The House Of Dust: Part 04: 03: Palimpsest: A Deceitful Portrait Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFDEGHIJKLDLLMEN ODBPQRSTDUVT EJWDAXEYZDA2A2BB2WMC 2D2 E2DIBDP ECJF2G2H2FDA2QI2J2DK 2 JL2L2EM2EN2EO2KP2DJJ DEQ2R2DQS2DT2CU2QV2W 2EJX2Y2FZ2A3BVDDB3KK C3EGQF2CK2G2CBCCDDJD 3CGW2C DEE3CCDIIF3IEDCDEEG3 I CG3IEJJH3JI3EJ3CBEEJ CWell as you say we live for small horizons | A |
We move in crowds we flow and talk together | B |
Seeing so many eyes and hands and faces | C |
So many mouths and all with secret meanings mdash | D |
Yet know so little of them only seeing | E |
The small bright circle of our consciousness | F |
Beyond which lies the dark Some few we know mdash | D |
Or think we know Once on a sun bright morning | E |
I walked in a certain hallway trying to find | G |
A certain door I found one tried it opened | H |
And there in a spacious chamber brightly lighted | I |
A hundred men played music loudly swiftly | J |
While one tall woman sent her voice above them | K |
In powerful sweetness Closing then the door | L |
I heard it die behind me fade to whisper mdash | D |
And walked in a quiet hallway as before | L |
Just such a glimpse as through that opened door | L |
Is all we know of those we call our friends | M |
We hear a sudden music see a playing | E |
Of ordered thoughts mdash and all again is silence | N |
The music we suppose as in ourselves | O |
Goes on forever there behind shut doors mdash | D |
As it continues after our departure | B |
So we divine it played before we came | P |
What do you know of me or I of you | Q |
Little enough We set these doors ajar | R |
Only for chosen movements of the music | S |
This passage so I think mdash yet this is guesswork | T |
Will please him mdash it is in a strain he fancies mdash | D |
More brilliant though than his and while he likes it | U |
He will be piqued He looks at me bewildered | V |
And thinks to judge from self mdash this too is guesswork | T |
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The music strangely subtle deep in meaning | E |
Perplexed with implications he suspects me | J |
Of hidden riches unexpected wisdom | W |
Or else I let him hear a lyric passage mdash | D |
Simple and clear and all the while he listens | A |
I make pretence to think my doors are closed | X |
This too bewilders him He eyes me sidelong | E |
Wondering 'Is he such a fool as this | Y |
Or only mocking ' mdash There I let it end | Z |
Sometimes of course and when we least suspect it mdash | D |
When we pursue our thoughts with too much passion | A2 |
Talking with too great zeal mdash our doors fly open | A2 |
Without intention and the hungry watcher | B |
Stares at the feast carries away our secrets | B2 |
And laughs but this for many counts is seldom | W |
And for the most part we vouchsafe our friends | M |
Our lovers too only such few clear notes | C2 |
As we shall deem them likely to admire | D2 |
'Praise me for this' we say or 'laugh at this ' | - |
Or 'marvel at my candor' all the while | E2 |
Withholding what's most precious to ourselves mdash | D |
Some sinister depth of lust or fear or hatred | I |
The sombre note that gives the chord its power | B |
Or a white loveliness mdash if such we know mdash | D |
Too much like fire to speak of without shame | P |
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Well this being so and we who know it being | E |
So curious about those well locked houses | C |
The minds of those we know mdash to enter softly | J |
And steal from floor to floor up shadowy stairways | F2 |
From room to quiet room from wall to wall | G2 |
Breathing deliberately the very air | H2 |
Pressing our hands and nerves against warm darkness | F |
To learn what ghosts are there mdash | D |
Suppose for once I set my doors wide open | A2 |
And bid you in Suppose I try to tell you | Q |
The secrets of this house and how I live here | I2 |
Suppose I tell you who I am in fact | J2 |
Deceiving you mdash as far as I may know it mdash | D |
Only so much as I deceive myself | K2 |
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If you are clever you already see me | J |
As one who moves forever in a cloud | L2 |
Of warm bright vanity a luminous cloud | L2 |
Which falls on all things with a quivering magic | E |
Changing such outlines as a light may change | M2 |
Brightening what lies dark to me concealing | E |
Those things that will not change I walk sustained | N2 |
In a world of things that flatter me a sky | E |
Just as I would have had it trees and grass | O2 |
Just as I would have shaped and colored them | K |
Pigeons and clouds and sun and whirling shadows | P2 |
And stars that brightening climb through mist at nightfall mdash | D |
