The Convent Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHI JKLMNO PQLLRLSMTMUISVWXYG ZA2B2 GC2D2E2F2GG2ML H2I2J2K2L2K2G I2MJB2 M2OLN2O2GGP2LEL SQ2R2BBI2NS2MT2L U2V2BKW2T2P2T2W2GX2P GMBY2GLN2 MOZ2GA3B3C3SGD3T2 GE3F3GE2G3H3I3J3 K3ML3GLM3N3K3O3N3P3Q 3UR3GS3T3GG3U3GV3U3P U3LLGU3W3GGX3U3SN3Y3 LQ U3Z3A4GMGGLE2B4C4L GC2GU3D4U3LE4N3GLF4U 3K2E2G4H4GK2GLU3SI4J 4Elenor Murray stole away from Nice | A |
Before her furlough ended tense to see | B |
Something of Italy and planned to go | C |
To Genoa explore the ancient town | D |
Of Christopher Columbus if she might | E |
Elude the regulation as she did | F |
In leaving Nice for Italy But for her | G |
Always the dream and always the defeat | H |
Of what she dreamed | I |
- | |
She found herself in Florence | J |
And saw the city But the weariness | K |
Of labor and her illness came again | L |
At intervals and on such days she lay | M |
And heard the hours toll wished for death and wept | N |
Being alone and sorrowful | O |
- | |
On a morning | P |
She rose and looked for galleries came at last | Q |
Into the Via Gino Capponi | L |
And saw a little church and entered in | L |
And saw amid the darkness of the church | R |
A woman kneeling knelt beside the woman | L |
And put her hand upon the woman's forehead | S |
To find that it was wrinkled strange to say | M |
A scar upon the forehead like a cross | T |
Elenor Murray rose and walked away | M |
Sobs gathering in her throat her body weak | U |
And reeled against the wall for so it seemed | I |
Against which hung thick curtains velvet red | S |
A little grimed and worn And as she leaned | V |
Against the curtains clung to them she felt | W |
A giving parted them and found a door | X |
Pushed on the door which yielded opened it | Y |
And saw a yard before her | G |
- | |
It was walled | Z |
A garden of old urns and ancient growths | A2 |
Some flowering plants around the wall | B2 |
- | |
Before her | G |
And in the garden's center stood a statue | C2 |
With outstretched arms the Virgin without the child | D2 |
And suddenly on Elenor Murray came | E2 |
Great sorrow like a madness seeing there | F2 |
The pitying Virgin stretching arms to her | G |
And so she ran along the pebbly walk | G2 |
Fell fainting at the Virgin's feet and lay | M |
Unconscious in the garden | L |
- | |
When she woke | H2 |
Two nuns were standing by and one was dressed | I2 |
In purest white and held within her hands | J2 |
A tray of gold and on the tray of gold | K2 |
There was a glass of wine and in a cup | L2 |
Some broth of beef and on a plate of gold | K2 |
A wafer | G |
- | |
And the other nun was dressed | I2 |
In purest white but over her shoulders lay | M |
A cape of blue blue as the sky of Florence | J |
Above the garden wall | B2 |
- | |
Then as she saw | M2 |
The nuns before her in the interval | O |
Of gathering thought re limning life again | L |
From wonder if she had not died and these | N2 |
Were guides or ministrants of another world | O2 |
The nun with cape of blue to Elenor | G |
Said Drink this wine this broth and Elenor | G |
Drank and arose being lifted up by them | P2 |
And taken through the convent door and given | L |
A little room as white and clean as light | E |
And a bed of snowy linen | L |
- | |
Then they said | S |
This is the Convent where we send up prayers | Q2 |
Prayers for the souls who do not pray for self | R2 |
Rest child and be at peace and if there be | B |
Friends you would tell that you are here then we | B |
Will send the word for you sleep now and rest | I2 |
And listening to their voices Elenor slept | N |
And when she woke a nurse was at her side | S2 |
And food was served her broths and fruit Each day | M |
A doctor came to tell her all was well | T2 |
And health would soon return | L |
- | |
So for a month | U2 |
Elenor Murray lay and heard the bells | V2 |
And breathed the fragrance of the flowering city | B |
That floated through her window in the stillness | K |
Of the convent dreamed and said to self This place | W2 |
Is good to die in who is there to tell | T2 |
That I am here There was no one To them | P2 |
She gave her name but said Till I am well | T2 |
Let me remain and if I die some place | W2 |
Must be for me for burial put me there | G |
And if I live to go again to France | X2 |
And join my unit let me have a writing | P |
That I did not desert was stricken here | G |
And could not leave For while I stole away | M |
From Nice to get a glimpse of Italy | B |
I might have done so in my furlough time | Y2 |
And not stayed over it And to Elenor | G |
The nuns said We will help you but for now | L |
Rest and put by anxieties | N2 |
