The House Of Dust - Part I - Complete Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDBD EFGHI EJ KLM NOOPOQP ROSJS OAT KTUUGVI A QWQWOOXO YYUPU ZZGIA2A2OO TAGIA A OB2C2OAC2 D2YE2JYPJP A2OA2OF2GF2I B2 JG2AGA QH2OH2 I2J2QJ2Q OPOK2O L2A2AA2A GIOUO YYF2QF2 B2 GWWGM2N2I O2P2HB2P2 HP2P2Q2P2HR2JR2 P2I2S2B2S2 KUT2UT2 B2YB2OB2 OB2U2UU2 A B2B2B2B2B2B2B2OB2OO B2B2QB2HQ B2IB2GB2B2QZOZ QB2OB2B2 B2Y B2OY O B2 C2C2 H2 I2V2P2I2 GIB2G I2B2I2B2R2R2W2W2QQX2 X2QQY2Y2B2B2I2QB2QB2 B2B2B2YB2YB2B2NO OR2B2DB2 B2QZ2B2Z2 GQOB2O OYOB2O B2B2OH2O OB2 QQ B2OGP2 B2B2I2B2 B2 B2OA3A3UUB2B2B2B2 I2H2OOB2 B2B2B2HB2 B2OOB2PB2B2 I2AAB2QB2P2P2B2B3B2V 2V2B2B2V2Z2Z2OOC3C3 GB2B2IB2G I2QQD3OZZOA3A3 R2R2GB2QIP2G UUB2B2K2K2 B2 B2B2B2B2B2B2 B2B2B2B2 YYUGU

I	A
	-
The sun goes down in a cold pale flare of light	B
The trees grow dark the shadows lean to the east	C
And lights wink out through the windows one by one	D
A clamor of frosty sirens mourns at the night	B
Pale slate grey clouds whirl up from the sunken sun	D
	-
And the wandering one the inquisitive dreamer of dreams	E
The eternal asker of answers stands in the street	F
And lifts his palms for the first cold ghost of rain	G
The purple lights leap down the hill before him	H
The gorgeous night has begun again	I
	-
'I will ask them all I will ask them all their dreams	E
I will hold my light above them and seek their faces	J
I will hear them whisper invisible in their veins '	-
The eternal asker of answers becomes as the darkness	K
Or as a wind blown over a myriad forest	L
Or as the numberless voices of long drawn rains	M
	-
We hear him and take him among us like a wind of music	N
Like the ghost of a music we have somewhere heard	O
We crowd through the streets in a dazzle of pallid lamplight	O
We pour in a sinister wave ascend a stair	P
With laughter and cry and word upon murmured word	O
We flow we descend we turn and the eternal dreamer	Q
Moves among us like light like evening air	P
	-
Good night Good night Good night We go our ways	R
The rain runs over the pavement before our feet	O
The cold rain falls the rain sings	S
We walk we run we ride We turn our faces	J
To what the eternal evening brings	S
	-
Our hands are hot and raw with the stones we have laid	O
We have built a tower of stone high into the sky	A
We have built a city of towers	T
	-
Our hands are light they are singing with emptiness	K
Our souls are light they have shaken a burden of hours	T
What did we build it for Was it all a dream	U
Ghostly above us in lamplight the towers gleam	U
And after a while they will fall to dust and rain	G
Or else we will tear them down with impatient hands	V
And hew rock out of the earth and build them again	I
	-
	-
II	A
	-
One from his high bright window in a tower	Q
Leans out as evening falls	W
And sees the advancing curtain of the shower	Q
Splashing its silver on roofs and walls	W
Sees how swift as a shadow it crosses the city	O
And murmurs beyond far walls to the sea	O
Leaving a glimmer of water in the dark canyons	X
And silver falling from eave and tree	O
	-
One from his high bright window looking down	Y
Peers like a dreamer over the rain bright town	Y
And thinks its towers are like a dream	U
The western windows flame in the sun's last flare	P
Pale roofs begin to gleam	U
	-
Looking down from a window high in a wall	Z
He sees us all	Z
Lifting our pallid faces towards the rain	G
Searching the sky and going our ways again	I
Standing in doorways waiting under the trees	A2
There in the high bright window he dreams and sees	A2
What we are blind to we who mass and crowd	O
From wall to wall in the darkening of a cloud	O
	-
The gulls drift slowly above the city of towers	T
Over the roofs to the darkening sea they fly	A
Night falls swiftly on an evening of rain	G
The yellow lamps wink one by one again	I
