Irma Leese Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFG HIJKCLLC MNOPQFLDRS TUQVWXDYZCA2B2C2LCD2 D2E2E2A2QXE2F2G2ZH2 KQJQGI2J2Q ZE2K2YD L2M2DH2N2ZZO2P2NQQ2R 2S2DT2H2U2V2W2X2JY2Z QZZ2 Y2A3C2B3QC3N L2DD3E3ZF3Q G3D3H3I3E3J3K3Z2E3ZL 3 DM3KZM3N2N3KE2 Y2QO3TP3PQ3R3ZS3ZY2H 2PR2T3U3V3W3L2X3ZY3Z 3A4G3G3B4C4ZZA3LQQE2 Y2D4E2E2E4E3F4G4H4Y2 ZI4B4ZJ4ZE2 K4KL4M4ZN4O4 N4ZJ3XQ3ZK4H3P4LQ4Z N4E2ZB4KEDR4ZS4ZZ K3E2D2B4QD2ZG3E3ZJ2Y 2N2ZY2J3Q QE3ZT4Y2KU4ZV4 W4ZX4ZY4R2Z4E3E2R2 A2ZA2QA2 QM3ZB4Elenor Murray landing in New York | A |
After a weary voyage none too well | B |
Staid in the city for a week and then | C |
Upon a telegram from Irma Leese | D |
Born Irma Fouche her aunt who lived alone | E |
This summer in the Fouche house near LeRoy | F |
Came west to visit Irma Leese and rest | G |
- | |
For Elenor Murray had not been herself | H |
Since that hard spring when in the hospital | I |
Caring for soldiers stricken with the flu | J |
She took bronchitis after weeks in bed | K |
Rose weak and shaky crept to health again | C |
Through egg nogs easy strolls about Bordeaux | L |
And later went to Nice upon a furlough | L |
To get her strength again | C |
- | |
But while she saw | M |
Her vital flame burn brightly as of old | N |
On favored days yet for the rest the flame | O |
Sputtered or sank a little So she thought | P |
How good it might be to go west and stroll | Q |
About the lovely country of LeRoy | F |
And hear the whispering cedars by a window | L |
In the Fouche mansion where this Irma Leese | D |
Her aunt was summering So she telegraphed | R |
And being welcomed went | S |
- | |
This stately house | T |
Built sixty years before by Arthur Fouche | U |
A brick home with a mansard roof an oriel | Q |
That looked between the cedars and a porch | V |
With great Ionic columns from the street | W |
Stood distantly amid ten acres of lawn | X |
Trees flower plots belonged to Irma Leese | D |
Who had reclaimed it from a chiropractor | Y |
To cleanse the name of Fouche from that indignity | Z |
And bring it in the family again | C |
Since she had spent her girlhood womanhood | A2 |
To twenty years amid its twenty rooms | B2 |
For Irma Leese at twenty years had married | C2 |
And found herself at twenty five a widow | L |
With money left her then had tried again | C |
And after years dissolved the second pact | D2 |
And made a settlement was rich in fact | D2 |
Now forty two Five years before had come | E2 |
And found the house she loved a sanitarium | E2 |
A chiropractor's home And as she stood | A2 |
Beside the fence and saw the oriel | Q |
Remembered all her happiness on this lawn | X |
With brothers and with sisters one of whom | E2 |
Was Elenor Murray's mother then she willed | F2 |
To buy the place and spend some summers here | G2 |
And here she was the summer Elenor Murray | Z |
Returned from France | H2 |
- | |
And Irma Leese had said | K |
Here is your room it has the oriel | Q |
And there's the river and the hills for you | J |
Have breakfast in your room what hour you will | Q |
Rise when you will We'll drive and walk and rest | G |
Run to Chicago when we have a mind | I2 |
I have a splendid chauffeur now and maids | J2 |
You must grow strong and well | Q |
- | |
And Elenor Murray | Z |
Gasped out her happiness for the pretty room | E2 |
And stood and viewed the river and the hills | K2 |
And wept a little on the gentle shoulder | Y |
Of Irma Leese | D |
- | |
And so the days had passed | L2 |
Of walking driving resting many talks | M2 |
For Elenor Murray spoke to Irma Leese | D |
Of tragic and of rapturous days in France | H2 |
And Irma Leese though she had lived full years | N2 |
Had scarcely lived as much as Elenor Murray | Z |
And could not hear enough from Elenor Murray | Z |
Of the war and France but mostly she would urge | O2 |
Her niece to tell of what affairs of love | P2 |
Had come to her And Elenor Murray told | N |
Of Gregory Wenner save she did not tell | Q |
The final secret with a gesture touched | Q2 |
The story off by saying It was hopeless | R2 |
I went into religion to forget | S2 |
But on a day she said to Irma Leese | D |
I almost met my fate at Nice then sketched | T2 |
A hurried picture of a brief romance | H2 |
But Elenor Murray told her nothing else | U2 |
Of loves or men But all the while the aunt | V2 |
Weighed Elenor Murray on a day exclaimed | W2 |
