The House Of Dust: Part 03: 06: Portrait Of One Dead Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFE CGHGIJKJ CJ CL JMNON JBJPJ OQJQRR CCSOS JTUJU RVWAW XOOPO YFUJU| This is the house On one side there is darkness | A |
| On one side there is light | B |
| Into the darkness you may lift your lanterns mdash | C |
| O any number mdash it will still be night | B |
| And here are echoing stairs to lead you downward | D |
| To long sonorous halls | E |
| And here is spring forever at these windows | F |
| With roses on the walls | E |
| - | |
| This is her room On one side there is music mdash | C |
| On one side not a sound | G |
| At one step she could move from love to silence | H |
| Feel myriad darkness coiling round | G |
| And here are balconies from which she heard you | I |
| Your steady footsteps on the stair | J |
| And here the glass in which she saw your shadow | K |
| As she unbound her hair | J |
| - | |
| Here is the room mdash with ghostly walls dissolving mdash | C |
| The twilight room in which she called you 'lover' | J |
| And the floorless room in which she called you 'friend ' | - |
| So many times in doubt she ran between them mdash | C |
| Through windy corridors of darkening end | L |
| - | |
| Here she could stand with one dim light above her | J |
| And hear far music like a sea in caverns | M |
| Murmur away at hollowed walls of stone | N |
| And here in a roofless room where it was raining | O |
| She bore the patient sorrow of rain alone | N |
| - | |
| Your words were walls which suddenly froze around her | J |
| Your words were windows mdash large enough for moonlight | B |
| Too small to let her through | J |
| Your letters mdash fragrant cloisters faint with music | P |
| The music that assuaged her there was you | J |
| - | |
| How many times she heard your step ascending | O |
| Yet never saw your face | Q |
| She heard them turn again ring slowly fainter | J |
| Till silence swept the place | Q |
| Why had you gone The door perhaps mistaken | R |
| You would go elsewhere The deep walls were shaken | R |
| - | |
| A certain rose leaf mdash sent without intention mdash | C |
| Became with time a woven web of fire mdash | C |
| She wore it and was warm | S |
| A certain hurried glance let fall at parting | O |
| Became with time the flashings of a storm | S |
| - | |
| Yet there was nothing asked no hint to tell you | J |
| Of secret idols carved in secret chambers | T |
| From all you did and said | U |
| Nothing was done until at last she knew you | J |
| Nothing was known till somehow she was dead | U |
| - | |
| How did she die mdash You say she died of poison | R |
| Simple and swift And much to be regretted | V |
| You did not see her pass | W |
| So many thousand times from light to darkness | A |
| Pausing so many times before her glass | W |
| - | |
| You did not see how many times she hurried | X |
| To lean from certain windows vainly hoping | O |
| Passionate still for beauty remembered spring | O |
| You did not know how long she clung to music | P |
| You did not hear her sing | O |
| - | |
| Did she then make the choice and step out bravely | Y |
| From sound to silence mdash close herself those windows | F |
| Or was it true instead | U |
| That darkness moved mdash for once mdash and so possessed her | J |
| We'll never know you say for she is dead | U |
Conrad Potter Aiken
(1)
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The House Of Dust: Part 03: 06: Portrait Of One Dead is a poem by Conrad Potter Aiken. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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