Dialogue At Perko's Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCD A E F EGC A DH F I A JK F LM A INO F O A PQN F RSACTL A J F G A CU F V A O F W A XYT F I A Z F A2A2RB2C2D2 A E2T F J A JF2G2H2LLI2J2K2S F L2CC2 A L2LLC2U F TJM2N2 A CO2P2Q2RC2CR2CLS2TT2 U2QG2RCCV2W2EV2V2V2C X2V2CELY2CV2Z2V2A3TM LB3V2C3UTV2Z2D3E3V2M C2F3G3H3I3J3K3A2LA2V 2V2V2 F TL3 A CV2SM3N3M3O3P3TQ3R3S 3T3U3V3U2R3W3V2X3V2F 2FA2V2 Y3CV2V2V2A3Z3A4SV2CV 2 F TCJF2V2 A F F B4C4D4F2M3V2V3E4F4V2 V3 A V2 F G4

Look here JackA
You don't act natural You have lost your laughB
You haven't told me any stories YouC
Just lie there half asleep What's on your mindD
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JACKA
-
What time is it Where is my watchE
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FLORENCEF
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Your watchE
Under your pillow You don't think I'd take itG
Why Jack what talk for youC
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JACKA
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Well never mindD
Let's pack no iceH
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FLORENCEF
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What's thatI
-
JACKA
-
No quarrelingJ
What is the timeK
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FLORENCEF
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Look over towards my dresserL
My clock says half past elevenM
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JACKA
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Listen to thatI
That hurdy gurdy's playing Holy NightN
And on this streetO
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FLORENCEF
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And why not on this streetO
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JACKA
-
You may be right It may as well be playedP
Where you live as in front of where I workQ
Some twenty stories up I think you're rightN
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FLORENCEF
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Say Jack what is the matter Come be gayR
Tell me some stories Buy another bottleS
Just think you make a lot of money JackA
You're young and prominent They all know youC
I hear your name all over town I seeT
Your picture in the papers What's the matterL
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JACKA
-
I've lost my job for one thingJ
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FLORENCEF
-
You don't mean itG
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JACKA
-
They used me and then fired me same as youC
If you don't make the money out you goU
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FLORENCEF
-
Yes out I go But there are other placesV
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JACKA
-
On further down the streetO
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FLORENCEF
-
Not yet a whileW
-
JACKA
-
Not yet for me but still the question isX
Whether to fight it out for up or downY
Or run from everything be freeT
-
FLORENCEF
-
You can't do thatI
-
JACKA
-
Why notZ
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FLORENCEF
-
No more than IA2
Oh well perhaps if a nice man came byA2
To marry me then I could get awayR
It happens all the time Last week in factB2
Christ Perko married Rachel who lived hereC2
He's rich as creamD2
-
JACKA
-
What corresponds to marriageE2
To take me from slaveryT
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FLORENCEF
-
Money is everythingJ
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JACKA
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Yes everything and nothingJ
Christ Perko's rich Christ Perko runs this houseF2
The madam merely acts as figure headG2
Keeps check upon the girls and on the wineH2
She's just the editor and yet I'd ratherL
Be editor than owner I was editorL
My Perko was the owner of a pulp millI2
Incorporate through some multi millionairesJ2
And all our lesser writers were the girlsK2
Like you and RachelS
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FLORENCEF
-
But you know beforeL2
He married Rachel he was lover toC
The madam hereC2
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JACKA
-
The stories tally forL2
The pulp mill took my first assistant editorL
To wife by making him the editorL
And I was fired just as the madam hereC2
Lost out with PerkoU
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FLORENCEF
-
This is growing funnyT
Ahem I'll ask you somethingJ
As if I were a youth and you a girlM2
How were you ruined firstN2
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JACKA
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The same as youC
You ran away from school It was romanceO2
You thought you loved this flashy travelling manP2
And I I loved adventure loved the truthQ2
I wanted to destroy the force called TheyR
There is no They we're all together hereC2
And everyone must live Christ Perko tooC
The pulp mill the policeman magistrateR2
The alderman the precinct captain tooC
And you the girls myself the editorL
And all the lesser writers Here we areS2
