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

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDBE FGHG DHIH JJK LFHH MNO P QRSE FGTG LUVU W X Y V VYZCZ CYGLG JEA2B2A2 CC2D2YD2 SHHGGH CC2OYO MBHPH KYD2E2D2 MF2GMG YEG2H2G2 J I2EJ2K2CVGCFL2E2YM2F 2EF2F2N2CH2O2P2EQ2MR 2S2T2U2BLT2 CYV2W2I2X2CY2Z2BHHEA 3V2N2B3C3 D3O2E2EGQ2 CJ2YE3UPVPHMF3G3BH3 YI3I3CJ3CK3CL3M2IUYY M3CN3O3W2MP3M3Q3J2M3 MR3ACYS3DVT3U3ELDCJM 2M2V3CFME3J2H3UJ2EJ2 J2J2AYW3J2FAJ2 YCGJ2J2PE2E2X3E2CJ2J 2J2CCKE2 J2KE2CYYY3YZ3CA4J2EC CYJ2HE2YJ2J2CJ2E2J2E J2E2E2E2E2E2E2 YU3J2J2SD3KE2J2HE2J2 ECJ2YJ2J2HF3YJ2E2 EE2HJ2H F2B4E2J2E2J2J2E2J2HK CE2J2B4HCCCE2J2J2CEJ 2C4HJ2E2CJ2 J2E2E2EE2J2HHF2J2E2H J2J2V2E2E2 J2J2J2J2UJ2E2J2E2E2J 2 J2 E2CE2EE2 J2J2HEH CJ2J2EJ2 CE2HJ2H E2CGE2G J2J2J2J2J2 CE2J2EJ2J2J2D4J2D4 E2EE2E2E2 C ME2EJ2J2 J2CJ2E2E2E2CEE2CE2E2 J2E2 E2E2E2E4 M ECECE2J2M2M2M2J2J2F4 EE2M2 J2E2J2W2J2HE2KE2E2E2 V2M2J2E2W3 ME2E2CC4J2J2J2 G4 J2J2CH4HHJ2E2J2E2 MPE2PJ2J2J2J2J2J2J2J 2J2 E2E2E2E2J2J2J2J2Q2Q2 J2J2E2J2E2ME2ME2E2 QEE2EEE2SE2EE2E2HE2H ME2E2E2J2HE2H E2E2E2E2E2E2E2E2E2E2 E2E2CJ2EJ2HHJ2H J2J2J2CJ3J3CCE2KE2EE 2CE2EJ2E2J2 E2J2J2J2J2J2J2J2E2J2 E2J2E2CCE2CCE2 I4I4F2J2J2F2F2CC E2E2E2E2E2E2J2J2EJ2J 2 HJ2HHHF2F2E2J2E2J2 E2CE2J2E2 J2E2E2J2E2 E2E2J2E2J2 F4 E2E2HE2H J2E2HSH J2J2 J2E2J2 CE2E2PE2EP J2E2J2J2J2 E2E2J2J2J2W3W3HJ2H

I CLAIRVOYANT	A
	-
'This envelope you say has something in it	B
Which once belonged to your dead son or something	C
He knew was fond of Something he remembers	D
The soul flies far and we can only call it	B
By things like these a photograph a letter	E
Ribbon or charm or watch '	-
	-
Wind flows softly the long slow even wind	F
Over the low roofs white with snow	G
Wind blows bearing cold clouds over the ocean	H
One by one they melt and flow	G
	-
Streaming one by one over trees and towers	D
Coiling and gleaming in shafts of sun	H
Wind flows bearing clouds the hurrying shadows	I
Flow under them one by one	H
	-
' A spirit darkens before me it is the spirit	J
Which in the flesh you called your son A spirit	J
Young and strong and beautiful	K
	-
He says that he is happy is much honored	L
Forgives and is forgiven rain and wind	F
Do not perplex him storm and dust forgotten	H
The glittering wheels in wheels of time are broken	H
And laid aside '	-
	-
'Ask him why he did the thing he did '	-
	-
'He is unhappy This thing he says transcends you	M
Dust cannot hold what shines beyond the dust	N
What seems calamity is less than a sigh	O
What seems disgrace is nothing '	-
	-
'Ask him if the one he hurt is there	P
And if she loves him still '	-
	-
'He tells you she is there and loves him still	Q
Not as she did but as all spirits love	R
A cloud of spirits has gathered about him	S
They praise him and call him they do him honor	E
He is more beautiful he shines upon them '	-
	-
Wind flows softly the long deep tremulous wind	F
Over the low roofs white with snow	G
Wind flows bearing dreams they gather and vanish	T
One by one they sing and flow	G
	-
Over the outstretched lands of days remembered	L
Over remembered tower and wall	U
One by one they gather and talk in the darkness	V
Rise and glimmer and fall	U
	-
'Ask him why he did the thing he did	W
He knows I will understand '	-
	-
'It is too late	X
He will not hear me I have lost my power '	-
	-
'Three times I've asked him He will never tell me	Y
God have mercy upon him I will ask no more '	-
	-
	-
II DEATH AND A DERISIVE CHORUS	V
	-
The door is shut She leaves the curtained office	V
And down the grey walled stairs comes trembling slowly	Y
Towards the dazzling street	Z
Her withered hand clings tightly to the railing	C
The long stairs rise and fall beneath her feet	Z
	-
Here in the brilliant sun we jostle waiting	C
To tear her secret out We laugh we hurry	Y
We go our way revolving sinister slow	G
She blinks in the sun and then steps faintly downward	L
We whirl her away we shout we spin we flow	G
	-
Where have you been old lady We know your secret	J
Voices jangle about her jeers and laughter	E
She trembles tries to hurry averts her eyes	A2
Tell us the truth old lady where have you been	B2
She turns and turns her brain grows dark with cries	A2
	-
Look at the old fool tremble She's been paying	C
Paying good money too to talk to spirits	C2
She thinks she's heard a message from one dead	D2
