The Loop Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBACDCEFBFBBBBBBBGG GGBBBHBHBBBBBB BBBBBBIIBBBBBBJJKLLB MMBNNNN BBOOPBBPBQMBOMBBBBMB MBOOOMBMBBBKBKORSROS BMBMBSBTSMTMMM GBGBOUOOVOSBVNBNOBBW BWOBOBBOOBOBBBBBBBSS XBXBYBYBONNOGGBBZZBG BGGOGGOMMMGA2BBA2SSB OOBNNB2B2 OO| From State street bridge a snow white glimpse of sea | A |
| Beyond the river walled in by red buildings | B |
| O'ertopped by masts that take the sunset's gildings | B |
| Roped to the wharf till spring shall set them free | A |
| Great floes make known how swift the river's current | C |
| Out of the north sky blows a cutting wind | D |
| Smoke from the stacks and engines in a torrent | C |
| Whirls downward by the eddying breezes thinned | E |
| Enskyed are sign boards advertising soap | F |
| Tobacco coal transcontinental trains | B |
| A tug is whistling straining at a rope | F |
| Fixed to a dredge with derricks scoops and cranes | B |
| Down in the loop the blue gray air enshrouds | B |
| As with a cyclops' cape the man made hills | B |
| And towers of granite where the city crowds | B |
| Above the din a copper's whistle shrills | B |
| There is a smell of coffee and of spices | B |
| We near the market place of trade's devices | B |
| Blue smoke from out a roasting room is pouring | G |
| A rooster crows geese cackle men are bawling | G |
| Whips crack trucks creak it is the place of storing | G |
| And drawing out and loading up and hauling | G |
| Fruit vegetables and fowls and steaks and hams | B |
| Oysters and lobsters fish and crabs and clams | B |
| And near at hand are restaurants and bars | B |
| Hotels with rooms at fifty cents a day | H |
| Beer tunnels pool rooms places where cigars | B |
| And cigarettes their window signs display | H |
| Mixed in with letterings of printed tags | B |
| Twine boxes cartels sacks and leather bags | B |
| Wigs telescopes eyeglasses ladies' tresses | B |
| Or those who manicure or fashion dresses | B |
| Or sell us putters tennis balls or brassies | B |
| Make shoes pull teeth or fit the eye with glasses | B |
| - | |
| And now the rows of windows showing laces | B |
| Silks draperies and furs and costly vases | B |
| Watches and mirrors silver cups and mugs | B |
| Emeralds diamonds Indian Persian rugs | B |
| Hats velvets silver buckles ostrich plumes | B |
| Drugs violet water powder and perfumes | B |
| Here is a monstrous winking eye beneath | I |
| A showcase by an entrance full of teeth | I |
| Here rubber coats umbrellas mackintoshes | B |
| Hoods rubber boots and arctics and galoshes | B |
| Here is half a block of overcoats | B |
| In this bleak time of snow and slender throats | B |
| Then windows of fine linen snakewood canes | B |
| Scarfs opera hats in use where fashion reigns | B |
| As when the hive swarms so the crowded street | J |
| Roars to the shuffling of innumerable feet | J |
| Skyscrapers soar above them they go by | K |
| As bees crawl little scales upon the skin | L |
| Of a great dragon winding out and in | L |
| Above them hangs a tangled tree of signs | B |
| Suspended or uplifted like d dalian | M |
| Hieroglyphics when the saturnalian | M |
| Night commences and their racing lines | B |
| Run fire of blue and yellow in a puzzle | N |
| Bewildering to the eyes of those who guzzle | N |
| And gourmandize and stroll and seek the bubble | N |
| Of happiness to put away their trouble | N |
| - | |
| Around the loop the elevated crawls | B |
| And giant shadows sink against the walls | B |
| Where ten to twenty stories strive to hold | O |
| The pale refraction of the sunset's gold | O |
| Slop underfoot we pass beneath the loop | P |
| The crowd is uglier poorer there are smells | B |
| As from the depths of unsuspected hells | B |
| And from a groggery where beer and soup | P |
| Are sold for five cents to the thieves and bums | B |
| Here now are huge cartoons in red and blue | Q |
| Of obese women and of skeleton men | M |
| Egyptian dancers twined with monstrous snakes | B |
| Before the door a turbaned lithe Hindoo | O |
| A bagpipe shrilling underneath a den | M |
| Of opium whence a man with hand that shakes | B |
| Rolling a cigarette so palely comes | B |
| The clang of car bells and the beat of drums | B |
| Draft horses clamping with their steel shod hoofs | B |
| The buildings have grown small and black and worn | M |
| The sky is more beholden o'er the roofs | B |
| A flock of pigeons soars with dresses torn | M |
| And yellow faces labor women pass | B |
| Some Chinese gabbling and there buying fruit | O |
| Stands a fair girl who is a late recruit | O |
| To those poor women slain each year by lust | O |
| 'Tis evening now and trade will soon begin | M |
| The family entrance beckons for a glass | B |
| Of hopeful mockery the piano's din | M |
| Into the street with sounds of rasping wires | B |
| Filters and near a pawner's window shows | B |
| Pistols accordions and luring buyers | B |
| A Jew stands mumbling to the passer by | K |
| Of jewelry and watches and old clothes | B |
| A limousine gleams quickly with a cry | K |
| A legless man fastened upon a board | O |
| With casters 'neath it by a sudden shove | R |
| Darts out of danger And upon the corner | S |
| A lassie tells a man that God is love | R |