In some deep way I am aware these praise me | J |
Where they are beautiful or hint of beauty | J |
They point somehow to me This water says mdash | D |
Shimmering at the sky or undulating | E |
In broken gleaming parodies of clouds | Q2 |
Rippled in blue or sending from cool depths | R2 |
To meet the falling leaf the leaf's clear image mdash | D |
This water says there is some secret in you | Q |
Akin to my clear beauty silently responsive | S2 |
To all that circles you This bare tree says mdash | D |
Austere and stark and leafless split with frost | T2 |
Resonant in the wind with rigid branches | C |
Flung out against the sky mdash this tall tree says | U2 |
There is some cold austerity in you | Q |
A frozen strength with long roots gnarled on rocks | V2 |
Fertile and deep you bide your time are patient | W2 |
Serene in silence bare to outward seeming | E |
Concealing what reserves of power and beauty | J |
What teeming Aprils mdash chorus of leaves on leaves | X2 |
These houses say such walls in walls as ours | Y2 |
Such streets of walls solid and smooth of surface | F |
Such hills and cities of walls walls upon walls | Z2 |
Motionless in the sun or dark with rain | A3 |
Walls pierced with windows where the light may enter | B |
Walls windowless where darkness is desired | V |
Towers and labyrinths and domes and chambers mdash | D |
Amazing deep recesses dark on dark mdash | D |
All these are like the walls which shape your spirit | B3 |
You move are warm within them laugh within them | K |
Proud of their depth and strength or sally from them | K |
When you are bold to blow great horns at the world | C3 |
This deep cool room with shadowed walls and ceiling | E |
Tranquil and cloistral fragrant of my mind | G |
This cool room says mdash just such a room have you | Q |
It waits you always at the tops of stairways | F2 |
Withdrawn remote familiar to your uses | C |
Where you may cease pretence and be yourself | K2 |
And this embroidery hanging on this wall | G2 |
Hung there forever mdash these so soundless glidings | C |
Of dragons golden scaled sheer birds of azure | B |
Coilings of leaves in pale vermilion griffins | C |
Drawing their rainbow wings through involutions | C |
Of mauve chrysanthemums and lotus flowers mdash | D |
This goblin wood where someone cries enchantment mdash | D |
This says just such an involuted beauty | J |
Of thought and coiling thought dream linked with dream | D3 |
Image to image gliding wreathing fires | C |
Soundlessly cries enchantment in your mind | G |
You need but sit and close your eyes a moment | W2 |
To see these deep designs unfold themselves | C |
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And so all things discern me name me praise me mdash | D |
I walk in a world of silent voices praising | E |
And in this world you see me like a wraith | E3 |
Blown softly here and there on silent winds | C |
'Praise me' mdash I say and look not in a glass | C |
But in your eyes to see my image there mdash | D |
Or in your mind you smile I am contented | I |
You look at me with interest unfeigned | I |
And listen mdash I am pleased or else alone | F3 |
I watch thin bubbles veering brightly upward | I |
From unknown depths mdash my silver thoughts ascending | E |
Saying now this now that hinting of all things mdash | D |
Dreams and desires velleities regrets | C |
Faint ghosts of memory strange recognitions mdash | D |
But all with one deep meaning this is I | E |
This is the glistening secret holy I | E |
This silver winged wonder insubstantial | G3 |
This singing ghost And hearing I am warmed | I |
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- | |
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You see me moving then as one who moves | C |
Forever at the centre of his circle | G3 |
A circle filled with light And into it | I |
Come bulging shapes from darkness loom gigantic | E |
Or huddle in dark again A clock ticks clearly | J |
A gas jet steadily whirs light streams across me | J |
Two church bells with alternate beat strike nine | H3 |
And through these things my pencil pushes softly | J |
To weave grey webs of lines on this clear page | I3 |
Snow falls and melts the eaves make liquid music | E |
Black wheel tracks line the snow touched street I turn | J3 |
And look one instant at the half dark gardens | C |
Where skeleton elm trees reach with frozen gesture | B |
Above unsteady lamps mdash with black boughs flung | E |
Against a luminous snow filled grey gold sky | E |
'Beauty ' I cry My feet move on and take me | J |
Between dark walls | C |
Conrad Potter Aiken
(1)
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