What did he tell you Is he well and happy	Y
Don't lie to us we all know what he said	D2
	-
He said the one he murdered once still loves him	S
He said the wheels in wheels of time are broken	H
And dust and storm forgotten and all forgiven	H
But what you asked he wouldn't tell you though	G
Ha ha there's one thing you will never know	G
That's what you get for meddling so with heaven	H
	-
Where have you been old lady Where are you going	C
We know we know She's been to gab with spirits	C2
Look at the old fool getting ready to cry	O
What have you got in an envelope old lady	Y
A lock of hair An eyelash from his eye	O
	-
How do you know the medium didn't fool you	M
Perhaps he had no spirit perhaps he killed it	B
Here she comes the old fool's lost her son	H
What did he have blue eyes and golden hair	P
We know your secret what's done is done	H
	-
Look out you'll fall and fall if you're not careful	K
Right into an open grave but what's the hurry	Y
You don't think you will find him when you're dead	D2
Cry Cry Look at her mouth all twisted	E2
Look at her eyes all red	D2
	-
We know you know your name and all about you	M
All you remember and think and all you scheme for	F2
We tear your secret out we leave you go	G
Laughingly down the street Die if you want to	M
Die then if you're in such a hurry to know	G
	-
She falls We lift her head The wasted body	Y
Weighs nothing in our hands Does no one know her	E
Was no one with her when she fell	G2
We eddy about her move away in silence	H2
We hear slow tollings of a bell	G2
	-
	-
III PALIMPSEST A DECEITFUL PORTRAIT	J
	-
Well as you say we live for small horizons	I2
We move in crowds we flow and talk together	E
Seeing so many eyes and hands and faces	J2
So many mouths and all with secret meanings	K2
Yet know so little of them only seeing	C
The small bright circle of our consciousness	V
Beyond which lies the dark Some few we know	G
Or think we know Once on a sun bright morning	C
I walked in a certain hallway trying to find	F
A certain door I found one tried it opened	L2
And there in a spacious chamber brightly lighted	E2
A hundred men played music loudly swiftly	Y
While one tall woman sent her voice above them	M2
In powerful sweetness Closing then the door	F2
I heard it die behind me fade to whisper	E
And walked in a quiet hallway as before	F2
Just such a glimpse as through that opened door	F2
Is all we know of those we call our friends	N2
We hear a sudden music see a playing	C
Of ordered thoughts and all again is silence	H2
The music we suppose as in ourselves	O2
Goes on forever there behind shut doors	P2
As it continues after our departure	E
So we divine it played before we came	Q2
What do you know of me or I of you	M
Little enough We set these doors ajar	R2
Only for chosen movements of the music	S2
This passage so I think yet this is guesswork	T2
Will please him it is in a strain he fancies	U2
More brilliant though than his and while he likes it	B
He will be piqued He looks at me bewildered	L
And thinks to judge from self this too is guesswork	T2
	-
The music strangely subtle deep in meaning	C
Perplexed with implications he suspects me	Y
Of hidden riches unexpected wisdom	V2
Or else I let him hear a lyric passage	W2
Simple and clear and all the while he listens	I2
I make pretence to think my doors are closed	X2
This too bewilders him He eyes me sidelong	C
Wondering 'Is he such a fool as this	Y2
Or only mocking ' There I let it end	Z2
Sometimes of course and when we least suspect it	B
When we pursue our thoughts with too much passion	H
Talking with too great zeal our doors fly open	H
Without intention and the hungry watcher	E
Stares at the feast carries away our secrets	A3
And laughs but this for many counts is seldom	V2
And for the most part we vouchsafe our friends	N2
Our lovers too only such few clear notes	B3
As we shall deem them likely to admire	C3
'Praise me for this' we say or 'laugh at this '	-
Or 'marvel at my candor' all the while	D3
Withholding what's most precious to ourselves	O2
Some sinister depth of lust or fear or hatred	E2
The sombre note that gives the chord its power	E
Or a white loveliness if such we know	G
Too much like fire to speak of without shame	Q2
	-
Well this being so and we who know it being	C
So curious about those well locked houses	J2