| Holding a tambourine with its copper hoard | O |
| To be augmented by the drunken scorner | S |
| A woman with no eyeballs in her sockets | B |
| Plays Rock of Ages on a wheezy organ | M |
| A newsboy with cold hands thrust in his pockets | B |
| Cries All about the will of Pierpont Morgan | M |
| The roofline of the street now sinks and dwindles | B |
| The windows are begrimed with dust and beer | S |
| A child half clothed with legs as thin as spindles | B |
| Carries a basket with some bits of coal | T |
| Between lace curtains eyes of yellow leer | S |
| The cheeks splotched with white places like the skin | M |
| Inside an eggshell destitute of soul | T |
| One sees a brass lamp oozing kerosene | M |
| Upon a stand whereon her elbows lean | M |
| Lighted it soon will welcome negroes in | M |
| - | |
| The railroad tracks are near We almost choke | G |
| From filth whirled from the street and stinging vapors | B |
| Great engines vomit gas and heavy smoke | G |
| Upon a north wind driving tattered papers | B |
| Dry dung and dust and refuse down the street | O |
| A circumambient roar as of a wheel | U |
| Whirring far off a monster's heart whose beat | O |
| Is full of murmurs comes as we retreat | O |
| Towards Twenty second And a man with jaw | V |
| Set like a tiger's with a dirty beard | O |
| Skulks toward the loop with heavy wrists red raw | S |
| Glowing above his pockets where his hands | B |
| Pushed tensely round his hips the coat tails draw | V |
| And show what seems a slender piece of metal | N |
| In his hip pocket On these barren strands | B |
| He waits for midnight for old scores to settle | N |
| Against his ancient foe society | O |
| Who keeps the soup house and who builds the jails | B |
| Switchmen and firemen with their dinner pails | B |
| Go by him homeward and he wonders if | W |
| These fellows know a hundred thousand workers | B |
| Walk up and down the city's highways stiff | W |
| From cold and hunger doomed to poverty | O |
| As wretched as the thieves and crooks and shirkers | B |
| He scurries to the lake front loiters past | O |
| The windows of wax lights with scarlet shades | B |
| Where smiling diners back of ambuscades | B |
| Of silk and velvet hear not winter's blast | O |
| Blowing across the lake He has a thought | O |
| Of Michigan where once at picking berries | B |
| He spent a summer then his eye is caught | O |
| At Randolph street by written light which tarries | B |
| Then like a film runs into sentences | B |
| He sees it all as from a black abyss | B |
| Taxis with skid chains rattle limousines | B |
| Draw up to awnings for a space he catches | B |
| A scent of musk or violets sees the patches | B |
| On powdered cheeks of furred and jeweled queens | B |
| The color round his cruel mouth grows whiter | S |
| He thrusts his coarse hands in his pockets tighter | S |
| He is a thief he knows he is a thief | X |
| He is a thief found out and as he knows | B |
| The whole loop is a kingdom held in fief | X |
| By men who work with laws instead of blows | B |
| From sling shots so he curses under breath | Y |
| The money and the invisible hand that owns | B |
| From year to year in spite of change and death | Y |
| The wires for the lights and telephones | B |
| The railways on the streets and overhead | O |
| The railways and beneath the winding tunnel | N |
| Which crooks stole from the city for a runnel | N |
| To drain her nickels and the pipes of lead | O |
| Which carry gas wrapped round us like a snake | G |
| And round the courts whose grip no court can break | G |
| He curses bitterly all those who rise | B |
| And rule by just the spirit which he plies | B |
| Coarsely against the world's great store of wealth | Z |
| Bankers and usurers and cliques whose stealth | Z |
| Works witchcraft through the market and the press | B |
| And hires editors or owns the stock | G |
| Controlling papers playing with finesse | B |
| The city's thinking that they may unlock | G |
| Treasures and powers like burglars in the dark | G |
| And thinking thus and cursing through a flurry | O |
| Of sudden snow he hastens on to Clark | G |
| In a cheap room there is an eye to mark | G |
| His coming and be glad His footsteps hurry | O |
| She will have money earned this afternoon | M |
| Through men who took her from a near saloon | M |
| Wherein she sits at table to dragoon | M |
| Roughnecks or simpletons upon a lark | G |
| Within a little hall a fierce eyed youth | A2 |
| Rants of the burdens on the people's backs | B |
| He would cure all things with the single tax | B |
| A clergyman demands more gospel truth | A2 |
| Speaking to Christians at a weekly dinner | S |
| A parlor Marxian for a beginner | S |
| Would take the railways And amid applause | B |
| Where lawyers dine a judge says all will be | O |
| Well if we hand down to posterity | O |
| Respect for courts and judges and the laws | B |
| An anarchist would fight Upon the whole | N |
| Another thinks to cultivate one's soul | N |
| Is most important let the passing show | B2 |
| Go where it wills and where it wills to go | B2 |
| - | |
| Outside the stars look down Stars are content | O |
| To be so quiet and indifferent | O |
Edgar Lee Masters
(1)
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