- | |
On a day | M |
Elenor Murray made confessional | O |
And to the nuns told bit by bit her life | Z2 |
Her childhood schooling travels work in the war | G |
What fate had followed her what sufferings | A3 |
And Sister Mary she who saw her first | B3 |
And held the tray of gold with wine and broth | C3 |
Sat often with her read to her and said | S |
Letters will go ahead of you to clear | G |
Your absence over time be not afraid | D3 |
All will be well | T2 |
- | |
And so when Elenor Murray | G |
Arose to leave she found all things prepared | E3 |
A cab to take her to the train compartments | F3 |
Reserved for her from place to place her fare | G |
And tickets paid for till at last she came | E2 |
To Brest and joined her unit in three days | G3 |
Looked at the rolling waters as the ship | H3 |
Drove to America such a coming home | I3 |
To what and whom | J3 |
- | |
- | |
- | |
Loveridge Chase returned and brought the letters | K3 |
To Coroner Merival from New York That day | M |
The chemical analysis was finished showed | L3 |
No ricin and no poison Elenor Murray | G |
Died how What were the circumstances Then | L |
When Coroner Merival broke the seals of wax | M3 |
And cut the twine that bound the package found | N3 |
The man was Barrett Bays who wrote the letters | K3 |
There were a hundred then he cast about | O3 |
To lay his hands on Barrett Bays and found | N3 |
That Barrett Bays lived in Chicago taught | P3 |
Was a professor aged some forty years | Q3 |
Why did this Barrett Bays emerge not speak | U |
Come forward Was it simply to conceal | R3 |
A passion written in these letters here | G |
For his sake or his wife's Or was it guilt | S3 |
For some complicity in Elenor's death | T3 |
And on this day the coroner had a letter | G |
From Margery Camp which said Where's Barrett Bays | G3 |
Why have you not arrested him He knows | U3 |
Something perhaps about the death of Elenor | G |
So Coroner Merival sent process forth | V3 |
To bring in Barrett Bays non est inventus | U3 |
He had not visited his place of teaching | P |
Been seen in haunts accustomed for some days | U3 |
Not since the death of Elenor Murray none | L |
Knew where to find him and none seemed to know | L |
What lay between this man and Elenor Murray | G |
This was the more suspicious Then the Times | U3 |
Made headlines of the letters published some | W3 |
Wherein this Barrett Bays had written Elenor | G |
You are my hope in life my morning star | G |
My love at last my all From coast to coast | X3 |
The word was flashed about this Barrett Bays | U3 |
And Mrs Bays at Martha's Vineyard read | S |
Turned up her nose continued on the round | N3 |
Of gaieties but to a chum relieved | Y3 |
Her loathing with these words Another woman | L |
He's soiled himself at last | Q |
- | |
And Barrett Bays | U3 |
Who roughed it in the Adirondacks hoped | Z3 |
The inquest's end would leave him undisclosed | A4 |
In Elenor Murray's life though wracked with fear | G |
About the letters in the vault some day | M |
To be unearthed or taken it might be | G |
By Margery Camp for uses sinister | G |
He reading that the letters had been given | L |
To Coroner Merival and seeing his name | E2 |
Printed in every sheet saw no escape | B4 |
In any nook of earth returned and walked | C4 |
In Merival's office trembling white as snow | L |
- | |
So Barrett Bays was sworn before the jury | G |
Sat and replied to questions said he knew | C2 |
Elenor Murray in the fall before | G |
She went to France saw much of her for weeks | U3 |
Had written her these letters before she left | D4 |
Had followed her in the war and gone to France | U3 |
Had seen her for some days in Paris when | L |
She had a furlough Had come back and parted | E4 |
With Elenor Murray broken with her found | N3 |
A cause for crushing out his love for her | G |
Came back to win forgetfulness had written | L |
No word to her since leaving Paris let | F4 |
Her letters lie unanswered brought her letters | U3 |
And gave them to the coroner Then he told | K2 |
Of the day before her death and how she came | E2 |
By motor to Chicago with her aunt | G4 |
Named Irma Leese and telephoned him begged | H4 |
An hour for talk Come meet me by the river | G |
She had said And so went to meet her Then he told | K2 |
Why he relented after he had left her | G |
In Paris with no word beside this one | L |
This is the end Now he was curious | U3 |
To know what she would say what could be said | S |
Beyond what she had written so he went | I4 |
Out of a curious but hardened heart | J4 |
Edgar Lee Masters
(1)
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