of rain | M |
I am dissolved and woven again | L |
Thousands of faces rise and vanish before me | D |
Thousands of voices weave in the rain | M |
- | |
'I am the one who rode beside you blinking | Z |
At a dazzle of golden lights | C2 |
Tempests of music swept me I was thinking | Z |
Of the gorgeous promise of certain nights | C2 |
Of the woman who suddenly smiled at me this day | D2 |
Smiled in a certain delicious sidelong way | D2 |
And turned as she reached the door | E2 |
To smile once more | E2 |
Her hands are whiter than snow on midnight water | I |
Her throat is golden and full of golden laughter | I |
Her eyes are strange as the stealth of the moon | F2 |
On a night in June | F2 |
She runs among whistling leaves I hurry after | I |
She dances in dreams over white waved water | I |
Her body is white and fragrant and cool | G2 |
Magnolia petals that float on a white starred pool | G2 |
I have dreamed of her dreaming for many nights | C2 |
Of a broken music and golden lights | C2 |
Of broken webs of silver heavily falling | Z |
Between my hands and their white desire | I |
And dark leaved boughs edged with a golden radiance | H2 |
Dipping to screen a fire | I |
I dream that I walk with her beneath high trees | I2 |
But as I lean to kiss her face | J2 |
She is blown aloft on wind I catch at leaves | N |
And run in a moonless place | J2 |
And I hear a crashing of terrible rocks flung down | T |
And shattering trees and cracking walls | C |
And a net of intense white flame roars over the town | T |
And someone cries and darkness falls | C |
But now she has leaned and smiled at me | D |
My veins are afire with music | K2 |
Her eyes have kissed me my body is turned to light | L2 |
I shall dream to her secret heart tonight ' | - |
- | |
He rises and moves away he says no word | R |
He folds his evening paper and turns away | D2 |
I rush through the dark with rows of lamplit faces | M2 |
Fire bells peal and some of us turn to listen | N2 |
And some sit motionless in their accustomed places | M2 |
- | |
Cold rain lashes the car roof scurries in gusts | O2 |
Streams down the windows in waves and ripples of lustre | I |
The lamps in the streets are distorted and strange | P2 |
Someone takes his watch from his pocket and yawns | Q2 |
One peers out in the night for the place to change | P2 |
- | |
Rain rain rain we are buried in rain | M |
It will rain forever the swift wheels hiss through water | I |
Pale sheets of water gleam in the windy street | E |
The pealing of bells is lost in a drive of rain drops | R2 |
Remote and hurried the great bells beat | E |
- | |
'I am the one whom life so shrewdly betrayed | S2 |
Misfortune dogs me it always hunted me down | T |
And to day the woman I love lies dead | T2 |
I gave her roses a ring with opals | R2 |
These hands have touched her head | T2 |
- | |
'I bound her to me in all soft ways | R2 |
I bound her to me in a net of days | R2 |
Yet now she has gone in silence and said no word | R |
How can we face these dazzling things I ask you | Y |
There is no use we cry and are not heard | R |
- | |
'They cover a body with roses I shall not see it | G |
Must one return to the lifeless walls of a city | D |
Whose soul is charred by fire ' | - |
His eyes are closed his lips press tightly together | I |
Wheels hiss beneath us He yields us our desire | I |
- | |
'No do not stare so mdash he is weak with grief | U2 |
He cannot face you he turns his eyes aside | V2 |
He is confused with pain | M |
I suffered this I know It was long ago | B2 |
He closes his eyes and drowns in death again ' | - |
- | |
The wind hurls blows at the rain starred glistening windows | R2 |
The wind shrills down from the half seen walls | R2 |
We flow on the mournful wind in a dream of dying | Z |
And at last a silence falls | R2 |
Conrad Potter Aiken
(1)
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