The towers reach higher and blacker against the sky	A
	-
	-
III	A
	-
One where the pale sea foamed at the yellow sand	O
With wave upon slowly shattering wave	B2
Turned to the city of towers as evening fell	C2
And slowly walked by the darkening road toward it	O
And saw how the towers darkened against the sky	A
And across the distance heard the toll of a bell	C2
	-
Along the darkening road he hurried alone	D2
With his eyes cast down	Y
And thought how the streets were hoarse with a tide of people	E2
With clamor of voices and numberless faces	J
And it seemed to him of a sudden that he would drown	Y
Here in the quiet of evening air	P
These empty and voiceless places	J
And he hurried towards the city to enter there	P
	-
Along the darkening road between tall trees	A2
That made a sinister whisper loudly he walked	O
Behind him sea gulls dipped over long grey seas	A2
Before him numberless lovers smiled and talked	O
And death was observed with sudden cries	F2
And birth with laughter and pain	G
And the trees grew taller and blacker against the skies	F2
And night came down again	I
	-
	-
IV	B2
	-
Up high black walls up sombre terraces	J
Clinging like luminous birds to the sides of cliffs	G2
The yellow lights went climbing towards the sky	A
From high black walls gleaming vaguely with rain	G
Each yellow light looked down like a golden eye	A
	-
They trembled from coign to coign and tower to tower	Q
Along high terraces quicker than dream they flew	H2
And some of them steadily glowed and some soon vanished	O
And some strange shadows threw	H2
	-
And behind them all the ghosts of thoughts went moving	I2
Restlessly moving in each lamplit room	J2
From chair to mirror from mirror to fire	Q
From some the light was scarcely more than a gloom	J2
From some a dazzling desire	Q
	-
And there was one beneath black eaves who thought	O
Combing with lifted arms her golden hair	P
Of the lover who hurried towards her through the night	O
And there was one who dreamed of a sudden death	K2
As she blew out her light	O
	-
And there was one who turned from clamoring streets	L2
And walked in lamplit gardens among black trees	A2
And looked at the windy sky	A
And thought with terror how stones and roots would freeze	A2
And birds in the dead boughs cry	A
	-
And she hurried back as snow fell mixed with rain	G
To mingle among the crowds again	I
To jostle beneath blue lamps along the street	O
And lost herself in the warm bright coiling dream	U
With a sound of murmuring voices and shuffling feet	O
	-
And one from his high bright window looking down	Y
On luminous chasms that cleft the basalt town	Y
Hearing a sea like murmur rise	F2
Desired to leave his dream descend from the tower	Q
And drown in waves of shouts and laughter and cries	F2
	-
	-
V	B2
	-
The snow floats down upon us mingled with rain	G
It eddies around pale lilac lamps and falls	W
Down golden windowed walls	W
We were all born of flesh in a flare of pain	G
We do not remember the red roots whence we rose	M2
But we know that we rose and walked that after a while	N2
We shall lie down again	I
	-
The snow floats down upon us we turn we turn	O2
Through gorges filled with light we sound and flow	P2
One is struck down and hurt we crowd about him	H
We bear him away gaze after his listless body	B2
But whether he lives or dies we do not know	P2
	-
One of us sings in the street and we listen to him	H
The words ring over us like vague bells of sorrow	P2
He sings of a house he lived in long ago	P2
It is strange this house of dust was the house I lived in	Q2
The house you lived in the house that all of us know	P2
And coiling slowly about him and laughing at him	H
And throwing him pennies we bear away	R2
A mournful echo of other times and places	J
And follow a dream a dream that will not stay	R2
	-
