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

Rhyme Scheme: A BCBDEEDCFDGBBHHIHJKL KMMHHNNOO BBLPQQRIRI C LISIS LDRF TRUSU TDVF IHRH IWRX YRIR VILI RIII ISCS ZHLH VGIG TIVI A2A2TA2 RGA2G LHVH A2RB2R A2ISI TITI GSSS ITA2T LRG IRC2R IRI IAIA C2I I LT A2IVI R CTTLT D2LIRI GRE2LE2 RRRA2R IIF2A2F2 IG2H2TH2 I2I2ICI I TGA2IRLJ2A2ITILIIRL K2IA2RLII RIIIIIRILAIRIIIYIRL IRIRRR I2IICIA2RA2E2ITRIA2I I RTRIIITI I RRUIU RLFI2D A2A2L2II LRRRRLRRRT A2A2RRR I RIRIIRRR LIRII2TIT LT K2I TRM2LM2 TITLT LRTRCC CTPLP TRITI CIRRR ILLLL A2RITI C IRA2RITR CLVLIV A2A2IRRA2IRRRIRTLN2R RRIO2CIRP2TRA2A2LA2T A2 A2A2ICA2A2DA2LIL2H2I IQ2TTIIITILA2T A2ILR2E2S2ILA2LIT A2GTA2TIT I TTAA2A LITA2T LZO2LO2 A2IT2A2T2 ILTIT IA2A2A2A2 A2A2LA2L IA2M2IM2 TIILI A2A2STS G A2L A2 IIE2A2E2 A2TGTG A2TA2I A2A2A2TA2 LA2H2M2H2 IA2A2LA2 TA2A2M2A2 TA2 L A2H2A2A2A2 LLE2LE2 T A2IA2A2 M2ISIIITT IM2IA2IITLL LILU2A2M2M2TIA2IA2A2 V2IW2GA2IA2IA2X2M2LI TA2IV2A2IM2LL LTILA2IGA2A2A2U2VGLV Y2TLLA2ITUA2I E2ILIM2Z2A2M2M2A3B3M 2A2A2M2A2A2T UK2A2A2VLC3ILA2LD3II A2M2 IVA2A2A2IU2M2IS2ITA2 LTTM2E3 ITH2M2A2IM2U2K2K2A2L A2A2A2U2A2 A2 A2A2AA2A2 A2A2LA2L IA2A2A2 K2IA2A2A2 A2A2IK2I TA2 A2A2M2 A2L M2GA2A2A2A2II A2A2A2A2A2A2TTM2M2LL A2A2A2A2A2I TITA2T F3 IA3A3ILTIF2AAF2IM2M2 M2IITTIT2A2T2A2M2M2T ITA2ZZIIIIIIA2V2A2 A2AM2AA3A3 A2IA2IIA2IA2 IITA2IA2TT2AAM2A2M2 TTAAUIM2UIIIIAAA2A2Z A2A2A2A2LLIA2IG3A2G TIIIIA3A3 A2TH3ZTA2A2A2ZITIITT TLAAA2TTZA2IA2 I K2IVI A2M2A2A2A2A2A2A2TTAA IM2M2A2A2H3A2H3A2 IE2IA2A2IV2IV2 TT A2M2A2A2A2A2AAIIA2A2 A2A2M2IIIA2A2A2A2IA2 A2A2A2A2IA2IA2G3G3 IA2A2A2AATTLTLG3TA2T A2IA2ITM2AM2TGIGLG A2TA2TTT IM2M2I3II3 M2M2 IITTM2M2 IJ3A2J3A2IA2IA2O2A2O 2 I GG G LGN2M2M2N2 LGTLT IGM2GM2

I	A
	-
As evening falls	B
And the yellow lights leap one by one	C
Along high walls	B
And along black streets that glisten as if with rain	D
The muted city seems	E
Like one in a restless sleep who lies and dreams	E
Of vague desires and memories and half forgotten pain	D
Along dark veins like lights the quick dreams run	C
Flash are extinguished flash again	F
To mingle and glow at last in the enormous brain	D
And die away	G
As evening falls	B
A dream dissolves these insubstantial walls	B
A myriad secretly gliding lights lie bare	H
The lovers rise the harlot combs her hair	H
The dead man's face grows blue in the dizzy lamplight	I
The watchman climbs the stair	H
The bank defaulter leers at a chaos of figures	J
And runs among them and is beaten down	K
The sick man coughs and hears the chisels ringing	L
The tired clown	K
Sees the enormous crowd a million faces	M
Motionless in their places	M
Ready to laugh and seize and crush and tear	H
The dancer smooths her hair	H
Laces her golden slippers and runs through the door	N
To dance once more	N
Hearing swift music like an enchantment rise	O
Feeling the praise of a thousand eyes	O
	-
As darkness falls	B
The walls grow luminous and warm the walls	B
Tremble and glow with the lives within them moving	L
Moving like music secret and rich and warm	P
How shall we live tonight Where shall we turn	Q
To what new light or darkness yearn	Q
A thousand winding stairs lead down before us	R
And one by one in myriads we descend	I
By lamplit flowered walls long balustrades	R
Through half lit halls which reach no end	I
	-
	-
II THE SCREEN MAIDEN	C
	-
You read what is it then that you are reading	L
What music moves so silently in your mind	I
Your bright hand turns the page	S
I watch you from my window unsuspected	I
You move in an alien land a silent age	S
	-
The poet what was his name Tokkei Tokkei	L
The poet walked alone in a cold late rain	D
And thought his grief was like the crying of sea birds	R
For his lover was dead he never would love again	F
	-
Rain in the dreams of the mind rain forever	T
Rain in the sky of the heart rain in the willows	R
But then he saw this face this face like flame	U
This quiet lady this portrait by Hiroshigi	S
And took it home with him and with it came	U
	-
What unexpected changes subtle as weather	T
The dark room cold as rain	D
Grew faintly fragrant stirred with a stir of April	V
Warmed its corners with light again	F
	-
And smoke of incense whirled about this portrait	I
And the quiet lady there	H
So young so quietly smiling with calm hands	R
Seemed ready to loose her hair	H
	-
And smile and lean from the picture or say one word	I
The word already clear	W
Which seemed to rise like light between her eyelids	R
He held his breath to hear	X
	-
And smiled for shame and drank a cup of wine	Y
And held a candle and searched her face	R
Through all the little shadows to see what secret	I
Might give so warm a grace	R
	-
Was it the quiet mouth restrained a little	V
The eyes half turned aside	I
The jade ring on her wrist still almost swinging	L
The secret was denied	I
	-
He chose his favorite pen and drew these verses	R
And slept and as he slept	I
A dream came into his heart his lover entered	I
And chided him and wept	I
	-
And in the morning waking he remembered	I
And thought the dream was strange	S
Why did his darkened lover rise from the garden	C
He turned and felt a change	S
	-
As if a someone hidden smiled and watched him	Z
Yet there was only sunlight there	H
Until he saw those young eyes quietly smiling	L
And held his breath to stare	H
	-
And could have sworn her cheek had turned a little	V
Had slightly turned away	G
Sunlight dozed on the floor He sat and wondered	I
Nor left his room that day	G
	-
And that day and for many days thereafter	T
He sat alone and thought	I
No lady had ever lived so beautiful	V
As Hiroshigi wrought	I
	-
Or if she lived no matter in what country	A2
By what far river or hill or lonely sea	A2
He would look in every face until he found her	T
There was no other as fair as she	A2
	-
And before her quiet face he burned soft incense	R
And brought her every day	G
Boughs of the peach or almond or snow white cherry	A2
And somehow she seemed to say	G
	-
That silent lady young and quietly smiling	L
That she was happy there	H
And sometimes seeing this he started to tremble	V
And desired to touch her hair	H
	-
To lay his palm along her hand touch faintly	A2
With delicate finger tips	R
