The House Of Dust: Part 03: 09: Cabaret Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDC EEFGF AHIHI GHJE KDLML BNOPG EQGBR HSJPJ HT B QODND BBFBF| We sit together and talk or smoke in silence | A |
| You say but use no words 'this night is passing | B |
| As other nights when we are dead will pass ' | C |
| Perhaps I misconstrue you you mean only | D |
| 'How deathly pale my face looks in that glass ' | C |
| - | |
| You say 'We sit and talk of things important | E |
| How many others like ourselves this instant | E |
| Mark the pendulum swinging against the wall | F |
| How many others laughing sip their coffee mdash | G |
| Or stare at mirrors and do not talk at all | F |
| - | |
| 'This is the moment' so you would say in silence | A |
| When suddenly we have had too much of laughter | H |
| And a freezing stillness falls no word to say | I |
| Our mouths feel foolish For all the days hereafter | H |
| What have we saved mdash what news what tune what play | I |
| - | |
| 'We see each other as vain and futile tricksters mdash | G |
| Posturing like bald apes before a mirror | H |
| No pity dims our eyes | J |
| How many others like ourselves this instant | E |
| See how the great world wizens and are wise ' | - |
| - | |
| Well you are right No doubt they fall these seconds | K |
| When suddenly all's distempered vacuous ugly | D |
| And even those most like angels creep for schemes | L |
| The one you love leans forward smiles deceives you | M |
| Opens a door through which you see dark dreams | L |
| - | |
| But this is momentary or else enduring | B |
| Leads you with devious eyes through mists and poisons | N |
| To horrible chaos or suicide or crime | O |
| And all these others who at your conjuration | P |
| Grow pale feeling the skeleton touch of time mdash | G |
| - | |
| Or laughing sadly talk of things important | E |
| Or stare at mirrors startled to see their faces | Q |
| Or drown in the waveless vacuum of their days mdash | G |
| Suddenly as from sleep awake forgetting | B |
| This nauseous dream take up their accustomed ways | R |
| - | |
| Exhume the ghost of a joke renew loud laughter | H |
| Forget the moles above their sweethearts' eyebrows | S |
| Lean to the music rise | J |
| And dance once more in a rose festooned illusion | P |
| With kindness in their eyes | J |
| - | |
| They say as we ourselves have said remember | H |
| 'What wizardry this slow waltz works upon us | T |
| And how it brings to mind forgotten things ' | - |
| They say 'How strange it is that one such evening | B |
| Can wake vague memories of so many springs ' | - |
| - | |
| And so they go In a thousand crowded places | Q |
| They sit to smile and talk or rise to ragtime | O |
| And for their pleasures agree or disagree | D |
| With secret symbols they play on secret passions | N |
| With cunning eyes they see | D |
| - | |
| The innocent word that sets remembrance trembling | B |
| The dubious word that sets the scared heart beating | B |
| The pendulum on the wall | F |
| Shakes down seconds They laugh at time dissembling | B |
| Or coil for a victim and do not talk at all | F |
Conrad Potter Aiken
(1)
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