When You Are Not Surprised Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDAEFGHIJKLMLMCCA NNOPPCQRR ANSTQCCCUVAWXYXQQZA2 B2C2YD2

When you are not surprised not surprisedA
nor leap in imagination from sunlight into shadowB
or from shadow into sunlightC
suiting the color of fright or delightC
to the bewildering circumstanceD
when you are no longer surprisedA
by the quiet or fury of daybreakE
the stormy uprush of the sun s rageF
over the edges of torn treesG
torrents of living and dying flungH
upward and outward inward and downward to spaceI
or elseJ
peace peace peace peaceK
the wood thrush speaking his holy holyL
far hidden in the forest of the mindM
while slowlyL
the limbs of light unwindM
and the world s surface dreams again of nightC
as the center dreams of lightC
when you are not surprisedA
by breath and breath and breathN
the first unconscious morning breathN
the tap of the bird s beak on the paneO
and do not cry out come againP
blest blest that you are come againP
o light o sound o voice of bird o lightC
and memory too o memory blestQ
and curst with the debts of yesterdayR
that would not stay or stayR
-
-
when you are not surprisedA
by death and death and deathN
death of the bee in the daffodilS
death of color in the child s cheekT
on the young mother s breastQ
death of sense of touch of sightC
death of delightC
and the inward death the inward turning nightC
when the heart hardens itself with hate and indifferenceU
for hated self and beloved not selfV
when you are not surprisedA
by wheel s turn or turn of seasonW
the winged and orbed chariot tilt of timeX
the halcyon pause the blue caesura of springY
and solar rhymeX
woven into the divinely remembered nestQ
by the dark eyed love in the oriole s breastQ
and the tides of space that ring the heartZ
while still while still the wave of the invisible worldA2
breaks into consciousness in the mind of godB2
then welcome death and be by death benignly welcomedC2
and join again in the ceaseless know nothingY
from which you awoke to the first surpriseD2

Conrad Potter Aiken



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