The ghostly smile that seemed to hover and vanish	B2
Upon her lips	R
	-
Until he knew he loved this quiet lady	A2
And night by night a dread	I
Leered at his dreams for he knew that Hiroshigi	S
Was many centuries dead	I
	-
And the lady too was dead and all who knew her	T
Dead and long turned to dust	I
The thin moon waxed and waned and left him paler	T
The peach leaves flew in a gust	I
	-
And he would surely have died but there one day	G
A wise man white with age	S
Stared at the portrait and said 'This Hiroshigi	S
Knew more than archimage	S
	-
Cunningly drew the body and called the spirit	I
Till partly it entered there	T
Sometimes at death it entered the portrait wholly	A2
Do all I say with care	T
	-
And she you love may come to you when you call her '	-
So then this ghost Tokkei	L
Ran in the sun bought wine of a hundred merchants	R
And alone at the end of day	G
	-
Entered the darkening room and faced the portrait	I
And saw the quiet eyes	R
Gleaming and young in the dusk and held the wine cup	C2
And knelt and did not rise	R
	-
And said aloud 'Lo san will you drink this wine '	-
Said it three times aloud	I
And at the third the faint blue smoke of incense	R
Rose to the walls in a cloud	I
	-
And the lips moved faintly and the eyes and the calm hands stirred	I
And suddenly with a sigh	A
The quiet lady came slowly down from the portrait	I
And stood while worlds went by	A
	-
And lifted her young white hands and took the wine cup	C2
And the poet trembled and said	I
'Lo san will you stay forever ' 'Yes I will stay '	-
'But what when I am dead '	-
	-
'When you are dead your spirit will find my spirit	I
And then we shall die no more '	-
Music came down upon them and spring returning	L
They remembered worlds before	T
	-
And years went over the earth and over the sea	A2
And lovers were born and spoke and died	I
But forever in sunlight went these two immortal	V
Tokkei and the quiet bride	I
	-
	-
III HAUNTED CHAMBERS	R
	-
The lamplit page is turned the dream forgotten	C
The music changes tone you wake remember	T
Deep worlds you lived before deep worlds hereafter	T
Of leaf on falling leaf music on music	L
Rain and sorrow and wind and dust and laughter	T
	-
Helen was late and Miriam came too soon	D2
Joseph was dead his wife and children starving	L
Elaine was married and soon to have a child	I
You dreamed last night of fiddler crabs with fiddles	R
They played a buzzing melody and you smiled	I
	-
To morrow what And what of yesterday	G
Through soundless labyrinths of dream you pass	R
Through many doors to the one door of all	E2
Soon as it's opened we shall hear a music	L
Or see a skeleton fall	E2
	-
We walk with you Where is it that you lead us	R
We climb the muffled stairs beneath high lanterns	R
We descend again We grope through darkened cells	R
You say this darkness here will slowly kill me	A2
It creeps and weighs upon me Is full of bells	R
	-
This is the thing remembered I would forget	I
No matter where I go how soft I tread	I
This windy gesture menaces me with death	F2
Fatigue it says and points its finger at me	A2
Touches my throat and stops my breath	F2
	-
My fans my jewels the portrait of my husband	I
The torn certificate for my daughter's grave	G2
These are but mortal seconds in immortal time	H2
They brush me fade away like drops of water	T
They signify no crime	H2
	-
Let us retrace our steps I have deceived you	I2
Nothing is here I could not frankly tell you	I2
No hint of guilt or faithlessness or threat	I
Dreams they are madness Staring eyes illusion	C
Let us return hear music and forget	I
	-
	-
IV ILLICIT	I
	-
Of what she said to me that night no matter	T
The strange thing came next day	G
My brain was full of music something she played me	A2
I couldn't remember it all but phrases of it	I
Wreathed and wreathed among faint memories	R
Seeking for something trying to tell me something	L
Urging to restlessness verging on grief	J2
I tried to play the tune from memory	A2
But memory failed the chords and discords climbed	I
And found no resolution only hung there	T
And left me morbid Where then had I heard it	I
What secret dusty chamber was it hinting	L
'Dust' it said 'dust and dust and sunlight	I
A cold clear April evening snow bedraggled	I
Rain worn snow dappling the hideous grass	R
And someone walking alone and someone saying	L
That all must end for the time had come to go '	-
These were the phrases but behind beneath them	K2
A greater shadow moved and in this shadow	I
I stood and guessed Was it the blue eyed lady	A2
The one who always danced in golden slippers	R
And had I danced with her upon this music	L
Or was it further back the unplumbed twilight	I
Of childhood No much recenter than that	I
	-
You know without my telling you how sometimes	R
A word or name eludes you and you seek it	I
Through running ghosts of shadow leaping at it	I
Lying in wait for it to spring upon it	I
Spreading faint snares for it of sense or sound	I
Until of a sudden as if in a phantom forest	I
You hear it see it flash among the branches	R
And scarcely knowing how suddenly have it	I
Well it was so I followed down this music	L
Glimpsing a face in darkness hearing a cry	A
Remembering days forgotten moods exhausted	I
Corners in sunlight puddles reflecting stars	R
Until of a sudden and least of all suspected	I
The thing resolved itself and I remembered	I
An April afternoon eight years ago	I
Or was it nine no matter call it nine	Y
A room in which the last of sunlight faded	I
A vase of violets fragrance in white curtains	R
And she who played the same thing later playing	L
	-
She played this tune And in the middle of it	I
Abruptly broke it off letting her hands	R
Fall in her lap She sat there so a moment	I
With shoulders drooped then lifted up a rose	R
One great white rose wide opened like a lotos	R
And pressed it to her cheek and closed her eyes	R
	-
'You know we've got to end this Miriam loves you	I2
If she should ever know or even guess it	I
What would she do Listen I'm not absurd	I
I'm sure of it If you had eyes for women	C
To understand them which you've never had	I
You'd know it too ' So went this colloquy	A2
