Miriam Fay's Letter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIFJCKLMANOPQ RSRTUPV FJWXKYZKA2B2C2 D2OE2LYHF2G2H2I2J2K2 LOL2AM2PN2O2OLP2Q2H2 R2 AS2T2U2KV2W2X2Y2Z2Z2 A3LB3AA2MGWC3D3RUE3A L F3G3H3I3LJ3H3K3L3Y2M 3LZ2KRN3O3P3Q3Q3I2R3 R2S3L T3U3ZV3W3X3Y3Z3KPA4B 4FIGHC4L2D4FE4 Y3F4G4H4LFKI4D4TKJ4K 4KL4M4V2N4O4P4V2I2VQ 4R4S4H4T4S4U2U4V4D3J UOTA2W4X4J2I2 KI3A3AY4KZ4Y2Z2KL3OZ 2Elenor Murray asked to go in training | A |
And came to see me but the school was full | B |
We could not take her Then she asked to stand | C |
Upon a list and wait I put her off | D |
She came back and she came back till at last | E |
I took her application then she came | F |
And pushed herself and asked when she could come | G |
And start to train At last I laughed and said | H |
Well come to morrow I had never seen | I |
Such eagerness persistence So she came | F |
She tried to make a friend of me perhaps | J |
Since it was best I being in command | C |
But anyway she wooed me tried to please me | K |
And spite of everything I grew to love her | L |
Though I distrusted her But yet again | M |
I had belief in her best self though doubting | A |
The girl somehow But when I learned the girl | N |
Had never had religious discipline | O |
Her father without faith her mother too | P |
Her want of moral sense I understood | Q |
She lacked stability of spirit to day | R |
She would be one thing something else the next | S |
Shot up in fire which failed and died away | R |
And I began to see her fraternize | T |
With girls who had her traits too full of life | U |
To be what they should be unstable too | P |
Much like herself | V |
- | |
Not long before she came | F |
Into the training school six months perhaps | J |
She had some tragedy I don't know what | W |
Had been quite ill in body and in mind | X |
When she went into training I could see | K |
Her purpose to wear down herself forget | Y |
In weariness of body something lived | Z |
She was alert and dutiful and sunny | K |
Kept all the rules was studious led the class | A2 |
Excelled I think in studies of the nerves | B2 |
The mind grown sick | C2 |
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As we grew better friends | D2 |
More intimate she talked about religion | O |
And sacred subjects asked about the church | E2 |
I gave her books to read encouraged her | L |
Asked her to make her peace with God and set | Y |
Her feet in pious paths At last she said | H |
She wished to be baptized confirmed I made | F2 |
The plans for her she was baptized confirmed | G2 |
Went to confessional and seemed renewed | H2 |
In spirit by conversion For at once | I2 |
Her zeal was like a flame at Pentecost | J2 |
She almost took the veil but missing that | K2 |
She followed out the discipline to the letter | L |
Kept all the feast days went to mass communion | O |
Did works of charity indeed I think | L2 |
She spent her spare hours all in all at sewing | A |
There with the sisters for the poor She had | M2 |
When she came to me jewelry of value | P |
A diamond solitaire some other things | N2 |
I missed them and she said she sold them gave | O2 |
The money to a home for friendless children | O |
And I remember when she said her father | L |
Had wronged misvalued her but now her love | P2 |
Made more abundant by the love of Christ | Q2 |
Had brought her to forgiveness All her mood | H2 |
Was of humility and sacrifice | R2 |
- | |
One time I saw her at the convent sitting | A |
Upon a foot stool at the gracious feet | S2 |
Of the Mother Superior sewing for the poor | T2 |
Hair parted in the middle curls combed out | U2 |
Then was it that I missed her jewelry | K |
She looked just like a poor maid humble patient | V2 |
Head bent above her sewing eyes averted | W2 |
The room was silent with religious thought | X2 |
I loved her then and pitied her But now | Y2 |
I think she had that in her which at times | Z2 |
Made her a flagellant at other times | Z2 |
A rioter She used the church to drag | A3 |
Her life from something took it for a bladder | L |
To float her soul when it was perilled First | B3 |
She did not sell her jewelry this ring | A |
Too brilliant for forgetting or to pass | A2 |
Unnoticed when she wore it showed again | M |
Upon her finger after she had come | G |
Out of her training was a graduate | W |
She had a faculty for getting in | C3 |
Where elegance and riches were She went | D3 |
Among the great ones when she found a way | R |
And traveled with them where she learned the life | U |
Of notables aristocrats It was there | E3 |
Or when from duty free and feasting gadding | A |
The ring showed on her finger | L |
- | |
In two years | F3 |
She dropped the church New friends made in the school | G3 |
New interests work that took her energies | H3 |
And this religious flare had cured her up | I3 |
