The House Of Dust: Part 03: 12: Witches' Sabbath Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Conrad Potter Aiken

The House Of Dust: Part 03: 12: Witches' Sabbath Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Now when the moon slid under the cloud	A
And the cold clear dark of starlight fell	B
He heard in his blood the well known bell	B
Tolling slowly in heaves of sound	C
Slowly beating slowly beating	D
Shaking its pulse on the stagnant air	E
Sometimes it swung completely round	C
Horribly gasping as if for breath	F
Falling down with an anguished cry	G
Now the red bat he mused will fly	G
Something is marked this night for death	F
And while he mused along his blood	H
Flew ghostly voices remote and thin	I
They rose in the cavern of his brain	J
Like ghosts they died away again	K
And hands upon his heart were laid	L
And music upon his flesh was played	L
Until as he was bidden to do	M
He walked the wood he so well knew	M
Through the cold dew he moved his feet	N
And heard far off as under the earth	O
Discordant music in shuddering tones	P
Screams of laughter horrible mirth	O
Clapping of hands and thudding of drums	Q
And the long drawn wail of one in pain	J
To night he thought I shall die again	K
We shall die again in the red eyed fire	R
To meet on the edge of the wood beyond	S
With the placid gaze of fed desire	R
He walked and behind the whisper of trees	T
In and out one walked with him	U
She parted the branches and peered at him	U
Through lowered lids her two eyes burned	V
He heard her breath he saw her hand	W
Wherever he turned his way she turned	V
Kept pace with him now fast now slow	X
Moving her white knees as he moved	Y
This is the one I have always loved	Z
This is the one whose bat soul comes	Q
To dance with me flesh to flesh	A2
In the starlight dance of horns and drums	Q
	-
The walls and roofs the scarlet towers	B2
Sank down behind a rushing sky	G
He heard a sweet song just begun	C2
Abruptly shatter in tones and die	G
It whirled away Cold silence fell	B
And again came tollings of a bell	B
	-
	-
	-
This air is alive with witches the white witch rides	D2
Swifter than smoke on the starlit wind	E2
In the clear darkness while the moon hides	D2
They come like dreams like something remembered	F2
Let us hurry beloved take my hand	W
Forget these things that trouble your eyes	G2
Forget forget Our flesh is changed	H2
Lighter than smoke we wreathe and rise	G2
	-
The cold air hisses between us Beloved beloved	Z
What was the word you said	I2
Something about clear music that sang through water	R
I cannot remember The storm drops break on the leaves	J2
Something was lost in the darkness Someone is dead	I2
Someone lies in the garden and grieves	J2
Look how the branches are tossed in this air	E
Flinging their green to the earth	O
Black clouds rush to devour the stars in the sky	G
The moon stares down like a half closed eye	G
The leaves are scattered the birds are blown	K2
Oaks crash down in the darkness	L2
We run from our windy shadows we are running alone	K2
	-
	-
	-
The moon was darkened across it flew	M
The swift grey tenebrous shape he knew	M
Like a thing of smoke it crossed the sky	G
The witch he said And he heard a cry	G
And another came and another came	M2
And one grown duskily red with blood	H
Floated an instant across the moon	N2
Hung like a dull fantastic flame	M2
The earth has veins they throb to night	O2
The earth swells warm beneath my feet	N
The tips of the trees grow red and bright	O2
The leaves are swollen I feel them beat	N
They press together they push and sigh	G
They listen to hear the great bat cry	G
The great red bat with the woman's face	P2
Hurry he said And pace for pace	P2
That other who trod the dark with him	U
Crushed the live leaves reached out white hands	Q2
And closed her eyes the better to see	R2
The priests with claws the lovers with hooves	S2
The fire lit rock the sarabands	S2
I am here she said The bough he broke mdash	A2
Was it the snapping bough that spoke	T2
I am here she said The white thigh gleamed	U2
Cold in starlight among dark leaves	S2
The head thrown backward as he had dreamed	U2