Half humorous with undertones of pathos	R
Half grave half flippant while her fingers softly	A2
Felt for this tune played it and let it fall	E2
Now note by singing note now chord by chord	I
Repeating phrases with a kind of pleasure	T
Was it symbolic of the woman's weakness	R
That she could neither break it nor conclude	I
It paused and wandered paused again while she	A2
Perplexed and tired half told me I must go	I
Half asked me if I thought I ought to go	I
	-
Well April passed with many other evenings	R
Evenings like this with later suns and warmer	T
With violets always there and fragrant curtains	R
And she was right and Miriam found it out	I
And after that when eight deep years had passed	I
Or nine we met once more by accident	I
But was it just by accident I wonder	T
She played this tune Or what then was intended	I
	-
	-
V MELODY IN A RESTAURANT	I
	-
The cigarette smoke loops and slides above us	R
Dipping and swirling as the waiter passes	R
You strike a match and stare upon the flame	U
The tiny fire leaps in your eyes a moment	I
And dwindles away as silently as it came	U
	-
This melody you say has certain voices	R
They rise like nereids from a river singing	L
Lift white faces and dive to darkness again	F
Wherever you go you bear this river with you	I2
A leaf falls and it flows and you have pain	D
	-
So says the tune to you but what to me	A2
What to the waiter as he pours your coffee	A2
The violinist who suavely draws his bow	L2
That man who folds his paper overhears it	I
A thousand dreams revolve and fall and flow	I
	-
Some one there is who sees a virgin stepping	L
Down marble stairs to a deep tomb of roses	R
At the last moment she lifts remembering eyes	R
Green leaves blow down The place is checked with shadows	R
A long drawn murmur of rain goes down the skies	R
And oaks are stripped and bare and smoke with lightning	L
And clouds are blown and torn upon high forests	R
And the great sea shakes its walls	R
And then falls silence And through long silence falls	R
This melody once more	T
'Down endless stairs she goes as once before '	-
	-
So says the tune to him but what to me	A2
What are the worlds I see	A2
What shapes fantastic terrible dreams	R
I go my secret way down secret alleys	R
My errand is not so simple as it seems	R
	-
	-
VI PORTRAIT OF ONE DEAD	I
	-
This is the house On one side there is darkness	R
On one side there is light	I
Into the darkness you may lift your lanterns	R
O any number it will still be night	I
And here are echoing stairs to lead you downward	I
To long sonorous halls	R
And here is spring forever at these windows	R
With roses on the walls	R
	-
This is her room On one side there is music	L
On one side not a sound	I
At one step she could move from love to silence	R
Feel myriad darkness coiling round	I
And here are balconies from which she heard you	I2
Your steady footsteps on the stair	T
And here the glass in which she saw your shadow	I
As she unbound her hair	T
	-
Here is the room with ghostly walls dissolving	L
The twilight room in which she called you 'lover'	T
And the floorless room in which she called you 'friend '	-
So many times in doubt she ran between them	K2
Through windy corridors of darkening end	I
	-
Here she could stand with one dim light above her	T
And hear far music like a sea in caverns	R
Murmur away at hollowed walls of stone	M2
And here in a roofless room where it was raining	L
She bore the patient sorrow of rain alone	M2
	-
Your words were walls which suddenly froze around her	T
Your words were windows large enough for moonlight	I
Too small to let her through	T
Your letters fragrant cloisters faint with music	L
The music that assuaged her there was you	T
	-
How many times she heard your step ascending	L
Yet never saw your face	R
She heard them turn again ring slowly fainter	T
Till silence swept the place	R
Why had you gone The door perhaps mistaken	C
You would go elsewhere The deep walls were shaken	C
	-
A certain rose leaf sent without intention	C
Became with time a woven web of fire	T
She wore it and was warm	P
A certain hurried glance let fall at parting	L
Became with time the flashings of a storm	P
	-
Yet there was nothing asked no hint to tell you	T
Of secret idols carved in secret chambers	R
From all you did and said	I
Nothing was done until at last she knew you	T
Nothing was known till somehow she was dead	I
	-
How did she die You say she died of poison	C
Simple and swift And much to be regretted	I
You did not see her pass	R
So many thousand times from light to darkness	R
Pausing so many times before her glass	R
	-
You did not see how many times she hurried	I
To lean from certain windows vainly hoping	L
Passionate still for beauty remembered spring	L
You did not know how long she clung to music	L
You did not hear her sing	L
	-
Did she then make the choice and step out bravely	A2
From sound to silence close herself those windows	R
Or was it true instead	I
That darkness moved for once and so possessed her	T
We'll never know you say for she is dead	I
	-
	-
VII PORCELAIN	C
	-
You see that porcelain ranged there in the window	I
Platters and soup plates done with pale pink rosebuds	R
And tiny violets and wreaths of ivy	A2
See how the pattern clings to the gleaming edges	R
They're works of art minutely seen and felt	I
Each petal done devoutly Is it failure	T
To spend your blood like this	R
	-
Study them you will see there in the porcelain	C
If you stare hard enough a sort of swimming	L
Of lights and shadows ghosts within a crystal	V
My brain unfolding There you'll see me sitting	L
Day after day close to a certain window	I
Looking down sometimes to see the people	V
	-
Sometimes my wife comes there to speak to me	A2
Sometimes the grey cat waves his tail around me	A2
Goldfish swim in a bowl glisten in sunlight	I
Dilate to a gorgeous size blow delicate bubbles	R
Drowse among dark green weeds On rainy days	R
You'll see a gas light shedding light behind me	A2
An eye shade round my forehead There I sit	I
Twirling the tiny brushes in my paint cups	R
Painting the pale pink rosebuds minute violets	R