Down long broad flights of lamplit stairs we flow	P2
Noisy in scattered waves crowding and shouting	I2
In broken slow cascades	S2
The gardens extend before us We spread out swiftly	B2
Trees are above us and darkness The canyon fades	S2
	-
And we recall with a gleaming stab of sadness	K
Vaguely and incoherently some dream	U
Of a world we came from a world of sun blue hills	T2
A black wood whispers around us green eyes gleam	U
Someone cries in the forest and someone kills	T2
	-
We flow to the east to the white lined shivering sea	B2
We reach to the west where the whirling sun went down	Y
We close our eyes to music in bright cafees	B2
We diverge from clamorous streets to streets that are silent	O
We loaf where the wind spilled fountain plays	B2
	-
And growing tired we turn aside at last	O
Remember our secret selves seek out our towers	B2
Lay weary hands on the banisters and climb	U2
Climbing each to his little four square dream	U
Of love or lust or beauty or death or crime	U2
	-
	-
VI	A
	-
Over the darkened city the city of towers	B2
The city of a thousand gates	B2
Over the gleaming terraced roofs the huddled towers	B2
Over a somnolent whisper of loves and hates	B2
The slow wind flows drearily streams and falls	B2
With a mournful sound down rain dark walls	B2
On one side purples the lustrous dusk of the sea	B2
And dreams in white at the city's feet	O
On one side sleep the plains with heaped up hills	B2
Oaks and beeches whisper in rings about it	O
Above the trees are towers where dread bells beat	O
	-
The fisherman draws his streaming net from the sea	B2
And sails toward the far off city that seems	B2
Like one vague tower	Q
The dark bow plunges to foam on blue black waves	B2
And shrill rain seethes like a ghostly music about him	H
In a quiet shower	Q
	-
Rain with a shrill sings on the lapsing waves	B2
Rain thrills over the roofs again	I
Like a shadow of shifting silver it crosses the city	B2
The lamps in the streets are streamed with rain	G
And sparrows complain beneath deep eaves	B2
And among whirled leaves	B2
The sea gulls blowing from tower to lower tower	Q
From wall to remoter wall	Z
Skim with the driven rain to the rising sea sound	O
And close grey wings and fall	Z
	-
Hearing great rain above me I now remember	Q
A girl who stood by the door and shut her eyes	B2
Her pale cheeks glistened with rain she stood and shivered	O
Into a forest of silver she vanished slowly	B2
Voices about me rise	B2
	-
Voices clear and silvery voices of raindrops	B2
'We struck with silver claws we struck her down	Y
We are the ghosts of the singing furies '	-
A chorus of elfin voices blowing about me	B2
Weaves to a babel of sound Each cries a secret	O
I run among them reach out vain hands and drown	Y
	-
'I am the one who stood beside you and smiled	O
Thinking your face so strangely young '	-
'I am the one who loved you but did not dare '	-
'I am the one you followed through crowded streets	B2
The one who escaped you the one with red gleamed hair '	-
	-
'I am the one you saw to day who fell	C2
Senseless before you hearing a certain bell	C2
A bell that broke great memories in my brain '	-
'I am the one who passed unnoticed before you	H2
Invisible in a cloud of secret pain '	-
	-
'I am the one who suddenly cried beholding	I2
The face of a certain man on the dazzling screen	V2
They wrote me that he was dead It was long ago	P2
I walked in the streets for a long while hearing nothing	I2
And returned to see it again And it was so '	-
	-
	-
Weave weave weave you streaks of rain	G
I am dissolved and woven again	I
Thousands of faces rise and vanish before me	B2
Thousands of voices weave in the rain	G
	-
'I am the one who rode beside you blinking	I2
At a dazzle of golden lights	B2
Tempests of music swept me I was thinking	I2
Of the gorgeous promise of certain nights	B2
