The House Of Dust: Part 01: 07: Midnight; Bells Toll, And Along The Cloud-high Towers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEEAA FGHIJ KKKLK KMMKNKK FOOKPKQQKRKSSKKSTUVV WW XKKYKX FPPZA2B2B2A2CC C2C2XD2PYQX DDKKE2E2| Midnight bells toll and along the cloud high towers | A |
| The golden lights go out | B |
| The yellow windows darken the shades are drawn | C |
| In thousands of rooms we sleep we await the dawn | C |
| We lie face down we dream | D |
| We cry aloud with terror half rise or seem | D |
| To stare at the ceiling or walls | E |
| Midnight the last of shattering bell notes falls | E |
| A rush of silence whirls over the cloud high towers | A |
| A vortex of soundless hours | A |
| - | |
| 'The bells have just struck twelve I should be sleeping | F |
| But I cannot delay any longer to write and tell you | G |
| The woman is dead | H |
| She died mdash you know the way Just as we planned | I |
| Smiling with open sunlit eyes | J |
| Smiling upon the outstretched fatal hand ' | - |
| - | |
| He folds his letter steps softly down the stairs | K |
| The doors are closed and silent A gas jet flares | K |
| His shadow disturbs a shadow of balustrades | K |
| The door swings shut behind Night roars above him | L |
| Into the night he fades | K |
| - | |
| Wind wind wind carving the walls | K |
| Blowing the water that gleams in the street | M |
| Blowing the rain the sleet | M |
| In the dark alley an old tree cracks and falls | K |
| Oak boughs moan in the haunted air | N |
| Lamps blow down with a crash and tinkle of glass | K |
| Darkness whistles Wild hours pass | K |
| - | |
| And those whom sleep eludes lie wide eyed hearing | F |
| Above their heads a goblin night go by | O |
| Children are waked and cry | O |
| The young girl hears the roar in her sleep and dreams | K |
| That her lover is caught in a burning tower | P |
| She clutches the pillow she gasps for breath she screams | K |
| And then by degrees her breath grows quiet and slow | Q |
| She dreams of an evening long ago | Q |
| Of colored lanterns balancing under trees | K |
| Some of them softly catching afire | R |
| And beneath the lanterns a motionless face she sees | K |
| Golden with lamplight smiling serene | S |
| The leaves are a pale and glittering green | S |
| The sound of horns blows over the trampled grass | K |
| Shadows of dancers pass | K |
| The face smiles closer to hers she tries to lean | S |
| Backward away the eyes burn close and strange | T |
| The face is beginning to change mdash | U |
| It is her lover she no longer desires to resist | V |
| She is held and kissed | V |
| She closes her eyes and melts in a seethe of flame | W |
| With a smoking ghost of shame | W |
| - | |
| Wind wind wind Wind in an enormous brain | X |
| Blowing dark thoughts like fallen leaves | K |
| The wind shrieks the wind grieves | K |
| It dashes the leaves on walls it whirls then again | Y |
| And the enormous sleeper vaguely and stupidly dreams | K |
| And desires to stir to resist a ghost of pain | X |
| - | |
| One whom the city imprisoned because of his cunning | F |
| Who dreamed for years in a tower | P |
| Seizes this hour | P |
| Of tumult and wind He files through the rusted bar | Z |
| Leans his face to the rain laughs up at the night | A2 |
| Slides down the knotted sheet swings over the wall | B2 |
| To fall to the street with a cat like fall | B2 |
| Slinks round a quavering rim of windy light | A2 |
| And at last is gone | C |
| Leaving his empty cell for the pallor of dawn | C |
| - | |
| The mother whose child was buried to day | C2 |
| Turns her face to the window her face is grey | C2 |
| And all her body is cold with the coldness of rain | X |
| He would have grown as easily as a tree | D2 |
| He would have spread a pleasure of shade above her | P |
| He would have been his father again | Y |
| His growth was ended by a freezing invisible shadow | Q |
| She lies and does not move and is stabbed by the rain | X |
| - | |
| Wind wind wind we toss and dream | D |
| We dream we are clouds and stars blown in a stream | D |
| Windows rattle above our beds | K |
| We reach vague gesturing hands we lift our heads | K |
| Hear sounds far off mdash and dream with quivering breath | E2 |
| Our curious separate ways through life and death | E2 |
Conrad Potter Aiken
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About The House Of Dust: Part 01: 07: Midnight; Bells Toll, And Along The Cloud-high Towers
The House Of Dust: Part 01: 07: Midnight; Bells Toll, And Along The Cloud-high Towers is a poem by Conrad Potter Aiken. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The House Of Dust: Part 01: 07: Midnight; Bells Toll, And Along The Cloud-high Towers poem by Conrad Potter Aiken
Best Poems of Conrad Potter Aiken