Exquisite wreaths of dark green ivy leaves	R
On this leaf goes a dream I dreamed last night	I
Of two soft patterned toads I thought them stones	R
Until they hopped And then a great black spider	T
Tarantula perhaps a hideous thing	L
It crossed the room in one tremendous leap	N2
Here as I coil the stems between two leaves	R
It is as if dwindling to atomy size	R
I cried the secret between two universes	R
A friend of mine took hasheesh once and said	I
Just as he fell asleep he had a dream	O2
Though with his eyes wide open	C
And felt or saw or knew himself a part	I
Of marvelous slowly wreathing intricate patterns	R
Plane upon plane depth upon coiling depth	P2
Amazing leaves folding one on another	T
Voluted grasses twists and curves and spirals	R
All of it darkly moving as for me	A2
I need no hasheesh for it it's too easy	A2
Soon as I shut my eyes I set out walking	L
In a monstrous jungle of monstrous pale pink roseleaves	A2
Violets purple as death dripping with water	T
And ivy leaves as big as clouds above me	A2
	-
Here in a simple pattern of separate violets	A2
With scalloped edges gilded here you have me	A2
Thinking of something else My wife you know	I
There's something lacking force or will or passion	C
I don't know what it is and so sometimes	A2
When I am tired or haven't slept three nights	A2
Or it is cloudy with low threat of rain	D
I get uneasy just like poplar trees	A2
Ruffling their leaves and I begin to think	L
Of poor Pauline so many years ago	I
And that delicious night Where is she now	L2
I meant to write but she has moved by this time	H2
And then besides she might find out I'm married	I
Well there is more I'm getting old and timid	I
The years have gnawed my will I've lost my nerve	Q2
I never strike out boldly as I used to	T
But sit here painting violets and remember	T
That thrilling night Photographers she said	I
Asked her to pose for them her eyes and forehead	I
Dark brown eyes and a smooth and pallid forehead	I
Were thought so beautiful And so they were	T
Pauline These violets are like words remembered	I
Darling she whispered Darling Darling Darling	L
Well I suppose such days can come but once	A2
Lord how happy we were	T
	-
Here if you only knew it is a story	A2
Here in these leaves I stopped my work to tell it	I
And then when I had finished went on thinking	L
A man I saw on a train I was still a boy	R2
Who killed himself by diving against a wall	E2
Here is a recollection of my wife	S2
When she was still my sweetheart years ago	I
It's funny how things change just change by growing	L
Without an effort And here are trivial things	A2
A chill an errand forgotten a cut while shaving	L
A friend of mine who tells me he is married	I
Or is that last so trivial Well no matter	T
	-
This is the sort of thing you'll see of me	A2
If you look hard enough This in its way	G
Is a kind of fame My life arranged before you	T
In scrolls of leaves rosebuds violets ivy	A2
Clustered or wreathed on plate and cup and platter	T
Sometimes I say I'm just like John the Baptist	I
You have my head before you on a platter	T
	-
	-
VIII COFFINS INTERLUDE	I
	-
Wind blows Snow falls The great clock in its tower	T
Ticks with reverberant coil and tolls the hour	T
At the deep sudden stroke the pigeons fly	A
The fine snow flutes the cracks between the flagstones	A2
We close our coats and hurry and search the sky	A
	-
We are like music each voice of it pursuing	L
A golden separate dream remote persistent	I
Climbing to fire receding to hoarse despair	T
What do you whisper brother What do you tell me	A2
We pass each other are lost and do not care	T
	-
One mounts up to beauty serenely singing	L
Forgetful of the steps that cry behind him	Z
One drifts slowly down from a waking dream	O2
One foreseeing lingers forever unmoving	L
Upward and downward past him there we stream	O2
	-
One has death in his eyes and walks more slowly	A2
Death among jonquils told him a freezing secret	I
A cloud blows over his eyes he ponders earth	T2
He sees in the world a forest of sunlit jonquils	A2
A slow black poison huddles beneath that mirth	T2
	-
Death from street to alley from door to window	I
Cries out his news of unplumbed worlds approaching	L
Of a cloud of darkness soon to destroy the tower	T
But why comes death he asks in a world so perfect	I
Or why the minute's grey in the golden hour	T
	-
Music a sudden glissando sinister troubled	I
A drift of wind torn petals before him passes	A2
Down jangled streets and dies	A2
The bodies of old and young of maimed and lovely	A2
Are slowly borne to earth with a dirge of cries	A2
	-
Down cobbled streets they come down huddled stairways	A2
Through silent halls through carven golden doorways	A2
From freezing rooms as bare as rock	L
The curtains are closed across deserted windows	A2
Earth streams out of the shovel the pebbles knock	L
	-
Mary whose hands rejoiced to move in sunlight	I
Silent Elaine grave Anne who sang so clearly	A2
Fugitive Helen who loved and walked alone	M2
Miriam too soon dead darkly remembered	I
Childless Ruth who sorrowed but could not atone	M2
	-
Jean whose laughter flashed over depths of terror	T
And Eloise who desired to love but dared not	I
Doris who turned alone to the dark and cried	I
They are blown away like windflung chords of music	L
They drift away the sudden music has died	I
	-
And one with death in his eyes comes walking slowly	A2
And sees the shadow of death in many faces	A2
And thinks the world is strange	S
He desires immortal music and spring forever	T
And beauty that knows no change	S
	-
	-
IX CABARET	G
	-
We sit together and talk or smoke in silence	A2
You say but use no words 'this night is passing	L
As other nights when we are dead will pass '	-
Perhaps I misconstrue you you mean only	A2
'How deathly pale my face looks in that glass '	-
	-
You say 'We sit and talk of things important	I
How many others like ourselves this instant	I
Mark the pendulum swinging against the wall	E2
How many others laughing sip their coffee	A2
Or stare at mirrors and do not talk at all	E2
	-
'This is the moment' so you would say in silence	A2