I see myself in you and you are like | X2 |
Your Aunt Corinne who died in ninety two | J |
I'll tell you all about your Aunt Corinne | Y2 |
Some day when we are talking but I see | Z |
You have the Fouche blood we are lovers all | Q |
Your mother is a lover Elenor | Z |
If you would know it | Z2 |
- | |
O your Aunt Corinne | Y2 |
She was most beautiful but unfortunate | A3 |
Her husband was past sixty when she married | C2 |
And she was thirty two He was distinguished | B3 |
Had money and all that but youth is all | Q |
Is everything for love and she was young | C3 |
And he was old | N |
- | |
A week or two had passed | L2 |
Since Elenor Murray came to Irma Leese | D |
When on a morning fire broke from the eaves | D3 |
And menaced all the house but maids and gardeners | E3 |
With buckets saved the house while Elenor Murray | Z |
And Irma Leese dipped water from the barrels | F3 |
That stood along the ell | Q |
- | |
A week from that | G3 |
A carpenter was working at the eaves | D3 |
Along the ell and in the garret knelt | H3 |
To pry up boards and patch When as he pried | I3 |
A board up he beheld between the rafters | E3 |
A package of old letters stained and frayed | J3 |
Tied with a little ribbon almost dust | K3 |
And when he went down stairs delivered it | Z2 |
To Irma Leese and said Here are some letters | E3 |
I found up in the garret under the floor | Z |
I pried up in my work | L3 |
- | |
Then Irma Leese | D |
Looked at the letters saw her sister's hand | M3 |
Corinne's upon the letters opened read | K |
And saw the story which she knew before | Z |
Brought back in this uncanny way the hand | M3 |
Which wrote the letters six and twenty years | N2 |
Turned back to dust And when her niece came in | N3 |
She showed the letters said I'll let you read | K |
I'll tell you all about them | E2 |
- | |
When Corinne | Y2 |
Was nineteen very beautiful and vital | Q |
Red cheeked a dancer bubbling like new wine | O3 |
A catch as you may know you see this house | T |
Was full of laughter then so many children | P3 |
We had our parties too and young men thought | P |
Each one of us would have a dowry splendid | Q3 |
A young man from Chicago came along | R3 |
A lawyer there but lately come from Pittsburgh | Z |
To practice win his way I knew this man | S3 |
He was a handsome dog with curly hair | Z |
Blue eyes and sturdy figure Well Corinne | Y2 |
Quite lost her heart He came here to a dance | H2 |
And so the game commenced And father thought | P |
The fellow was not right but all of us | R2 |
Your mother and myself said yes he is | T3 |
And we conspired to help Corinne and smooth | U3 |
The path of confidence But later on | V3 |
Corinne was not so buoyant would not talk | W3 |
With me your mother freely Then at last | L2 |
Her eyes were sometimes red we knew she wept | X3 |
And then Corinne was sent away Well here | Z |
You'll guess the rest Her health was breaking down | Y3 |
That's true enough the world could think its thoughts | Z3 |
And say his love grew cold or she found out | A4 |
The black leg that he was and he was that | G3 |
But Elenor the truth was more than that | G3 |
Corinne had been betrayed she went away | B4 |
To right herself these letters prove the case | C4 |
Which all the gossips busy as they were | Z |
Could not make out The paper at LeRoy | Z |
Had printed that she went to pay a visit | A3 |
To relatives in the east Three months or so | L |
She came back well and rosy But meanwhile | Q |
Your grandfather had paid this shabby scoundrel | Q |
A sum of money I forget the sum | E2 |
To get these letters of your Aunt Corinne | Y2 |
These letters here This matter leaked of course | D4 |
And then we let the story take this form | E2 |
And moulded it a little to this form | E2 |
The fellow was a scoundrel this was proved | E4 |
When he took money to return her letters | E3 |
They were love letters they had been engaged | F4 |
She thought him worthy found herself deceived | G4 |
Proved too by taking money when at first | H4 |
He looked with honorable eyes to young Corinne | Y2 |
And won her trust And so Corinne lived here | Z |
Ten years or more at thirty married the judge | I4 |
Her senior thirty years and went away | B4 |
She bore a child and died look Elenor | Z |
Here are the letters which she took and nailed | J4 |
Beneath the garret floor We'll read them through | Z |