The minds of those we know to enter softly	Y
And steal from floor to floor up shadowy stairways	E3
From room to quiet room from wall to wall	U
Breathing deliberately the very air	P
Pressing our hands and nerves against warm darkness	V
To learn what ghosts are there	P
Suppose for once I set my doors wide open	H
And bid you in Suppose I try to tell you	M
The secrets of this house and how I live here	F3
Suppose I tell you who I am in fact	G3
Deceiving you as far as I may know it	B
Only so much as I deceive myself	H3
	-
If you are clever you already see me	Y
As one who moves forever in a cloud	I3
Of warm bright vanity a luminous cloud	I3
Which falls on all things with a quivering magic	C
Changing such outlines as a light may change	J3
Brightening what lies dark to me concealing	C
Those things that will not change I walk sustained	K3
In a world of things that flatter me a sky	C
Just as I would have had it trees and grass	L3
Just as I would have shaped and colored them	M2
Pigeons and clouds and sun and whirling shadows	I
And stars that brightening climb through mist at nightfall	U
In some deep way I am aware these praise me	Y
Where they are beautiful or hint of beauty	Y
They point somehow to me This water says	M3
Shimmering at the sky or undulating	C
In broken gleaming parodies of clouds	N3
Rippled in blue or sending from cool depths	O3
To meet the falling leaf the leaf's clear image	W2
This water says there is some secret in you	M
Akin to my clear beauty silently responsive	P3
To all that circles you This bare tree says	M3
Austere and stark and leafless split with frost	Q3
Resonant in the wind with rigid branches	J2
Flung out against the sky this tall tree says	M3
There is some cold austerity in you	M
A frozen strength with long roots gnarled on rocks	R3
Fertile and deep you bide your time are patient	A
Serene in silence bare to outward seeming	C
Concealing what reserves of power and beauty	Y
What teeming Aprils chorus of leaves on leaves	S3
These houses say such walls in walls as ours	D
Such streets of walls solid and smooth of surface	V
Such hills and cities of walls walls upon walls	T3
Motionless in the sun or dark with rain	U3
Walls pierced with windows where the light may enter	E
Walls windowless where darkness is desired	L
Towers and labyrinths and domes and chambers	D
Amazing deep recesses dark on dark	C
All these are like the walls which shape your spirit	J
You move are warm within them laugh within them	M2
Proud of their depth and strength or sally from them	M2
When you are bold to blow great horns at the world	V3
This deep cool room with shadowed walls and ceiling	C
Tranquil and cloistral fragrant of my mind	F
This cool room says just such a room have you	M
It waits you always at the tops of stairways	E3
Withdrawn remote familiar to your uses	J2
Where you may cease pretence and be yourself	H3
And this embroidery hanging on this wall	U
Hung there forever these so soundless glidings	J2
Of dragons golden scaled sheer birds of azure	E
Coilings of leaves in pale vermilion griffins	J2
Drawing their rainbow wings through involutions	J2
Of mauve chrysanthemums and lotus flowers	J2
This goblin wood where someone cries enchantment	A
This says just such an involuted beauty	Y
Of thought and coiling thought dream linked with dream	W3
Image to image gliding wreathing fires	J2
Soundlessly cries enchantment in your mind	F
You need but sit and close your eyes a moment	A
To see these deep designs unfold themselves	J2
	-
And so all things discern me name me praise me	Y
I walk in a world of silent voices praising	C
And in this world you see me like a wraith	G
Blown softly here and there on silent winds	J2
'Praise me' I say and look not in a glass	J2
But in your eyes to see my image there	P
Or in your mind you smile I am contented	E2
You look at me with interest unfeigned	E2
And listen I am pleased or else alone	X3
I watch thin bubbles veering brightly upward	E2
From unknown depths my silver thoughts ascending	C
Saying now this now that hinting of all things	J2
Dreams and desires velleities regrets	J2
Faint ghosts of memory strange recognitions	J2
But all with one deep meaning this is I	C
This is the glistening secret holy I	C
This silver winged wonder insubstantial	K
This singing ghost And hearing I am warmed	E2