Thrown in one integrated lot You seeT
There is no They except the terms the thoughtT2
Which ramifies and vivifies the wholeU2
So I came to the city went to workQ
Reporting for a paper Having saidG2
There is no They I've freed myself to sayR
What bitter things I choose For how they drive youC
And terrify you mock you ridicule youC
And call you cub and greenhorn send you roundV2
To courts and dirty places make you riskW2
Your body and your life and make you watchE
The rules about your writing what's tabooedV2
What names are to be cursed or to be praisedV2
What interests policies to be subservedV2
And what to undermine So I went throughC
Until I had a desk wrote editorialsX2
Now said I to myself I'm free at lastV2
But no my manager your madam mark youC
Kept eye on me for he was under watchE
Of some Christ Perko So my managerL
Blue penciled me when I touched certain subjectsY2
But as he was a just man loved me tooC
He gave me things to write where he could letV2
My conscience have full scope as you might liveZ2
In this house where you saw the man you lovedV2
And no one else though living in this hellA3
For I lived in a hell who saw around meT
Such lying hatred malice prostitutionM
And when this offer came to be an editorL
Of a great magazine I seemed to feelB3
My courage and my virtue given rewardV2
Now I should pass on poems and on storiesC3
Creations of free souls It was not soU
The poems and the stories one could seeT
Were written to be sold to please a tasteV2
Placate a prejudice keep still aliveZ2
An era dying ready for the tombD3
Already smelling And that was not allE3
Just as the madam here must make reportV2
To Perko so the magazine had to runM
To suit the pulp mill As the madam hereC2
Assistant to Christ Perko must keep friendsF3
With alderman policemen magistratesG3
So I was just a wheel in a machineH3
To keep it running with such larger wheelsI3
And by them run of policies and politicsJ3
Of State and Nation Here was I locked inK3
And given dope to keep me still lest IA2
Cry out and wake the copper who's the copperL
For such as I was If he heard me cryA2
How could he raid the magazine If he raidedV2
Where was the court to take me and the restV2
That's it where is the courtV2
-
FLORENCEF
-
It seems to meT
You're bad as I amL3
-
JACKA
-
I am worse than youC
I poison minds with thoughts they take as goodV2
I drug an era make it foul or dullS
You only sicken bodies here and thereM3
But you know how it is You have remorseN3
You fight it down hush it with sophistryM3
You think about the world about your fellowsO3
You see that everyone is selling selfP3
Little or much somehow You feed your bodyT
Try to be hearty take things as they comeQ3
You take athletics try to keep your strengthR3
As you hear music laugh drink wine and smokeS3
Are bathed and coifed to keep your beauty freshT3
And through it all the soul's and body's needsU3
The pleasures interests passions of our lifeV3
The cry that comes from somewhere Live O SoulU2
The time is passing move and claim your strengthR3
Till you forget yourself forget the boyW3
And man you were forget the dreams you hadV2
The creed you wished to live by yes what's worseX3
See dreams you had grown tawdry see your creedV2
Cracked through and crumbled like a falling houseF2
And then you say What is the differenceF
As you might ask what virtue is and whyA2
Should woman keep itV2
-
I have reached this placeY3
Save for one truth I hold to shall still hold toC
As long as I have breath The man who sees notV2
Or cares not for the Truth that keeps the worldV2
From vast disintegration is a bruteV2
And marked for a brute's death that is his hellA3
'Twas loyalty to this truth that made me loseZ3
My place as editor For when they cameA4
And tried to make me pass an articleS
To poison millions with I said I won'tV2
I won't by God I'll quit before I doC
And then they said You quit and so I quitV2
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FLORENCEF
-
And so you took to drink and came to meT
And that's the same as if I came to youC
And used you as an editor I am nothingJ
But just a poor reporter in this houseF2
But now I quitV2
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JACKA
-
Where are you going FlorenceF
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FLORENCEF
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I'm going to a village or a farmB4
Where I'll get up at six instead of twelveC4
Where I'll wear calico instead of silkD4
And where there'll be no furnace in the houseF2
And where the carpet which has kept me hereM3
And keeps you here as editor is notV2
I'm going to economize my lifeV3
By freeing it of systems which grow richE4
By using me and for the privilegeF4
Bestow these gaudy clothes and perfumed bedV2
I hate you now because I hate my lifeV3
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JACKA
-
Wait Wait a minuteV2
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FLORENCEF
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Dinah call a cabG4

Edgar Lee Masters



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