The House Of Dust: Part 03: 04: Illicit Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGCHIDFJKLFMNOP CQJR SDDDTUVCQWXCXYCCXZF DA2B2C2C2C2 D2CYCCPC2PE2F2AC2G2P PO C2AC2H2PB2AX| Of what she said to me that night mdash no matter | A |
| The strange thing came next day | B |
| My brain was full of music mdash something she played me mdash | C |
| I couldn't remember it all but phrases of it | D |
| Wreathed and wreathed among faint memories | E |
| Seeking for something trying to tell me something | F |
| Urging to restlessness verging on grief | G |
| I tried to play the tune from memory mdash | C |
| But memory failed the chords and discords climbed | H |
| And found no resolution mdash only hung there | I |
| And left me morbid Where then had I heard it | D |
| What secret dusty chamber was it hinting | F |
| 'Dust' it said 'dust and dust and sunlight | J |
| A cold clear April evening snow bedraggled | K |
| Rain worn snow dappling the hideous grass | L |
| And someone walking alone and someone saying | F |
| That all must end for the time had come to go ' | M |
| These were the phrases but behind beneath them | N |
| A greater shadow moved and in this shadow | O |
| I stood and guessed Was it the blue eyed lady | P |
| The one who always danced in golden slippers mdash | C |
| And had I danced with her mdash upon this music | Q |
| Or was it further back mdash the unplumbed twilight | J |
| Of childhood mdash No mdash much recenter than that | R |
| - | |
| You know without my telling you how sometimes | S |
| A word or name eludes you and you seek it | D |
| Through running ghosts of shadow mdash leaping at it | D |
| Lying in wait for it to spring upon it | D |
| Spreading faint snares for it of sense or sound | T |
| Until of a sudden as if in a phantom forest | U |
| You hear it see it flash among the branches | V |
| And scarcely knowing how suddenly have it mdash | C |
| Well it was so I followed down this music | Q |
| Glimpsing a face in darkness hearing a cry | W |
| Remembering days forgotten moods exhausted | X |
| Corners in sunlight puddles reflecting stars mdash | C |
| Until of a sudden and least of all suspected | X |
| The thing resolved itself and I remembered | Y |
| An April afternoon eight years ago mdash | C |
| Or was it nine mdash no matter mdash call it nine mdash | C |
| A room in which the last of sunlight faded | X |
| A vase of violets fragrance in white curtains | Z |
| And she who played the same thing later playing | F |
| - | |
| She played this tune And in the middle of it | D |
| Abruptly broke it off letting her hands | A2 |
| Fall in her lap She sat there so a moment | B2 |
| With shoulders drooped then lifted up a rose | C2 |
| One great white rose wide opened like a lotos | C2 |
| And pressed it to her cheek and closed her eyes | C2 |
| - | |
| 'You know mdash we've got to end this mdash Miriam loves you | D2 |
| If she should ever know or even guess it mdash | C |
| What would she do mdash Listen mdash I'm not absurd | Y |
| I'm sure of it If you had eyes for women mdash | C |
| To understand them mdash which you've never had mdash | C |
| You'd know it too ' So went this colloquy | P |
| Half humorous with undertones of pathos | C2 |
| Half grave half flippant while her fingers softly | P |
| Felt for this tune played it and let it fall | E2 |
| Now note by singing note now chord by chord | F2 |
| Repeating phrases with a kind of pleasure | A |
| Was it symbolic of the woman's weakness | C2 |
| That she could neither break it mdash nor conclude | G2 |
| It paused and wandered paused again while she | P |
| Perplexed and tired half told me I must go mdash | P |
| Half asked me if I thought I ought to go | O |
| - | |
| Well April passed with many other evenings | C2 |
| Evenings like this with later suns and warmer | A |
| With violets always there and fragrant curtains | C2 |
| And she was right and Miriam found it out | H2 |
| And after that when eight deep years had passed mdash | P |
| Or nine mdash we met once more mdash by accident | B2 |
| But was it just by accident I wonder | A |
| She played this tune mdash Or what then was intended | X |
Conrad Potter Aiken
(1)
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