	-
	-
	-
You see me moving then as one who moves	J2
Forever at the centre of his circle	K
A circle filled with light And into it	E2
Come bulging shapes from darkness loom gigantic	C
Or huddle in dark again A clock ticks clearly	Y
A gas jet steadily whirs light streams across me	Y
Two church bells with alternate beat strike nine	Y3
And through these things my pencil pushes softly	Y
To weave grey webs of lines on this clear page	Z3
Snow falls and melts the eaves make liquid music	C
Black wheel tracks line the snow touched street I turn	A4
And look one instant at the half dark gardens	J2
Where skeleton elm trees reach with frozen gesture	E
Above unsteady lamps with black boughs flung	C
Against a luminous snow filled grey gold sky	C
'Beauty ' I cry My feet move on and take me	Y
Between dark walls with orange squares for windows	J2
Beauty beheld like someone half forgotten	H
Remembered with slow pang as one neglected	E2
Well I am frustrate life has beaten me	Y
The thing I strongly seized has turned to darkness	J2
And darkness rides my heart These skeleton elm trees	J2
Leaning against that grey gold snow filled sky	C
Beauty they say and at the edge of darkness	J2
Extend vain arms in a frozen gesture of protest	E2
A clock ticks softly a gas jet steadily whirs	J2
The pencil meets its shadow upon clear paper	E
Voices are raised a door is slammed The lovers	J2
Murmuring in an adjacent room grow silent	E2
The eaves make liquid music Hours have passed	E2
And nothing changes and everything is changed	E2
Exultation is dead Beauty is harlot	E2
And walks the streets The thing I strongly seized	E2
Has turned to darkness and darkness rides my heart	E2
	-
If you could solve this darkness you would have me	Y
This causeless melancholy that comes with rain	U3
Or on such days as this when large wet snowflakes	J2
Drop heavily with rain whence rises this	J2
Well so and so this morning when I saw him	S
Seemed much preoccupied and would not smile	D3
And you I saw too much and you too little	K
And the word I chose for you the golden word	E2
The word that should have struck so deep in purpose	J2
And set so many doors of wish wide open	H
You let it fall and would not stoop for it	E2
And smiled at me and would not let me guess	J2
Whether you saw it fall These things together	E
With other things still slighter wove to music	C
And this in time drew up dark memories	J2
And there I stand This music breaks and bleeds me	Y
Turning all frustrate dreams to chords and discords	J2
Faces and griefs and words and sunlit evenings	J2
And chains self forged that will not break nor lengthen	H
And cries that none can answer few will hear	F3
Have these things meaning Or would you see more clearly	Y
If I should say 'My second wife grows tedious	J2
Or like gay tulip keeps no perfumed secret'	E2
	-
Or 'one day dies eventless as another	E
Leaving the seeker still unsatisfied	E2
And more convinced life yields no satisfaction'	H
Or 'seek too hard the sight at length grows callous	J2
And beauty shines in vain'	H
	-
These things you ask for	F2
These you shall have So talking with my first wife	B4
At the dark end of evening when she leaned	E2
And smiled at me with blue eyes weaving webs	J2
Of finest fire revolving me in scarlet	E2
Calling to mind remote and small successions	J2
Of countless other evenings ending so	J2
I smiled and met her kiss and wished her dead	E2
Dead of a sudden sickness or by my hands	J2
Savagely killed I saw her in her coffin	H
I saw her coffin borne downstairs with trouble	K
I saw myself alone there palely watching	C
Wearing a masque of grief so deeply acted	E2
That grief itself possessed me Time would pass	J2
And I should meet this girl my second wife	B4
And drop the masque of grief for one of passion	H
Forward we move to meet half hesitating	C
We drown in each others' eyes we laugh we talk	C
Looking now here now there faintly pretending	C
We do not hear the powerful pulsing prelude	E2
Roaring beneath our words The time approaches	J2
We lean unbalanced The mute last glance between us	J2
Profoundly searching opening asking yielding	C
Is steadily met our two lives draw together	E
'What are you thinking of ' My first wife's voice	J2
Scattered these ghosts 'Oh nothing nothing much	C4
