The House Of Dust: Part 04: 05: The Bitter Love-song Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJBBKCBHBLMB BJBN A CAAHJOPPPQRSABP TBEUIVBWBBXYPZBA2 B2JBKAC2C2C2| No I shall not say why it is that I love you mdash | A |
| Why do you ask me save for vanity | B |
| Surely you would not have me like a mirror | C |
| Say 'yes mdash your hair curls darkly back from the temples | D |
| Your mouth has a humorous tremulous half shy sweetness | E |
| Your eyes are April grey with jonquils in them ' | F |
| No if I tell at all I shall tell in silence | G |
| I'll say mdash my childhood broke through chords of music | H |
| mdash Or were they chords of sun mdash wherein fell shadows | I |
| Or silences I rose through seas of sunlight | J |
| Or sometimes found a darkness stooped above me | B |
| With wings of death and a face of cold clear beauty | B |
| I lay in the warm sweet grass on a blue May morning | K |
| My chin in a dandelion my hands in clover | C |
| And drowsed there like a bee blue days behind me | B |
| Stretched like a chain of deep blue pools of magic | H |
| Enchanted silent timeless days before me | B |
| Murmured of blue sea mornings noons of gold | L |
| Green evenings streaked with lilac bee starred nights | M |
| Confused soft clouds of music fled above me | B |
| - | |
| Sharp shafts of music dazzled my eyes and pierced me | B |
| I ran and turned and spun and danced in the sunlight | J |
| Shrank sometimes from the freezing silence of beauty | B |
| Or crept once more to the warm white cave of sleep | N |
| - | |
| No I shall not say 'this is why I praise you mdash | A |
| Because you say such wise things or such foolish ' | - |
| You would not have me say what you know better | C |
| Let me instead be silent only saying mdash | A |
| My childhood lives in me mdash or half lives rather mdash | A |
| And if I close my eyes cool chords of music | H |
| Flow up to me long chords of wind and sunlight | J |
| Shadows of intricate vines on sunlit walls | O |
| Deep bells beating with aeons of blue between them | P |
| Grass blades leagues apart with worlds between them | P |
| Walls rushing up to heaven with stars upon them | P |
| I lay in my bed and through the tall night window | Q |
| Saw the green lightning plunging among the clouds | R |
| And heard the harsh rain storm at the panes and roof | S |
| How should I know mdash how should I now remember mdash | A |
| What half dreamed great wings curved and sang above me | B |
| What wings like swords What eyes with the dread night in them | P |
| - | |
| This I shall say mdash I lay by the hot white sand dunes | T |
| Small yellow flowers sapless and squat and spiny | B |
| Stared at the sky And silently there above us | E |
| Day after day beyond our dreams and knowledge | U |
| Presences swept and over us streamed their shadows | I |
| Swift and blue or dark What did they mean | V |
| What sinister threat of power What hint of beauty | B |
| Prelude to what gigantic music or subtle | W |
| Only I know these things leaned over me | B |
| Brooded upon me paused went flowing softly | B |
| Glided and passed I loved I desired I hated | X |
| I struggled I yielded and loved was warmed to blossom | Y |
| You when your eyes have evening sunlight in them | P |
| Set these dunes before me these salt bright flowers | Z |
| These presences I drowse they stream above me | B |
| I struggle I yield and love I am warmed to dream | A2 |
| - | |
| You are the window if I could tell I'd tell you | B2 |
| Through which I see a clear far world of sunlight | J |
| You are the silence if you could hear you'd hear me | B |
| In which I remember a thin still whisper of singing | K |
| It is not you I laugh for you I touch | A |
| My hands that touch you suddenly touch white cobwebs | C2 |
| Coldly silvered heavily silvered with dewdrops | C2 |
| And clover heavy with rain and cold green grass | C2 |
Conrad Potter Aiken
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About The House Of Dust: Part 04: 05: The Bitter Love-song
The House Of Dust: Part 04: 05: The Bitter Love-song is a poem by Conrad Potter Aiken. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The House Of Dust: Part 04: 05: The Bitter Love-song poem by Conrad Potter Aiken
Best Poems of Conrad Potter Aiken