Arabel Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEF EGHIJKLMNBOP EEQORSRRRRTU VRWJ RXRXXRWYZRCA2REB2 ERA2C2RRERRXC2ED2RC2 EEC2 EXX EE2C2RRRX C2RRF2VRR C2G2WC2EXEEXC2H2VE2 XI2RDJ2K2C2RO K2XC2 XXXEQ ERR RDJ2OXRXEC2XXL2M2N2R E O2C2OREROG2E ED DXRXBEIXRRRC2XQC2XP2 XX X H2X RRC2 C2XRTwists of smoke rise from the limpness of jewelled fingers | A |
The softness of Persian rugs hushes the room | B |
Under a dragon lamp with a shade the color of coral | C |
Sit the readers of poems one by one | D |
And all the room is in shadow except for the blur | E |
Of mahogany surface and tapers against the wall | F |
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And a youth reads a poem of love forever and ever | E |
Is his soul the soul of the loved one a woman sings | G |
Of the nine months which go to the birth of a soul | H |
And after a time under the lamp a man | I |
Begins to read a letter having no poem to read | J |
And the words of the letter flash and die like a fuse | K |
Dampened by rain it's a dying mind that writes | L |
What Byron did for the Greeks against the Turks | M |
And a sickness enters our hearts The jewelled hands | N |
Clutch at the arms of the chairs about the room | B |
One hears the parting of lips and a nervous shifting | O |
Of feet and arms | P |
- | |
And I look up and over | E |
The reader's shoulder and see the name of the writer | E |
What is it I see The name of a man I knew | Q |
You are an ironical trickster Time to bring | O |
After so many years and into a place like this | R |
This face before me hair slicked down and parted | S |
In the middle and cheeks stuck out with fatness | R |
Plump from camembert and clicquot eyelids | R |
Thin as skins of onions cut like dough 'round the eyes | R |
Such was your look in a photograph I saw | R |
In a silver frame on a woman's dresser and such | T |
Your look in life you thing of flesh alone | U |
- | |
And then | V |
As a soul looks down on the body it leaves | R |
A body by fever slain I look on myself | W |
As I was a decade ago while the letter is read | J |
- | |
I enter a box | R |
Of a theater with Jim my friend of fifty | X |
I being twenty two Two women are in the box | R |
One of an age for Jim and one of an age for me | X |
And mine is dressed in a dainty gown of dimity | X |
And she fans herself with a fan of silver spangles | R |
Till a subtle odor of delicate powder or of herself | W |
Enters my blood and I stare at her snowy neck | Y |
And the glossy brownness of her hair until | Z |
She feels my stare and turns half view and I see | R |
How like a Greek's is her nose with just a little | C |
Aquiline touch and I catch the flash of an eye | A2 |
And the glint of a smile on the richness of her lips | R |
The company now discourses upon the letter | E |
But my dream goes on | B2 |
- | |
I re live a rapture | E |
Which may be madness and no man understands | R |
Until he feels it no more The youth that was I | A2 |
From the theater under the city's lights follows the girl | C2 |
Desperate lest in the city's curious chances | R |
He never sees her again And boldly he speaks | R |
And she and the older woman her sister | E |
Smile and speak in turn and Jim who stands | R |
While I break the ice comes up and so | R |
Arm in arm we go to the restaurant | X |
I in heaven walking with Arabel | C2 |
And Jim with her older sister | E |
We drive them home under a summer moon | D2 |
And while I explain to Arabel my boldness | R |
And crave her pardon for it Jim the devil | C2 |
Laughs apart with her sister while I wonder | E |
What Jim the devil is laughing at No matter | E |
To morrow I walk in the park with Arabel | C2 |
- | |
Just now the reader of the letter | E |
Tells of the writer's swift descent | X |
From wealth to want | X |
- | |
We are in the park next afternoon by the water | E |
I look at her white throat full as it were of song | E2 |
And her rounded virginal bosom beautiful | C2 |
And I study her eyes I search to the depths her eyes | R |
In the light of the sun They are full of little rays | R |
Like the edge of a fleur de lys and she smiles | R |
At first when I fling my soul at her feet | X |
- | |
But when I repeat I love her love her only | C2 |
A cloud of wonder passes over her face | R |
She veils her eyes The color comes to her cheeks | R |
And when she picks some clover blossoms and tears them | F2 |
Her hand is trembling And when I tell her again | V |
I love her love her only she blots her eyes | R |
With a handkerchief to hide a tear that starts | R |