Just wondering where we'd be two years from now	H
And what we might be doing ' And then remorse	J2
Turned sharply in my mind to sudden pity	E2
And pity to echoed love And one more evening	C
Drew to the usual end of sleep and silence	J2
	-
And as it is with this so too with all things	J2
The pages of our lives are blurred palimpsest	E2
New lines are wreathed on old lines half erased	E2
And those on older still and so forever	E
The old shines through the new and colors it	E2
What's new What's old All things have double meanings	J2
All things return I write a line with passion	H
Or touch a woman's hand or plumb a doctrine	H
Only to find the same thing done before	F2
Only to know the same thing comes to morrow	J2
This curious riddled dream I dreamed last night	E2
Six years ago I dreamed it just as now	H
The same man stooped to me we rose from darkness	J2
And broke the accustomed order of our days	J2
And struck for the morning world and warmth and freedom	V2
What does it mean Why is this hint repeated	E2
What darkness does it spring from seek to end	E2
	-
You see me then pass up and down these stairways	J2
Now through a beam of light and now through shadow	J2
Pursuing silent ends No rest there is	J2
No more for me than you I move here always	J2
From quiet room to room from wall to wall	U
Searching and plotting weaving a web of days	J2
This is my house and now perhaps you know me	E2
Yet I confess for all my best intentions	J2
Once more I have deceived you I withhold	E2
The one thing precious the one dark thing that guides me	E2
And I have spread two snares for you of lies	J2
	-
	-
IV COUNTERPOINT TWO ROOMS	J2
	-
He in the room above grown old and tired	E2
She in the room below his floor her ceiling	C
Pursue their separate dreams He turns his light	E2
And throws himself on the bed face down in laughter	E
She by the window smiles at a starlight night	E2
	-
His watch the same he has heard these cycles of ages	J2
Wearily chimes at seconds beneath his pillow	J2
The clock upon her mantelpiece strikes nine	H
The night wears on She hears dull steps above her	E
The world whirs on New stars come up to shine	H
	-
His youth far off he sees it brightly walking	C
In a golden cloud Wings flashing about it Darkness	J2
Walls it around with dripping enormous walls	J2
Old age far off her death what do they matter	E
Down the smooth purple night a streaked star falls	J2
	-
She hears slow steps in the street they chime like music	C
They climb to her heart they break and flower in beauty	E2
Along her veins they glisten and ring and burn	H
He hears his own slow steps tread down to silence	J2
Far off they pass He knows they will never return	H
	-
Far off on a smooth dark road he hears them faintly	E2
The road like a sombre river quietly flowing	C
Moves among murmurous walls A deeper breath	G
Swells them to sound he hears his steps more clearly	E2
And death seems nearer to him or he to death	G
	-
What's death She smiles The cool stone hurts her elbows	J2
The last of the rain drops gather and fall from elm boughs	J2
She sees them glisten and break The arc lamp sings	J2
The new leaves dip in the warm wet air and fragrance	J2
A sparrow whirs to the eaves and shakes his wings	J2
	-
What's death what's death The spring returns like music	C
The trees are like dark lovers who dream in starlight	E2
The soft grey clouds go over the stars like dreams	J2
The cool stone wounds her arms to pain to pleasure	E
Under the lamp a circle of wet street gleams	J2
And death seems far away a thing of roses	J2
A golden portal where golden music closes	J2
Death seems far away	D4
And spring returns the countless singing of lovers	J2
And spring returns to stay	D4
	-
He in the room above grown old and tired	E2
Flings himself on the bed face down in laughter	E
And clenches his hands and remembers and desires to die	E2
And she by the window smiles at a night of starlight	E2
The soft grey clouds go slowly across the sky	E2
	-
	-
V THE BITTER LOVE SONG	C
	-
No I shall not say why it is that I love you	M
Why do you ask me save for vanity	E2
Surely you would not have me like a mirror	E
Say 'yes your hair curls darkly back from the temples	J2
Your mouth has a humorous tremulous half shy sweetness	J2
Your eyes are April grey with jonquils in them '	-