When suddenly we have had too much of laughter	T
And a freezing stillness falls no word to say	G
Our mouths feel foolish For all the days hereafter	T
What have we saved what news what tune what play	G
	-
'We see each other as vain and futile tricksters	A2
Posturing like bald apes before a mirror	T
No pity dims our eyes	A2
How many others like ourselves this instant	I
See how the great world wizens and are wise '	-
	-
Well you are right No doubt they fall these seconds	A2
When suddenly all's distempered vacuous ugly	A2
And even those most like angels creep for schemes	A2
The one you love leans forward smiles deceives you	T
Opens a door through which you see dark dreams	A2
	-
But this is momentary or else enduring	L
Leads you with devious eyes through mists and poisons	A2
To horrible chaos or suicide or crime	H2
And all these others who at your conjuration	M2
Grow pale feeling the skeleton touch of time	H2
	-
Or laughing sadly talk of things important	I
Or stare at mirrors startled to see their faces	A2
Or drown in the waveless vacuum of their days	A2
Suddenly as from sleep awake forgetting	L
This nauseous dream take up their accustomed ways	A2
	-
Exhume the ghost of a joke renew loud laughter	T
Forget the moles above their sweethearts' eyebrows	A2
Lean to the music rise	A2
And dance once more in a rose festooned illusion	M2
With kindness in their eyes	A2
	-
They say as we ourselves have said remember	T
'What wizardry this slow waltz works upon us	A2
And how it brings to mind forgotten things '	-
They say 'How strange it is that one such evening	L
Can wake vague memories of so many springs '	-
	-
And so they go In a thousand crowded places	A2
They sit to smile and talk or rise to ragtime	H2
And for their pleasures agree or disagree	A2
With secret symbols they play on secret passions	A2
With cunning eyes they see	A2
	-
The innocent word that sets remembrance trembling	L
The dubious word that sets the scared heart beating	L
The pendulum on the wall	E2
Shakes down seconds They laugh at time dissembling	L
Or coil for a victim and do not talk at all	E2
	-
	-
X LETTER	T
	-
From time to time lifting his eyes he sees	A2
The soft blue starlight through the one small window	I
The moon above black trees and clouds and Venus	A2
And turns to write The clock behind ticks softly	A2
	-
It is so long indeed since I have written	M2
Two years almost your last is turning yellow	I
That these first words I write seem cold and strange	S
Are you the man I knew or have you altered	I
Altered of course just as I too have altered	I
And whether towards each other or more apart	I
We cannot say I've just re read your letter	T
Not through forgetfulness but more for pleasure	T
	-
Pondering much on all you say in it	I
Of mystic consciousness divine conversion	M2
The sense of oneness with the infinite	I
Faith in the world its beauty and its purpose	A2
Well you believe one must have faith in some sort	I
If one's to talk through this dark world contented	I
But is the world so dark Or is it rather	T
Our own brute minds in which we hurry trembling	L
Through streets as yet unlighted This I think	L
	-
You have been always let me say romantic	L
Eager for color for beauty soon discontented	I
With a world of dust and stones and flesh too ailing	L
Even before the question grew to problem	U2
And drove you bickering into metaphysics	A2
You met on lower planes the same great dragon	M2
Seeking release some fleeting satisfaction	M2
In strange aesthetics You tried as I remember	T
One after one strange cults and some too morbid	I
The cruder first more violent sensations	A2
Gorgeously carnal things conceived and acted	I
With splendid animal thirst Then by degrees	A2
Savoring all more delicate gradations	A2
	-
In all that hue and tone may play on flesh	V2
Or thought on brain you passed if I may say so	I
From red and scarlet through morbid greens to mauve	W2
Let us regard ourselves you used to say	G
As instruments of music whereon our lives	A2
Will play as we desire and let us yield	I
These subtle bodies and subtler brains and nerves	A2
To all experience plays And so you went	I
From subtle tune to subtler each heard once	A2
Twice or thrice at the most tiring of each	X2
And closing one by one your doors drew in	M2
Slowly through darkening labyrinths of feeling	L
Towards the central chamber Which now you've reached	I
	-
What then's the secret of this ultimate chamber	T
Or innermost rather If I see it clearly	A2
It is the last and cunningest resort	I
Of one who has found this world of dust and flesh	V2
This world of lamentations death injustice	A2
Sickness humiliation slow defeat	I
Bareness and ugliness and iteration	M2
Too meaningless or if it has a meaning	L
Too tiresomely insistent on one meaning	L
	-
Futility This world I hear you saying	L
With lifted chin and arm in outflung gesture	T
Coldly imperious this transient world	I
What has it then to give if not containing	L
Deep hints of nobler worlds We know its beauties	A2
Momentary and trivial for the most part	I
Perceived through flesh passing like flesh away	G
And know how much outweighed they are by darkness	A2
We are like searchers in a house of darkness	A2
A house of dust we creep with little lanterns	A2
Throwing our tremulous arcs of light at random	U2
Now here now there seeing a plane an angle	V
An edge a curve a wall a broken stairway	G
Leading to who knows what but never seeing	L
The whole at once We grope our way a little	V
And then grow tired No matter what we touch	Y2
Dust is the answer dust dust everywhere	T
If this were all what were the use you ask	L
But this is not for why should we be seeking	L
Why should we bring this need to seek for beauty	A2
To lift our minds if there were only dust	I
This is the central chamber you have come to	T
Turning your back to the world until you came	U
To this deep room and looked through rose stained windows	A2
And saw the hues of the world so sweetly changed	I
	-
Well in a measure so only do we all	E2
I am not sure that you can be refuted	I
At the very last we all put faith in something	L
You in this ghost that animates your world	I
