Two Wives Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCDCD EEFGFG GGHGEG A IJKJLL MNKNCC OPQPRR A IIIIST FUFUVV FCFCWW W XXCYCY ZA2B2C2B2C2 D2E2D2E2WW W WWDF2DA2 G2G2F2XA2X CCCWCWI | A |
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Into the shadow white chamber silts the white | B |
Flux of another dawn The wind that all night | B |
Long has waited restless suddenly wafts | C |
A whirl like snow from the plum trees and the pear | D |
Till petals heaped between the window shafts | C |
In a drift die there | D |
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A nurse in white at the dawning flower foamed pane | E |
Draws down the blinds whose shadows scarcely stain | E |
The white rugs on the floor nor the silent bed | F |
That rides the room like a frozen berg its crest | G |
Finally ridged with the austere line of the dead | F |
Stretched out at rest | G |
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Less than a year the fourfold feet had pressed | G |
The peaceful floor when fell the sword on their rest | G |
Yet soon too soon she had him home again | H |
With wounds between them and suffering like a guest | G |
That will not go Now suddenly going the pain | E |
Leaves an empty breast | G |
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II | A |
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A tall woman with her long white gown aflow | I |
As she strode her limbs amongst it once more | J |
She hastened towards the room Did she know | K |
As she listened in silence outside the silent door | J |
Entering she saw him in outline raised on a pyre | L |
Awaiting the fire | L |
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Upraised on the bed with feet erect as a bow | M |
Like the prow of a boat his head laid back like the stern | N |
Of a ship that stands in a shadowy sea of snow | K |
With frozen rigging she saw him she drooped like a fern | N |
Refolding she slipped to the floor as a ghost white peony slips | C |
When the thread clips | C |
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Soft she lay as a shed flower fallen nor heard | O |
The ominous entry nor saw the other love | P |
The dark the grave eyed mistress who thus dared | Q |
At such an hour to lay her claim above | P |
A stricken wife so sunk in oblivion bowed | R |
With misery no more proud | R |
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III | A |
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The stranger's hair was shorn like a lad's dark poll | I |
And pale her ivory face her eyes would fail | I |
In silence when she looked for all the whole | I |
Darkness of failure was in them without avail | I |
Dark in indomitable failure she who had lost | S |
Now claimed the host | T |
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She softly passed the sorrowful flower shed | F |
In blonde and white on the floor nor even turned | U |
Her head aside but straight towards the bed | F |
Moved with slow feet and her eyes' flame steadily burned | U |
She looked at him as he lay with banded cheek | V |
And she started to speak | V |
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Softly I knew it would come to this she said | F |
I knew that some day soon I should find you thus | C |
So I did not fight you You went your way instead | F |
Of coming mine and of the two of us | C |
I died the first I in the after life | W |
Am now your wife | W |
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IV | W |
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'Twas I whose fingers did draw up the young | X |
Plant of your body to me you looked e'er sprung | X |
The secret of the moon within your eyes | C |
My mouth you met before your fine red mouth | Y |
Was set to song and never your song denies | C |
My love till you went south | Y |
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'Twas I who placed the bloom of manhood on | Z |
Your youthful smoothness I fleeced where fleece was none | A2 |
Your fervent limbs with flickers and tendrils of new | B2 |
Knowledge I set your heart to its stronger beat | C2 |
I put my strength upon you and I threw | B2 |
My life at your feet | C2 |
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But I whom the years had reared to be your bride | D2 |
Who for years was sun for your shivering shade for your sweat | E2 |
Who for one strange year was as a bride to you you set me aside | D2 |
With all the old sweet things of our youth and never yet | E2 |
Have I ceased to grieve that I was not great enough | W |
To defeat your baser stuff | W |
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V | W |
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But you are given back again to me | W |
Who have kept intact for you your virginity | W |
Who for the rest of life walk out of care | D |
Indifferent here of myself since I am gone | F2 |
Where you are gone and you and I out there | D |
Walk now as one | A2 |
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Your widow am I and only I I dream | G2 |
God bows his head and grants me this supreme | G2 |
Pure look of your last dead face whence now is gone | F2 |
The mobility the panther's gambolling | X |
And all your being is given to me so none | A2 |
Can mock my struggling | X |
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And now at last I kiss your perfect face | C |
Perfecting now our unfinished first embrace | C |
Your young hushed look that then saw God ablaze | C |
In every bush is given you back and we | W |
Are met at length to finish our rest of days | C |
In a unity | W |
D. H. Lawrence (david Herbert Richards)
(1)
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