The shadowy red deep jasper mouth	V2
And the lifted hands and the virgin breasts	S2
Passed beside him and vanished away	W2
I am here she cried He answered 'Stay '	-
And laughter arose and near and far	X2
Answering laughter rose and died	Y2
Who is there in the dark he cried	Y2
He stood in terror and heard a sound	C
Of terrible hooves on the hollow ground	C
They rushed were still a silence fell	B
And he heard deep tollings of a bell	B
	-
	-
	-
Look beloved Why do you hide your face	S2
Look in the centre there above the fire	R
They are bearing the boy who blasphemed love	Z2
They are playing a piercing music upon him	U
With a bow of living wire	R
The virgin harlot sings	S2
She leans above the beautiful anguished body	R2
And draws slow music from those strings	S2
They dance around him they fling red roses upon him	U
They trample him with their naked feet	N
His cries are lost in laughter	R
Their feet grow dark with his blood they beat and	A3
beat	N
They dance upon him until he cries no more	B3
Have we not heard that cry before	B3
Somewhere somewhere	E
Beside a sea in the green evening	D
Beneath green clouds in a copper sky	G
Was it you was it I	G
They have quenched the fires they dance in the darkness	S2
The satyrs have run among them to seize and tear	E
Look he has caught one by the hair	E
She screams and falls he bears her away with him	U
And the night grows full of whistling wings	S2
Far off one voice serene and sweet	N
Rises and sings	S2
	-
'By the clear waters where once I died	Y2
In the calm evening bright with stars '	-
Where have I heard these words Was it you who sang them	C3
It was long ago	X
Let us hurry beloved the hard hooves trample	D3
The treetops tremble and glow	X
	-
	-
	-
In the clear dark on silent wings	S2
The red bat hovers beneath her moon	N2
She drops through the fragrant night and clings	S2
Fast in the shadow with hands like claws	S2
With soft eyes closed and mouth that feeds	S2
To the young white flesh that warmly bleeds	S2
The maidens circle in dance and raise	S2
From lifting throats a soft sung praise	S2
Their knees and breasts are white and bare	E
They have hung pale roses in their hair	E
Each of them as she dances by	G
Peers at the blood with a narrowed eye	G
See how the red wing wraps him round	C
See how the white youth struggles in vain	J
The weak arms writhe in a soundless pain	J
He writhes in the soft red veiny wings	S2
But still she whispers upon him and clings	S2
This is the secret feast of love	Z2
Look well look well before it dies	S2
See how the red one trembles above	Z2
See how quiet the white one lies	S2
	-
Wind through the trees and a voice is heard	F2
Singing far off The dead leaves fall	E3
'By the clear waters where once I died	Y2
In the calm evening bright with stars	S2
One among numberless avatars	S2
I wedded a mortal a mortal bride	Y2
And lay on the stones and gave my flesh	A2
And entered the hunger of him I loved	Z
How shall I ever escape this mesh	A2
Or be from my lover's body removed '	-
Dead leaves stream through the hurrying air	E
And the maenads dance with flying hair	E
	-
	-
	-
The priests with hooves the lovers with horns	S2
Rise in the starlight one by one	C2
They draw their knives on the spurting throats	S2
They smear the column with blood of goats	S2
They dabble the blood on hair and lips	S2
And wait like stones for the moon's eclipse	S2
They stand like stones and stare at the sky	G
Where the moon leers down like a half closed eye	G
In the green moonlight still they stand	W
While wind flows over the darkened sand	W
And brood on the soft forgotten things	S2
That filled their shadowy yesterdays	S2
Where are the breasts the scarlet wings	S2
They gaze at each other with troubled gaze	S2
And then as the shadow closes the moon	N2
Shout and strike with their hooves the ground	C
And rush through the dark and fill the night	O2
With a slowly dying clamor of sound	C
There where the great walls crowd the stars	S2
There by the black wind riven walls	S2
In a grove of twisted leafless trees	S2
Who are these pilgrims who are these	S2
These three the one of whom stands u	M