This ethical ghost and I you'll say in reason	M2
Or sensuous beauty or in my secret self	Z2
Though as for that you put your faith in these	A2
As much as I do and then forsaking reason	M2
Ascending you would say to intuition	M2
You predicate this ghost of yours as well	A3
Of course you might have argued and you should have	B3
That no such deep appearance of design	M2
Could shape our world without entailing purpose	A2
For can design exist without a purpose	A2
Without conceiving mind We are like children	M2
Who find upon the sands beside a sea	A2
Strange patterns drawn circles arcs ellipses	A2
Moulded in sand Who put them there we wonder	T
	-
Did someone draw them here before we came	U
Or was it just the sea We pore upon them	K2
But find no answer only suppositions	A2
And if these perfect shapes are evidence	A2
Of immanent mind it is but circumstantial	V
We never come upon him at his work	L
He never troubles us He stands aloof	C3
Well if he stands at all is not concerned	I
With what we are or do You if you like	L
May think he broods upon us loves us hates us	A2
Conceives some purpose of us In so doing	L
You see without much reason will in law	D3
I am content to say 'this world is ordered	I
Happily so for us by accident	I
We go our ways untroubled save by laws	A2
Of natural things ' Who makes the more assumption	M2
	-
If we were wise which God knows we are not	I
Notice I call on God we'd plumb this riddle	V
Not in the world we see but in ourselves	A2
These brains of ours these delicate spinal clusters	A2
Have limits why not learn them learn their cravings	A2
Which of the two minds yours or mine is sound	I
Yours which scorned the world that gave it freedom	U2
Until you managed to see that world as omen	M2
Or mine which likes the world takes all for granted	I
Sorrow as much as joy and death as life	S2
You lean on dreams and take more credit for it	I
I stand alone Well I take credit too	T
You find your pleasure in being at one with all things	A2
Fusing in lambent dream rising and falling	L
As all things rise and fall I do that too	T
With reservations I find more varied pleasure	T
In understanding and so find beauty even	M2
In this strange dream of yours you call the truth	E3
	-
Well I have bored you And it's growing late	I
For household news what have you heard I wonder	T
You must have heard that Paul was dead by this time	H2
Of spinal cancer Nothing could be done	M2
We found it out too late His death has changed me	A2
Deflected much of me that lived as he lived	I
Saddened me slowed me down Such things will happen	M2
Life is composed of them and it seems wisdom	U2
To see them clearly meditate upon them	K2
And understand what things flow out of them	K2
Otherwise all goes on here much as always	A2
Why won't you come and see us in the spring	L
And bring old times with you If you could see me	A2
Sitting here by the window watching Venus	A2
Go down behind my neighbor's poplar branches	A2
Just where you used to sit I'm sure you'd come	U2
This year they say the springtime will be early	A2
	-
	-
XI CONVERSATION UNDERTONES	A2
	-
What shall we talk of Li Po Hokusai	A2
You narrow your long dark eyes to fascinate me	A2
You smile a little Outside the night goes by	A
I walk alone in a forest of ghostly trees	A2
Your pale hands rest palm downwards on your knees	A2
	-
'These lines converging they suggest such distance	A2
The soul is drawn away beyond horizons	A2
Lured out to what One dares not think	L
Sometimes I glimpse these infinite perspectives	A2
In intimate talk with such as you and shrink	L
	-
'One feels so petty One feels such emptiness '	-
You mimic horror let fall your lifted hand	I
And smile at me with brooding tenderness	A2
Alone on darkened waters I fall and rise	A2
Slow waves above me break faint waves of cries	A2
	-
'And then these colors but who would dare describe them	K2
This faint rose coral pink this green pistachio	I
So insubstantial Like the dim ghostly things	A2
Two lovers find in love's still twilight chambers	A2
Old peacock fans and fragrant silks and rings	A2
	-
'Rings let us say drawn from the hapless fingers	A2
Of some great lady many centuries nameless	A2
Or is that too sepulchral dulled with dust	I
And necklaces that crumble if you touch them	K2
And gold brocades that breathed on fall to rust	I
	-
'No I am wrong it is not these I sought for	T
Why did they come to mind You understand me	A2
You know these strange vagaries of the brain '	-
I walk alone in a forest of ghostly trees	A2
Your pale hands rest palm downwards on your knees	A2
These strange vagaries of yours are all too plain	M2
	-
'But why perplex ourselves with tedious problems	A2
Of art or such things while we sit here living	L
With all that's in our secret hearts to say '	-
Hearts Your pale hand softly strokes the satin	M2
You play deep music know well what you play	G
You stroke the satin with thrilling of finger tips	A2
You smile with faintly perfumed lips	A2
You loose your thoughts like birds	A2
Brushing our dreams with soft and shadowy words	A2
We know your words are foolish yet sit here bound	I
In tremulous webs of sound	I
	-
'How beautiful is intimate talk like this	A2
It is as if we dissolved grey walls between us	A2
Stepped through the solid portals become but shadows	A2
To hear a hidden music Our own vast shadows	A2
Lean to a giant size on the windy walls	A2
Or dwindle away we hear our soft footfalls	A2
Echo forever behind us ghostly clear	T
Music sings far off flows suddenly near	T
And dies away like rain	M2
We walk through subterranean caves again	M2
Vaguely above us feeling	L
A shadowy weight of frescos on the ceiling	L
Strange half lit things	A2
Soundless grotesques with writhing claws and wings	A2
And here a beautiful face looks down upon us	A2
And someone hurries before unseen and sings	A2
Have we seen all I wonder in these chambers	A2
Or is there yet some gorgeous vault arched low	I
Where sleeps an amazing beauty we do not know '	-
	-
The question falls we walk in silence together	T
Thinking of that deep vault and of its secret	I
This lamp these books this fire	T