No if I tell at all I shall tell in silence	J2
I'll say my childhood broke through chords of music	C
Or were they chords of sun wherein fell shadows	J2
Or silences I rose through seas of sunlight	E2
Or sometimes found a darkness stooped above me	E2
With wings of death and a face of cold clear beauty	E2
I lay in the warm sweet grass on a blue May morning	C
My chin in a dandelion my hands in clover	E
And drowsed there like a bee blue days behind me	E2
Stretched like a chain of deep blue pools of magic	C
Enchanted silent timeless days before me	E2
Murmured of blue sea mornings noons of gold	E2
Green evenings streaked with lilac bee starred nights	J2
Confused soft clouds of music fled above me	E2
	-
Sharp shafts of music dazzled my eyes and pierced me	E2
I ran and turned and spun and danced in the sunlight	E2
Shrank sometimes from the freezing silence of beauty	E2
Or crept once more to the warm white cave of sleep	E4
	-
No I shall not say 'this is why I praise you	M
Because you say such wise things or such foolish '	-
You would not have me say what you know better	E
Let me instead be silent only saying	C
My childhood lives in me or half lives rather	E
And if I close my eyes cool chords of music	C
Flow up to me long chords of wind and sunlight	E2
Shadows of intricate vines on sunlit walls	J2
Deep bells beating with aeons of blue between them	M2
Grass blades leagues apart with worlds between them	M2
Walls rushing up to heaven with stars upon them	M2
I lay in my bed and through the tall night window	J2
Saw the green lightning plunging among the clouds	J2
And heard the harsh rain storm at the panes and roof	F4
How should I know how should I now remember	E
What half dreamed great wings curved and sang above me	E2
What wings like swords What eyes with the dread night in them	M2
	-
This I shall say I lay by the hot white sand dunes	J2
Small yellow flowers sapless and squat and spiny	E2
Stared at the sky And silently there above us	J2
Day after day beyond our dreams and knowledge	W2
Presences swept and over us streamed their shadows	J2
Swift and blue or dark What did they mean	H
What sinister threat of power What hint of beauty	E2
Prelude to what gigantic music or subtle	K
Only I know these things leaned over me	E2
Brooded upon me paused went flowing softly	E2
Glided and passed I loved I desired I hated	E2
I struggled I yielded and loved was warmed to blossom	V2
You when your eyes have evening sunlight in them	M2
Set these dunes before me these salt bright flowers	J2
These presences I drowse they stream above me	E2
I struggle I yield and love I am warmed to dream	W3
	-
You are the window if I could tell I'd tell you	M
Through which I see a clear far world of sunlight	E2
You are the silence if you could hear you'd hear me	E2
In which I remember a thin still whisper of singing	C
It is not you I laugh for you I touch	C4
My hands that touch you suddenly touch white cobwebs	J2
Coldly silvered heavily silvered with dewdrops	J2
And clover heavy with rain and cold green grass	J2
	-
	-
VI CINEMA	G4
	-
As evening falls	J2
The walls grow luminous and warm the walls	J2
Tremble and glow with the lives within them moving	C
Moving like music secret and rich and warm	H4
How shall we live to night where shall we turn	H
To what new light or darkness yearn	H
A thousand winding stairs lead down before us	J2
And one by one in myriads we descend	E2
By lamplit flowered walls long balustrades	J2
Through half lit halls which reach no end	E2
	-
Take my arm then you or you or you	M
And let us walk abroad on the solid air	P
Look how the organist's head in silhouette	E2
Leans to the lamplit music's orange square	P
The dim globed lamps illumine rows of faces	J2
Rows of hands and arms and hungry eyes	J2
They have hurried down from a myriad secret places	J2
From windy chambers next to the skies	J2
The music comes upon us it shakes the darkness	J2
It shakes the darkness in our minds	J2
And brilliant figures suddenly fill the darkness	J2
Down the white shaft of light they run through darkness	J2
And in our hearts a dazzling dream unwinds	J2
	-
Take my hand then walk with me	E2
By the slow soundless crashings of a sea	E2
Down miles on miles of glistening mirrorlike sand	E2
Take my hand	E2
And walk with me once more by crumbling walls	J2