Of what was killing her when first I knew her | L |
There was another thing that drew her back | J3 |
To flesh away from spirit She saw bodies | H3 |
And handled bodies as a nurse forgot | K3 |
The body is the spirit's temple fell | L3 |
To some materialism of thought And now | Y2 |
Avoided me was much away of course | M3 |
On duty here and there I tried to hold her | L |
Protect and guide her wrote to her at times | Z2 |
To make confession take communion She | K |
Ignored these letters But I heard her say | R |
The body was as natural as the soul | N3 |
And just as natural its desires She kept | O3 |
Out of the wreck of faith one thing alone | P3 |
If she kept that She could endure to hear | Q3 |
God's name profaned but would not stand to hear | Q3 |
The Savior's spoken in irreverence | I2 |
She was afraid no doubt Or to be just | R3 |
The tender love of Christ his sacrifice | R2 |
Perhaps had won her wholly let it go | S3 |
I'll say that much for her | L |
- | |
Why am I harsh | T3 |
Because I saw the good in her all streaked | U3 |
With so much evil evil known and lived | Z |
In knowledge of it clung to none the less | V3 |
Unstable as water how could she succeed | W3 |
Untruthful how could confidence be hers | X3 |
I sometimes think she joined the church to mask | Y3 |
A secret life renewed forgiven sins | Z3 |
After she cloaked herself with piety | K |
Perhaps at least when she saw what to do | P |
And how to do it using these detours | A4 |
Of piety to throw us off who else | B4 |
Had seen what doors she entered whence she came | F |
She wronged the church I think made it a screen | I |
To stand behind for kisses to look from | G |
Inviting kisses Then as I have said | H |
She took materialism from her work | C4 |
And so renewed her sins She drank I think | L2 |
And smoked and feasted but as for the rest | D4 |
The smoke obscured the flame but there is flame | F |
Or fire at least where there is smoke | E4 |
- | |
You ask | Y3 |
What took her to the war Why only this | F4 |
Adventure chance of marriage amorous conquests | G4 |
The girl was mad for men although I saw | H4 |
Her smoke obscured the flame I never saw her | L |
Except with robins far too tame or lame | F |
To interest her and robins prove to me | K |
The hawk is somewhere waits for night to join | I4 |
His playmate when the robins are at rest | D4 |
You see the girl has madness in her flies | T |
From exaltation up to ecstasy | K |
Feeds on emotion never has enough | J4 |
Tries all things states of spirit even beliefs | K4 |
Passes from lust I think to celibacy | K |
Feasts fasts eats starves has raptures then inflicts | L4 |
The whip upon her back is penitent | M4 |
Then proud is humble then is arrogant | V2 |
Looks down demurely stares you out of face | N4 |
But runs the world around For in point of fact | O4 |
She traveled much knew cities and their ways | P4 |
And when I used to see her at the convent | V2 |
So meek clothed like a sewing maid at once | I2 |
The pictures that she showed me of herself | V |
At seaside places or on boulevards | Q4 |
Her beauty clothed in linen or in silk | R4 |
Came back to mind and I would resurrect | S4 |
The fragments of our talks in which I saw | H4 |
How she knew foods and drinks and restaurants | T4 |
And fashionable shops This girl could fool the elect | S4 |
She fooled me for a time I found her out | U2 |
Did she aspire Perhaps if you believe | U4 |
It's aspiration to seek out the rich | V4 |
And ape them Not for me Of course she went | D3 |
To get adventure in the war perhaps | J |
She got too much But as to waste of life | U |
She might have been a quiet noble woman | O |
Keeping her place in life not trying to rise | T |
Out of her class too useless in her class | A2 |
Making herself all worthy serviceable | W4 |
You'll find 'twas pride that slew her Very like | X4 |
She found a rich man tried to hold him lost | J2 |
Her honor and her life in consequence | I2 |
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- | |
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When Merival showed this letter to the jury | K |
Marion the juryman spoke up | I3 |
You know that type of woman saintly hag | A3 |
I wouldn't take her word about a thing | A |
By way of inference or analysis | Y4 |
They had some trouble she and Elenor | K |
You may be sure And Merival replied | Z4 |
Take it for what it's worth I leave you now | Y2 |
To see the man who owns the Daily Times | Z2 |
He's turned upon our inquest did you see | K |
The jab he gives me I can jab as well | L3 |
So Merival went out and took with him | |
A riffle in the waters of circumstance | |
Set up by Elenor Murray's death to one | O |
Remote secure in greatness to the man | |
Who ran the Times | Z2 |
Edgar Lee Masters
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