Are suddenly blown away in a whistling darkness	A2
Deep walls crash down in the whirlwind of desire	T
	-
	-
XII WITCHES' SABBATH	F3
	-
Now when the moon slid under the cloud	I
And the cold clear dark of starlight fell	A3
He heard in his blood the well known bell	A3
Tolling slowly in heaves of sound	I
Slowly beating slowly beating	L
Shaking its pulse on the stagnant air	T
Sometimes it swung completely round	I
Horribly gasping as if for breath	F2
Falling down with an anguished cry	A
Now the red bat he mused will fly	A
Something is marked this night for death	F2
And while he mused along his blood	I
Flew ghostly voices remote and thin	M2
They rose in the cavern of his brain	M2
Like ghosts they died away again	M2
And hands upon his heart were laid	I
And music upon his flesh was played	I
Until as he was bidden to do	T
He walked the wood he so well knew	T
Through the cold dew he moved his feet	I
And heard far off as under the earth	T2
Discordant music in shuddering tones	A2
Screams of laughter horrible mirth	T2
Clapping of hands and thudding of drums	A2
And the long drawn wail of one in pain	M2
To night he thought I shall die again	M2
We shall die again in the red eyed fire	T
To meet on the edge of the wood beyond	I
With the placid gaze of fed desire	T
He walked and behind the whisper of trees	A2
In and out one walked with him	Z
She parted the branches and peered at him	Z
Through lowered lids her two eyes burned	I
He heard her breath he saw her hand	I
Wherever he turned his way she turned	I
Kept pace with him now fast now slow	I
Moving her white knees as he moved	I
This is the one I have always loved	I
This is the one whose bat soul comes	A2
To dance with me flesh to flesh	V2
In the starlight dance of horns and drums	A2
	-
The walls and roofs the scarlet towers	A2
Sank down behind a rushing sky	A
He heard a sweet song just begun	M2
Abruptly shatter in tones and die	A
It whirled away Cold silence fell	A3
And again came tollings of a bell	A3
	-
	-
	-
This air is alive with witches the white witch rides	A2
Swifter than smoke on the starlit wind	I
In the clear darkness while the moon hides	A2
They come like dreams like something remembered	I
Let us hurry beloved take my hand	I
Forget these things that trouble your eyes	A2
Forget forget Our flesh is changed	I
Lighter than smoke we wreathe and rise	A2
	-
The cold air hisses between us Beloved beloved	I
What was the word you said	I
Something about clear music that sang through water	T
I cannot remember The storm drops break on the leaves	A2
Something was lost in the darkness Someone is dead	I
Someone lies in the garden and grieves	A2
Look how the branches are tossed in this air	T
Flinging their green to the earth	T2
Black clouds rush to devour the stars in the sky	A
The moon stares down like a half closed eye	A
The leaves are scattered the birds are blown	M2
Oaks crash down in the darkness	A2
We run from our windy shadows we are running alone	M2
	-
	-
	-
The moon was darkened across it flew	T
The swift grey tenebrous shape he knew	T
Like a thing of smoke it crossed the sky	A
The witch he said And he heard a cry	A
And another came and another came	U
And one grown duskily red with blood	I
Floated an instant across the moon	M2
Hung like a dull fantastic flame	U
The earth has veins they throb to night	I
The earth swells warm beneath my feet	I
The tips of the trees grow red and bright	I
The leaves are swollen I feel them beat	I
They press together they push and sigh	A
They listen to hear the great bat cry	A
The great red bat with the woman's face	A2
Hurry he said And pace for pace	A2
That other who trod the dark with him	Z
Crushed the live leaves reached out white hands	A2
And closed her eyes the better to see	A2
The priests with claws the lovers with hooves	A2
The fire lit rock the sarabands	A2
I am here she said The bough he broke	L
Was it the snapping bough that spoke	L
I am here she said The white thigh gleamed	I
Cold in starlight among dark leaves	A2
The head thrown backward as he had dreamed	I
The shadowy red deep jasper mouth	G3
And the lifted hands and the virgin breasts	A2
Passed beside him and vanished away	G
I am here she cried He answered 'Stay '	-
And laughter arose and near and far	T
Answering laughter rose and died	I
Who is there in the dark he cried	I
He stood in terror and heard a sound	I
Of terrible hooves on the hollow ground	I
They rushed were still a silence fell	A3
And he heard deep tollings of a bell	A3
	-
	-
	-
Look beloved Why do you hide your face	A2
Look in the centre there above the fire	T
They are bearing the boy who blasphemed love	H3
They are playing a piercing music upon him	Z
With a bow of living wire	T
The virgin harlot sings	A2
She leans above the beautiful anguished body	A2
And draws slow music from those strings	A2
They dance around him they fling red roses upon him	Z
They trample him with their naked feet	I
His cries are lost in laughter	T
Their feet grow dark with his blood they beat and	I
beat	I
They dance upon him until he cries no more	T
Have we not heard that cry before	T
Somewhere somewhere	T
Beside a sea in the green evening	L
Beneath green clouds in a copper sky	A
Was it you was it I	A
They have quenched the fires they dance in the darkness	A2
The satyrs have run among them to seize and tear	T
Look he has caught one by the hair	T
She screams and falls he bears her away with him	Z
And the night grows full of whistling wings	A2
Far off one voice serene and sweet	I
Rises and sings	A2
	-
'By the clear waters where once I died	I
In the calm evening bright with stars '	-
Where have I heard these words Was it you who sang them	K2
It was long ago	I
Let us hurry beloved the hard hooves trample	V
The treetops tremble and glow	I
	-
	-
	-
In the clear dark on silent wings	A2
The red bat hovers beneath her moon	M2
She drops through the fragrant night and clings	A2
Fast in the shadow with hands like claws	A2
With soft eyes closed and mouth that feeds	A2
To the young white flesh that warmly bleeds	A2
The maidens circle in dance and raise	A2
From lifting throats a soft sung praise	A2