Up mouldering stairs where grey stemmed ivy clings	J2
To hear forgotten bells as evening falls	J2
Rippling above us invisibly their slowly widening rings	J2
Did you once love me Did you bear a name	Q2
Did you once stand before me without shame	Q2
Take my hand your face is one I know	J2
I loved you long ago	J2
You are like music long forgotten suddenly come to mind	E2
You are like spring returned through snow	J2
Once I know I walked with you in starlight	E2
And many nights I slept and dreamed of you	M
Come let us climb once more these stairs of starlight	E2
This midnight stream of cloud flung blue	M
Music murmurs beneath us like a sea	E2
And faints to a ghostly whisper Come with me	E2
	-
Are you still doubtful of me hesitant still	Q
Fearful perhaps that I may yet remember	E
What you would gladly if you could forget	E2
You were unfaithful once you met your lover	E
Still in your heart you bear that red eyed ember	E
And I was silent you remember my silence yet	E2
You knew as well as I I could not kill him	S
Nor touch him with hot hands nor yet with hate	E2
No and it was not you I saw with anger	E
Instead I rose and beat at steel walled fate	E2
Cried till I lay exhausted sick unfriended	E2
That life so seeming sure and love so certain	H
Should loose such tricks be so abruptly ended	E2
Ring down so suddenly an unlooked for curtain	H
	-
How could I find it in my heart to hurt you	M
You whom this love could hurt much more than I	E2
No you were pitiful and I gave you pity	E2
And only hated you when I saw you cry	E2
We were two dupes if I could give forgiveness	J2
Had I the right I should forgive you now	H
We were two dupes Come let us walk in starlight	E2
And feed our griefs we do not break but bow	H
	-
Take my hand then come with me	E2
By the white shadowy crashings of a sea	E2
Look how the long volutes of foam unfold	E2
To spread their mottled shimmer along the sand	E2
Take my hand	E2
Do not remember how these depths are cold	E2
Nor how when you are dead	E2
Green leagues of sea will glimmer above your head	E2
You lean your face upon your hands and cry	E2
The blown sand whispers about your feet	E2
Terrible seems it now to die	E2
Terrible now with life so incomplete	E2
To turn away from the balconies and the music	C
The sunlit afternoons	J2
To hear behind you there a far off laughter	E
Lost in a stirring of sand among dry dunes	J2
Die not sadly you whom life has beaten	H
Lift your face up laughing die like a queen	H
Take cold flowers of foam in your warm white fingers	J2
Death's but a change of sky from blue to green	H
	-
As evening falls	J2
The walls grow luminous and warm the walls	J2
Tremble and glow the music breathes upon us	J2
The rayed white shaft plays over our heads like magic	C
And to and fro we move and lean and change	J3
You in a world grown strange	J3
Laugh at a darkness clench your hands despairing	C
Smash your glass on a floor no longer caring	C
Sink suddenly down and cry	E2
You hear the applause that greets your latest rival	K
You are forgotten your rival who knows is I	E2
I laugh in the warm bright light of answering laughter	E
I am inspired and young and though I see	E2
You sitting alone there dark with shut eyes crying	C
I bask in the light and in your hate of me	E2
Failure well the time comes soon or later	E
The night must come and I'll be one who clings	J2
Desperately to hold the applause one instant	E2
To keep some youngster waiting in the wings	J2
	-
The music changes tone a room is darkened	E2
Someone is moving the crack of white light widens	J2
And all is dark again till suddenly falls	J2
A wandering disk of light on floor and walls	J2
Winks out returns again climbs and descends	J2
Gleams on a clock a glass shrinks back to darkness	J2
And then at last in the chaos of that place	J2
Dazzles like frozen fire on your clear face	J2
Well I have found you We have met at last	E2
Now you shall not escape me in your eyes	J2
I see the horrible huddlings of your past	E2
All you remember blackens utters cries	J2
Reaches far hands and faint I hold the light	E2
Close to your cheek watch the pained pupils shrink	C
Watch the vile ghosts of all you vilely think	C
Now all the hatreds of my life have met	E2
To hold high carnival we do not speak	C
My fingers find the well loved throat they seek	C
