Widow La Rue Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Edgar Lee Masters

Widow La Rue Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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I	A
	-
What will happen Widow La Rue	B
For last night at three o'clock	C
You woke and saw by your window again	D
Amid the shadowy locust grove	E
The phantom of the old soldier	F
A shadow of blue like mercury light	G
What will happen Widow La Rue	B
	-
	-
	-
What may not happen	H
In this place of summer loneliness	I
For neither the sunlight of July	A
Nor the blue of the lake	J
Nor the green boundaries of cool woodlands	K
Nor the song of larks and thrushes	L
Nor the bravuras of bobolinks	L
Nor scents of hay new mown	H
Nor the ox blood sumach cones	L
Nor the snow of nodding yarrow	M
Nor clover blossoms on the dizzy crest	N
Of the bluff by the lake	J
Can take away the loneliness	L
Of this July by the lake	J
	-
	-
	-
Last night you saw the old soldier	F
By your window Widow La Rue	B
Or was it your husband you saw	L
As he lay by the gate so long ago	M
With the iris of his eyes so black	O
And the white of his eyes so china blue	B
And specks of blood on his face	L
Like a wall specked by a shake a brush	P
And something like blubber or pinkish wax	L
Hiding the gash in his throat	Q
The serum and blood blown up by the breath	R
From emptied lungs	L
	-
	-
II	A
	-
So Widow La Rue has gone to a friend	S
For the afternoon and the night	G
Where the phantom will not come	T
Where the phantom may be forgotten	H
And scarcely has she turned the road	U
Round the water mill by the creek	V
When the telephone rings and daughter Flora	W
Springs up from a drowsy chair	X
And the ennui of a book	Y
And runs to answer the call	Z
And her heart gives a bound	A2
And her heart stops still	B2
As she hears the voice and a faintness courses	L
Quick as poison through all her frame	C2
And something like bees swarming in her breast	N
Comes to her throat in a surge of fear	D2
Rapture passion for what is the voice	L
But the voice of her lover	F
And just because she is here alone	H
In this desolate summer house by the lake	J
And just because this man is forbidden	H
To cross her way for a taint in his blood	E2
Of drink from a father who died of drink	F2
And just because he is in her thought	G2
By night and day	H2
The voice of him heats her through like fire	F
She sways from dizziness	L
The telephone falls from her shaking hand	I2
He is in the village is walking out	J2
He will be at the door in an hour	F
	-
	-
III	A
	-
The sun is half a hand above the lake	J
In a sky of lemon dust down to the purple vastness	L
On the dizzy crest of the bluff the balls of clover	F
Bow in the warm wind blowing across a meadow	M
Where hay cocks stand new piled by the harvesters	L
Clear to the forest of pine and beech at the meadow's end	S
A robin on the tip of a poplar's spire	K2
Sings to the sinking sun and the evening planet	L2
Over the olive green of the darkening forest	M2
A thin moon slits the sky and down the road	U
Two lovers walk	N2
	-
It is night when they reappear	D2
From the forest walking the hay field over	F
And the sky is so full of stars it seems	L
Like a field of buckwheat And the lovers look up	O2
Then stand entranced under the silence of stars	L
And in the silence of the scented hay field	P2
Blurred only by a lisp of the listless water	F
A hundred feet below	M
And at last they sit by a cock of hay	H2
As warm as the nest of a bird	Q2
Hand clasped in hand and silent	R2
Large eyed and silent	R2
	-
	-
	-
O daughter Flora	W
Delicious weakness is on you now	H
With your lover's face above you	B
You can scarcely lift your hand	I2
Or turn your head	S2
Pillowed upon the fragrant hay	H2
You dare not open your moistened eyes	L
For fear of this sky of stars	L
For fear of your lover's eyes	L
The trance of nature has taken you	B
Rocked on creation's tide	T2
And the kinship you feel for this man	H
Confessed this night so often confessed	N
And wondered at	U2
Has coiled its final sorcery about you	B
You do not know what it is	L
Nor care what it is	L
Nor care what fate is to come	T
The night has you	B
You only move white fainting hands	L
Against his strength then let them fall	Z
Your lips are parted over set teeth	V2
A dewy moisture with the aroma of a woman's body	W2
Maddens your lover	F
And in a swift and terrible moment	R2
The mystery of love is unveiled to you	B
	-
Then your lover sits up with a sigh	A
But you lie there so still with closed eyes	L
So content scarcely breathing under that ocean of stars	L
A night bird calls and a vagrant zephyr	F