And then I'll burn them | E2 |
- | |
Irma Leese rose up | K4 |
And put the letters in her desk and said | K |
Let's ride along the river So they rode | L4 |
But as they rode the day being clear and mild | M4 |
The fancy took them to Chicago where | Z |
They lunched and spent the afternoon returning | N4 |
At ten o'clock that night | O4 |
- | |
And the next morning | N4 |
When Irma Leese expected Elenor | Z |
To rise and join her asked for her a maid | J3 |
Told Irma Leese that Elenor had gone | X |
To walk somewhere And all that day she waited | Q3 |
But as night came she fancied Elenor | Z |
Had gone to see her mother once rose up | K4 |
To telephone then stopped because she felt | H3 |
Elenor might have plans she would not wish | P4 |
Her mother to get wind of let it go | L |
But when night came she wondered fell asleep | Q4 |
With wondering and worry | Z |
- | |
But next morning | N4 |
As she was waiting for the car to come | E2 |
To motor to LeRoy and see her sister | Z |
Elenor's mother in a casual way | B4 |
Learn if her niece was there and waiting read | K |
The letters of Corinne the telephone | E |
Rang in an ominous way and Irma Leese | D |
Sprang up to answer got the tragic word | R4 |
Of Elenor Murray found beside the river | Z |
Left all the letters spilled upon her desk | S4 |
And motored to the river to LeRoy | Z |
Where Coroner Merival took the body | Z |
- | |
Just | K3 |
As Irma Leese departed in the room | E2 |
A sullen maid revengeful for the fact | D2 |
She was discharged was leaving in a day | B4 |
Entered and saw the letters read a little | Q |
And gathered them went to her room and packed | D2 |
Her telescope and left went to LeRoy | Z |
And gave a letter to this one and that | G3 |
Until the servant maids and carpenters | E3 |
And some lubricous fellows at LeRoy | Z |
Who made companions of these serving maids | J2 |
Had each a letter of the dead Corinne | Y2 |
Which showed at last after some twenty years | N2 |
Of silence and oblivion to LeRoy | Z |
With memory to refresh that poor Corinne | Y2 |
Had given her love herself had been betrayed | J3 |
Abandoned by a scoundrel | Q |
- | |
Merival | Q |
The Coroner when told about the letters | E3 |
For soon the tongues were wagging in LeRoy | Z |
Went here and there to find them till he learned | T4 |
What quality of love the dead Corinne | Y2 |
Had given to this man Then shook his head | K |
Resolved to see if he could not unearth | U4 |
In Elenor Murray's life some faithless lover | Z |
Who sought her death | V4 |
- | |
The letters' riffle crawled | W4 |
Through shadows of the waters of LeRoy | Z |
Until it looked a snake was seen as such | X4 |
In Tokio by Franklin Hollister | Z |
The son of dead Corinne it seemed a snake | Y4 |
He heard the coroner through neglect or malice | R2 |
Had let the letters scatter not the truth | Z4 |
The coroner had gathered up the letters | E3 |
Befriending Irma Leese she got them back | |
Through Merival The riffle's just the same | E2 |
And hence this man in Tokio is crazed | |
For shame and fear for fear the girl he loves | |
Will hear his mother's story and break off | |
Her marriage promise | R2 |
- | |
So in reckless rage | |
He posts a letter off to Lawyer Hood | A2 |
Chicago Illinois the coroner | Z |
Gets all the story through this Lawyer Hood | A2 |
Long after Elenor's inquest is at end | |
Meantime he cools is wiser thinks it bad | |
To stir the scandal with a suit at law | Q |
And then when cooled he hears from Lawyer Hood | A2 |
Who tells him what the truth is So it ends | |
- | |
- | |
- | |
These letters and the greenish wave that coiled | |
At Tokio is beyond the coroner's eye | |
Fixed on the water where the pebble fell | Q |
This death of Elenor circles close at hand | M3 |
Engage his interest Now he seeks to learn | |
About her training and religious life | |
And hears of Miriam Fay a friend he thinks | |
And confidant of her religious life | |
Head woman of the school where Elenor | Z |
Learned chemistry materia medica | |
Anatomy to fit her for the work | |
Of nursing And he writes this Miriam Fay | B4 |
And Miriam Fay responds The letter comes | |
Before the jury Here is what she wrote |
Edgar Lee Masters
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Irma Leese poem by Edgar Lee Masters
Best Poems of Edgar Lee Masters