The House Of Dust: Part 04: 03: Palimpsest: A Deceitful Portrait Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Well 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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
	-
	-
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

The House Of Dust: Part 04: 03: Palimpsest: A Deceitful Portrait Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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