Of the woman who suddenly smiled at me this day	R2
Smiled in a certain delicious sidelong way	R2
And turned as she reached the door	W2
To smile once more	W2
Her hands are whiter than snow on midnight water	Q
Her throat is golden and full of golden laughter	Q
Her eyes are strange as the stealth of the moon	X2
On a night in June	X2
She runs among whistling leaves I hurry after	Q
She dances in dreams over white waved water	Q
Her body is white and fragrant and cool	Y2
Magnolia petals that float on a white starred pool	Y2
I have dreamed of her dreaming for many nights	B2
Of a broken music and golden lights	B2
Of broken webs of silver heavily falling	I2
Between my hands and their white desire	Q
And dark leaved boughs edged with a golden radiance	B2
Dipping to screen a fire	Q
I dream that I walk with her beneath high trees	B2
But as I lean to kiss her face	B2
She is blown aloft on wind I catch at leaves	B2
And run in a moonless place	B2
And I hear a crashing of terrible rocks flung down	Y
And shattering trees and cracking walls	B2
And a net of intense white flame roars over the town	Y
And someone cries and darkness falls	B2
But now she has leaned and smiled at me	B2
My veins are afire with music	N
Her eyes have kissed me my body is turned to light	O
I shall dream to her secret heart tonight '	-
	-
He rises and moves away he says no word	O
He folds his evening paper and turns away	R2
I rush through the dark with rows of lamplit faces	B2
Fire bells peal and some of us turn to listen	D
And some sit motionless in their accustomed places	B2
	-
Cold rain lashes the car roof scurries in gusts	B2
Streams down the windows in waves and ripples of lustre	Q
The lamps in the streets are distorted and strange	Z2
Someone takes his watch from his pocket and yawns	B2
One peers out in the night for the place to change	Z2
	-
Rain rain rain we are buried in rain	G
It will rain forever the swift wheels hiss through water	Q
Pale sheets of water gleam in the windy street	O
The pealing of bells is lost in a drive of rain drops	B2
Remote and hurried the great bells beat	O
	-
'I am the one whom life so shrewdly betrayed	O
Misfortune dogs me it always hunted me down	Y
And to day the woman I love lies dead	O
I gave her roses a ring with opals	B2
These hands have touched her head	O
	-
'I bound her to me in all soft ways	B2
I bound her to me in a net of days	B2
Yet now she has gone in silence and said no word	O
How can we face these dazzling things I ask you	H2
There is no use we cry and are not heard	O
	-
'They cover a body with roses I shall not see it	O
Must one return to the lifeless walls of a city	B2
Whose soul is charred by fire '	-
His eyes are closed his lips press tightly together	Q
Wheels hiss beneath us He yields us our desire	Q
	-
'No do not stare so he is weak with grief	B2
He cannot face you he turns his eyes aside	O
He is confused with pain	G
I suffered this I know It was long ago	P2
He closes his eyes and drowns in death again '	-
	-
The wind hurls blows at the rain starred glistening windows	B2
The wind shrills down from the half seen walls	B2
We flow on the mournful wind in a dream of dying	I2
And at last a silence falls	B2
	-
	-
VII	B2
	-
Midnight bells toll and along the cloud high towers	B2
The golden lights go out	O
The yellow windows darken the shades are drawn	A3
In thousands of rooms we sleep we await the dawn	A3
We lie face down we dream	U
We cry aloud with terror half rise or seem	U
To stare at the ceiling or walls	B2
Midnight the last of shattering bell notes falls	B2
A rush of silence whirls over the cloud high towers	B2
A vortex of soundless hours	B2
	-
'The bells have just struck twelve I should be sleeping	I2
But I cannot delay any longer to write and tell you	H2
The woman is dead	O