- | |
And she says to me You do not know me at all | C2 |
How can you love me You never saw me before | G2 |
Last night Well tell me about yourself | W |
And after a time she tells me the story | C2 |
About her father who ran away from her mother | E |
And how she hated her father and how she grieved | X |
When her mother died and how a good grandmother | E |
Helped her and helps her now And how her sister | E |
Divorced her husband And then she paused a moment | X |
I am not strong you'd have to guard me gently | C2 |
And that takes money dear as well as love | H2 |
Two years ago I was very ill and since then | V |
I am not strong | E2 |
- | |
Well I can work I said | X |
And what would you think of a little cottage | I2 |
Not too far out with a yard and hosts of roses | R |
And a vine on the porch and a little garden | D |
And a dining room where the sun comes in | J2 |
When a morning breeze blows over your brow | K2 |
And you sit across the table and serve me | C2 |
And neither of us can speak for happiness | R |
Without our voices breaking or lips trembling | O |
- | |
She is looking down with little frowns on her brow | K2 |
But if ever I had to work I could not do it | X |
I am not really well | C2 |
- | |
But I can work I said | X |
I rise and lift her up holding her hand | X |
She slips her arm through mine and presses it | X |
What a good man you are she said Just like a brother | E |
I almost love you I believe I love you | Q |
- | |
The reader of the letter being a doctor | E |
Is talking learnedly of the writer's case | R |
Which has the classical marks of paresis | R |
- | |
Next day I look up Jim and rhapsodize | R |
About a cottage with roses and a garden | D |
And a dining room where the sun comes in | J2 |
And Arabel across the table Jim is smoking | O |
And flicking the ashes but never says a word | X |
Till I have finished Then in a quiet voice | R |
Arabel's sister says that Arabel's straight | X |
But she isn't my boy she's just like Arabel's sister | E |
She knew you had the madness for Arabel | C2 |
That's why we laughed and stood apart as we talked | X |
And I'll tell you now I didn't go home that night | X |
I shook you at the corner and went back | L2 |
And staid that night Now be a man my boy | M2 |
Go have your fling with Arabel but drop | N2 |
The cottage and the roses | R |
- | |
They are still discussing the madman's letter | E |
- | |
And memory permeates me like a subtle drug | O2 |
The memory of my love for Arabel | C2 |
The torture the doubt the fear the restless longing | O |
The sleepless nights the pity for all her sorrows | R |
The speculation about her and her sister | E |
And what her illness was | R |
And whether the man I saw one time was leaving | O |
Her door or the next door to it and if her door | G2 |
Whether he saw my Arabel or her sister | E |
- | |
The reader of the letter is telling how the writer | E |
Left his wife chasing the lure of women | D |
- | |
And it all comes back to me as clear as a vision | D |
The night I sat with Arabel strong but conquered | X |
Whatever I did I loved her whatever she was | R |
Madness or love the terrible struggle must end | X |
She took my hand and said You must see my room | B |
We stood in the doorway together and on her dresser | E |
Was a silver frame with the photograph of a man | I |
I had seen him in life hair slicked down and parted | X |
In the middle and cheeks stuck out with fatness | R |
Plump from camembert and clicquot eyelids | R |
Thin as skins of onions cut like dough 'round the eyes | R |
There is his picture she said ask me whatever you will | C2 |
Take me as mistress or wife it is yours to decide | X |
But take me as mistress and grow like the picture before you | Q |
Take me as wife and be the good man you can be | C2 |
Choose me as mistress how can I do less for dearest | X |
Or make me your wife fate makes me your mistress or wife | P2 |
I can leave you I said You can leave me she echoed | X |
But how about hate in your heart | X |
- | |
You are right I replied | X |
- | |
The company is now discussing the subject of love | H2 |
They seem to know little about it | X |
- | |
But my wife who is sitting beside me exclaims | R |
Well what is this jangle of madness and weakness | R |
What has it to do with poetry tell me | C2 |
- | |
Well it's life Arabel | C2 |
There's the story of Hamlet for instance I added | X |
Then fell into silence | R |
Edgar Lee Masters
(1)
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