And press and fling you down and then forget	E2
	-
Who plays for me What sudden drums keep time	I4
To the ecstatic rhythm of my crime	I4
What flute shrills out as moonlight strikes the floor	F2
What violin so faintly cries	J2
Seeing how strangely in the moon he lies	J2
The room grows dark once more	F2
The crack of white light narrows around the door	F2
And all is silent except a slow complaining	C
Of flutes and violins like music waning	C
	-
Take my hand then walk with me	E2
By the slow soundless crashings of a sea	E2
Look how white these shells are on this sand	E2
Take my hand	E2
And watch the waves run inward from the sky	E2
Line upon foaming line to plunge and die	E2
The music that bound our lives is lost behind us	J2
Paltry it seems here in this wind swung place	J2
Motionless under the sky's vast vault of azure	E
We stand in a terror of beauty face to face	J2
The dry grass creaks in the wind the blown sand whispers	J2
	-
The soft sand seethes on the dunes the clear grains glisten	H
Once they were rock a chaos of golden boulders	J2
Now they are blown by the wind we stand and listen	H
To the sliding of grain upon timeless grain	H
And feel our lives go past like a whisper of pain	H
Have I not seen you have we not met before	F2
Here on this sun and sea wrecked shore	F2
You shade your sea gray eyes with a sunlit hand	E2
And peer at me far sea gulls in your eyes	J2
Flash in the sun go down I hear slow sand	E2
And shrink to nothing beneath blue brilliant skies	J2
	-
	-
	-
The music ends The screen grows dark We hurry	E2
To go our devious secret ways forgetting	C
Those many lives We loved we laughed we killed	E2
We danced in fire we drowned in a whirl of sea waves	J2
The flutes are stilled and a thousand dreams are stilled	E2
	-
Whose body have I found beside dark waters	J2
The cold white body garlanded with sea weed	E2
Staring with wide eyes at the sky	E2
I bent my head above it and cried in silence	J2
Only the things I dreamed of heard my cry	E2
	-
Once I loved and she I loved was darkened	E2
Again I loved and love itself was darkened	E2
Vainly we follow the circle of shadowy days	J2
The screen at last grows dark the flutes are silent	E2
The doors of night are closed We go our ways	J2
	-
	-
VII	F4
	-
The sun goes down in a cold pale flare of light	E2
The trees grow dark the shadows lean to the east	E2
And lights wink out through the windows one by one	H
A clamor of frosty sirens mourns at the night	E2
Pale slate grey clouds whirl up from the sunken sun	H
	-
And the wandering one the inquisitive dreamer of dreams	J2
The eternal asker of answers stands in the street	E2
And lifts his palms for the first cold ghost of rain	H
The purple lights leap down the hill before him	S
The gorgeous night has begun again	H
	-
'I will ask them all I will ask them all their dreams	J2
I will hold my light above them and seek their faces	J2
I will hear them whisper invisible in their veins '	-
The eternal asker of answers becomes as the darkness	J2
Or as a wind blown over a myriad forest	E2
Or as the numberless voices of long drawn rains	J2
	-
We hear him and take him among us like a wind of music	C
Like the ghost of a music we have somewhere heard	E2
We crowd through the streets in a dazzle of pallid lamplight	E2
We pour in a sinister mass we ascend a stair	P
With laughter and cry with word upon murmured word	E2
We flow we descend we turn and the eternal dreamer	E
Moves on among us like light like evening air	P
	-
Good night good night good night we go our ways	J2
The rain runs over the pavement before our feet	E2
The cold rain falls the rain sings	J2
We walk we run we ride We turn our faces	J2
To what the eternal evening brings	J2
	-
Our hands are hot and raw with the stones we have laid	E2
We have built a tower of stone high into the sky	E2
We have built a city of towers	J2
Our hands are light they are singing with emptiness	J2
Our souls are light They have shaken a burden of hours	J2
What did we build it for Was it all a dream	W3
Ghostly above us in lamplight the towers gleam	W3
And after a while they will fall to dust and rain	H
Or else we will tear them down with impatient hands	J2
And hew rock out of the earth and build them again	H

Conrad Potter Aiken

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