She died you know the way Just as we planned	O
Smiling with open sunlit eyes	B2
Smiling upon the outstretched fatal hand '	-
	-
He folds his letter steps softly down the stairs	B2
The doors are closed and silent A gas jet flares	B2
His shadow disturbs a shadow of balustrades	B2
The door swings shut behind Night roars above him	H
Into the night he fades	B2
	-
Wind wind wind carving the walls	B2
Blowing the water that gleams in the street	O
Blowing the rain the sleet	O
In the dark alley an old tree cracks and falls	B2
Oak boughs moan in the haunted air	P
Lamps blow down with a crash and tinkle of glass	B2
Darkness whistles Wild hours pass	B2
	-
And those whom sleep eludes lie wide eyed hearing	I2
Above their heads a goblin night go by	A
Children are waked and cry	A
The young girl hears the roar in her sleep and dreams	B2
That her lover is caught in a burning tower	Q
She clutches the pillow she gasps for breath she screams	B2
And then by degrees her breath grows quiet and slow	P2
She dreams of an evening long ago	P2
Of colored lanterns balancing under trees	B2
Some of them softly catching afire	B3
And beneath the lanterns a motionless face she sees	B2
Golden with lamplight smiling serene	V2
The leaves are a pale and glittering green	V2
The sound of horns blows over the trampled grass	B2
Shadows of dancers pass	B2
The face smiles closer to hers she tries to lean	V2
Backward away the eyes burn close and strange	Z2
The face is beginning to change	Z2
It is her lover she no longer desires to resist	O
She is held and kissed	O
She closes her eyes and melts in a seethe of flame	C3
With a smoking ghost of shame	C3
	-
Wind wind wind Wind in an enormous brain	G
Blowing dark thoughts like fallen leaves	B2
The wind shrieks the wind grieves	B2
It dashes the leaves on walls it whirls then again	I
And the enormous sleeper vaguely and stupidly dreams	B2
And desires to stir to resist a ghost of pain	G
	-
One whom the city imprisoned because of his cunning	I2
Who dreamed for years in a tower	Q
Seizes this hour	Q
Of tumult and wind He files through the rusted bar	D3
Leans his face to the rain laughs up at the night	O
Slides down the knotted sheet swings over the wall	Z
To fall to the street with a cat like fall	Z
Slinks round a quavering rim of windy light	O
And at last is gone	A3
Leaving his empty cell for the pallor of dawn	A3
	-
The mother whose child was buried to day	R2
Turns her face to the window her face is grey	R2
And all her body is cold with the coldness of rain	G
He would have grown as easily as a tree	B2
He would have spread a pleasure of shade above her	Q
He would have been his father again	I
His growth was ended by a freezing invisible shadow	P2
She lies and does not move and is stabbed by the rain	G
	-
Wind wind wind we toss and dream	U
We dream we are clouds and stars blown in a stream	U
Windows rattle above our beds	B2
We reach vague gesturing hands we lift our heads	B2
Hear sounds far off and dream with quivering breath	K2
Our curious separate ways through life and death	K2
	-
	-
VIII	B2
	-
The white fog creeps from the cold sea over the city	B2
Over the pale grey tumbled towers	B2
And settles among the roofs the pale grey walls	B2
Along damp sinuous streets it crawls	B2
Curls like a dream among the motionless trees	B2
And seems to freeze	B2
	-
The fog slips ghostlike into a thousand rooms	B2
Whirls over sleeping faces	B2
Spins in an atomy dance round misty street lamps	B2
And blows in cloudy waves over open spaces	B2
	-
And one from his high window looking down	Y
Peers at the cloud white town	Y
And thinks its island towers are like a dream	U
It seems an enormous sleeper within whose brain	G
Laborious shadows revolve and break and gleam	U

Conrad Potter Aiken

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