Stirs your uncoiled hair on your bare bosom	T
But you do not move	X2
And the sun comes up at last	Y2
Finding you asleep in his arms	L
There by the hay cock	C
And he kisses your tears away	H2
And redeems his word of last night	G
For down to the village you go	M
And take your vows before the Pastor there	X
And then return to the summer house	L
All is well	Z2
	-
	-
IV	X2
	-
Widow La Rue has returned	A3
And is rocking on the porch	B3
What is about to happen	H
For last night the phantom of the old soldier	F
Appeared to her again	H
It followed her to the house of her friend	S
And appeared again	H
But more than ever was it her husband	C3
With the iris of his eyes so black	O
And the white of his eyes so china blue	B
And while she thinks of it	D3
And wonders what is about to happen	H
She hears laughter	F
And looking up beholds her daughter	F
And the forbidden lover	F
	-
	-
	-
And then the daughter and her husband	C3
Come to the porch and the daughter says	L
We have just been married in the village mother	F
Will you forgive us	L
This is your son you must kiss your son	H
And Widow La Rue from her chair arises	L
And calmly takes her child in her arms	L
And clasps his hand	I2
And after gazing upon him	E3
Imperturbably as Clytemnestra looked	F3
Upon returning Agamemnon	H
With a light in her eyes which neither fathomed	F3
She kissed him	E3
And in a calm voice blessed them	G3
Then sent her daughter singing	H3
On an errand back to the village	I3
To market for dinner saying	H3
We'll talk over plans my dear	D2
	-
	-
V	X2
	-
And the young husband	F3
Rocks on the porch without a thought	F3
Of the lightning about to strike	J3
And like Clytemnestra Widow La Rue	B
Enters the house	L
And while he is rocking with all his spirit in a rythmic rapture	F
The Widow La Rue takes a seat in the room	K3
By a window back of the chair where he rocks	L
And drawing the shade	F3
She speaks	L
	-
These two nights past I have seen the phantom of the old soldier	F
Who haunts the midnights	L
Of this summer loneliness	L
And I knew that a doom was at hand	F3
You have married my daughter and this is the doom	K3
O God in heaven	H
Then a horror as of a writhing whiteness	L
Winds out of the July glare	X
And stops the flow of his blood	F3
As he hears from the re echoing room	K3
The voice of Widow La Rue	B
Moving darkly between banks	L
Of delirious fear and woe	M
	-
Be calm till you hear me through	B
Do not move or enter here	L3
I am hiding my face from you	B
Hear me through and then fly	A
I warned her against you but how could I tell her	F
Why you were not for her	F
But tell me now have you come together	F
No Thank God for that	F3
For you must not come together	F
Now listen while I whisper to you	B
My daughter was born of a lawless love	X2
For a man I loved before I married	F3
And when for five years no child came	C2
I went to this man	H
And begged him to give me a child	F3
Well then the child was born your wife as it seems	L
And when my husband saw her	F
And saw the likeness of this man in her face	L
He went out of the house where they found him later	F
By the entrance gate	F3
With the iris of his eyes so black	O
And the white of his eyes so china blue	B
And specks of blood on his face	L
Like a wall specked by a shake of a brush	P
And something like blubber or pinkish wax	L
Hiding the gash in his throat	F3
The serum and blood blown up by the breath	R
From emptied lungs Yes there by the gate O God	F3
Quit rocking your chair Don't you understand	F3
Quit rocking your chair Go Go	M
Leap from the bluff to the rocks on the shore	M3
Take down the sickle and end yourself	X2
You don't care you say for all I've told you	B
Well then you see you're older than Flora	W
And her father died when she was a baby	X2
And you were four when your father died	F3
And her father died on the very day	F3
That your father died	F3
At the verv same moment	F3
On the very same bed	F3
Don't you understand	F3
	-
	-
VI	A
	-
He ceases to rock He reels from the porch	B3
He runs and stumbles to reach the road	F3
He yells and curses and tears his hair	X
He staggers and falls and rises and runs	L
And Widow La Rue	B
With the eyes of Clytemnestra	B
Stands at the window and watches him	E3
Running and tearing his hair	B
	-
VII	A
	-
She seems so calm when the daughter returns	L
She only says He has gone to the meadow	M
He will soon be back	O
But he never came back	O
	-
And the years went on till the daughter's hair	B
Was white as her mother's there in the grave	A
She was known as the bride whom the bridegroom left	F3
And didn't say good bye	A