Their knees and breasts are white and bare	T
They have hung pale roses in their hair	T
Each of them as she dances by	A
Peers at the blood with a narrowed eye	A
See how the red wing wraps him round	I
See how the white youth struggles in vain	M2
The weak arms writhe in a soundless pain	M2
He writhes in the soft red veiny wings	A2
But still she whispers upon him and clings	A2
This is the secret feast of love	H3
Look well look well before it dies	A2
See how the red one trembles above	H3
See how quiet the white one lies	A2
	-
Wind through the trees and a voice is heard	I
Singing far off The dead leaves fall	E2
'By the clear waters where once I died	I
In the calm evening bright with stars	A2
One among numberless avatars	A2
I wedded a mortal a mortal bride	I
And lay on the stones and gave my flesh	V2
And entered the hunger of him I loved	I
How shall I ever escape this mesh	V2
Or be from my lover's body removed '	-
Dead leaves stream through the hurrying air	T
And the maenads dance with flying hair	T
	-
	-
	-
The priests with hooves the lovers with horns	A2
Rise in the starlight one by one	M2
They draw their knives on the spurting throats	A2
They smear the column with blood of goats	A2
They dabble the blood on hair and lips	A2
And wait like stones for the moon's eclipse	A2
They stand like stones and stare at the sky	A
Where the moon leers down like a half closed eye	A
In the green moonlight still they stand	I
While wind flows over the darkened sand	I
And brood on the soft forgotten things	A2
That filled their shadowy yesterdays	A2
Where are the breasts the scarlet wings	A2
They gaze at each other with troubled gaze	A2
And then as the shadow closes the moon	M2
Shout and strike with their hooves the ground	I
And rush through the dark and fill the night	I
With a slowly dying clamor of sound	I
There where the great walls crowd the stars	A2
There by the black wind riven walls	A2
In a grove of twisted leafless trees	A2
Who are these pilgrims who are these	A2
These three the one of whom stands upright	I
While one lies weeping and one of them crawls	A2
The face that he turned was a wounded face	A2
I heard the dripping of blood on stones	A2
Hooves had trampled and torn this place	A2
And the leaves were strewn with blood and bones	A2
Sometimes I think beneath my feet	I
The warm earth stretches herself and sighs	A2
Listen I heard the slow heart beat	I
I will lie on this grass as a lover lies	A2
And reach to the north and reach to the south	G3
And seek in the darkness for her mouth	G3
	-
	-
	-
Beloved beloved where the slow waves of the wind	I
Shatter pale foam among great trees	A2
Under the hurrying stars under the heaving arches	A2
Like one whirled down under shadowy seas	A2
I run to find you I run and cry	A
Where are you Where are you It is I It is I	A
It is your eyes I seek it is your windy hair	T
Your starlight body that breathes in the darkness there	T
Under the darkness I feel you stirring	L
Is this you Is this you	T
Bats in this air go whirring	L
And this soft mouth that darkly meets my mouth	G3
Is this the soft mouth I knew	T
Darkness and wind in the tortured trees	A2
And the patter of dew	T
	-
	-
	-
Dance Dance Dance Dance	A2
Dance till the brain is red with speed	I
Dance till you fall Lift your torches	A2
Kiss your lovers until they bleed	I
Backward I draw your anguished hair	T
Until your eyes are stretched with pain	M2
Backward I press you until you cry	A
Your lips grow white I kiss you again	M2
I will take a torch and set you afire	T
I will break your body and fling it away	G
Look you are trembling Lie still beloved	I
Lock your hands in my hair and say	G
Darling darling darling darling	L
All night long till the break of day	G
	-
Is it your heart I hear beneath me	A2
Or the far tolling of that tower	T
The voices are still that cried around us	A2
The woods grow still for the sacred hour	T
Rise white lover the day draws near	T
The grey trees lean to the east in fear	T
'By the clear waters where once I died '	-
Beloved whose voice was this that cried	I
'By the clear waters that reach the sun	M2
By the clear waves that starward run	M2
I found love's body and lost his soul	I3
And crumbled in flame that should have annealed	I
How shall I ever again be whole	I3
By what dark waters shall I be healed '	-
	-
Silence the red leaves one by one	M2
Fall Far off the maenads run	M2
	-
Silence Beneath my naked feet	I
The veins of the red earth swell and beat	I
The dead leaves sigh on the troubled air	T
Far off the maenads bind their hair	T
Hurry beloved the day comes soon	M2
The fire is drawn from the heart of the moon	M2
	-
	-
	-
The great bell cracks and falls at last	I
The moon whirls out The sky grows still	J3
Look how the white cloud crosses the stars	A2
And suddenly drops behind the hill	J3
Your eyes are placid you smile at me	A2
We sit in the room by candle light	I
We peer in each other's veins and see	A2
No sign of the things we saw this night	I
Only a song is in your ears	A2
A song you have heard you think in dream	O2
The song which only the demon hears	A2
In the dark forest where maenads scream	O2
	-
'By the clear waters where once I died	I
In the calm evening bright with stars '	-
What do the strange words mean you say	G
And touch my hand and turn away	G
	-
	-
XIII	G
	-
The half shut doors through which we heard that music	L
Are softly closed Horns mutter down to silence	G
The stars whirl out the night grows deep	N2
Darkness settles upon us A vague refrain	M2
Drowsily teases at the drowsy brain	M2
In numberless rooms we stretch ourselves and sleep	N2
	-
Where have we been What savage chaos of music	L
Whirls in our dreams We suddenly rise in darkness	G
Open our eyes cry out and sleep once more	T
We dream we are numberless sea waves languidly foaming	L
A warm white moonlit shore	T
	-
Or clouds blown windily over a sky at midnight	I
Or chords of music scattered in hurrying darkness	G
Or a singing sound of rain	M2
We open our eyes and stare at the coiling darkness	G
And enter our dreams again	M2

Conrad Potter Aiken

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