The Suicide Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEEFFGGHH IJ KKLLMMNNBBOOGGPPMMQQ RRSSTTUU UUJI VVGGHHIJAAHHWWHBUUXY HHUUZZ A2A2UU UUMMB2B2HHMMUUUUUUGG HHC2C2 BBUUUUUUUUCCHHHHD2D2 UUHHE2E2UF2UBBG2G2C2 C2UUMMUU

Curse thee Life I will live with thee no moreA
Thou hast mocked me starved me beat my body soreA
And all for a pledge that was not pledged by meB
I have kissed thy crust and eaten sparinglyB
That I might eat again and met thy sneersC
With deprecations and thy blows with tearsD
Aye from thy glutted lash glad crawled awayE
As if spent passion were a holidayE
And now I go Nor threat nor easy vowF
Of tardy kindness can avail thee nowF
With me whence fear and faith alike are flownG
Lonely I came and I depart aloneG
And know not where nor unto whom I goH
But that thou canst not follow me I knowH
-
Thus I to Life and ceased but through my brainI
My thought ran still until I spake againJ
-
Ah but I go not as I came no traceK
Is mine to bear away of that old graceK
I brought I have been heated in thy firesL
Bent by thy hands fashioned to thy desiresL
Thy mark is on me I am not the sameM
Nor ever more shall be as when I cameM
Ashes am I of all that once I seemedN
In me all's sunk that leapt and all that dreamedN
Is wakeful for alarm oh shame to theeB
For the ill change that thou hast wrought in meB
Who laugh no more nor lift my throat to singO
Ah Life I would have been a pleasant thingO
To have about the house when I was grownG
If thou hadst left my little joys aloneG
I asked of thee no favor save this oneP
That thou wouldst leave me playing in the sunP
And this thou didst deny calling my nameM
Insistently until I rose and cameM
I saw the sun no more It were not wellQ
So long on these unpleasant thoughts to dwellQ
Need I arise to morrow and renewR
Again my hated tasks but I am throughR
With all things save my thoughts and this one nightS
So that in truth I seem already quiteS
Free and remote from thee I feel no hasteT
And no reluctance to depart I tasteT
Merely with thoughtful mien an unknown draughtU
That in a little while I shall have quaffedU
-
Thus I to Life and ceased and slightly smiledU
Looking at nothing and my thin dreams filedU
Before me one by one till once againJ
I set new words unto an old refrainI
-
Treasures thou hast that never have been mineV
Warm lights in many a secret chamber shineV
Of thy gaunt house and gusts of song have blownG
Like blossoms out to me that sat aloneG
And I have waited well for thee to showH
If any share were mine and now I goH
Nothing I leave and if I naught attainI
I shall but come into mine own againJ
Thus I to Life and ceased and spake no moreA
But turning straightway sought a certain doorA
In the rear wall Heavy it was and lowH
And dark a way by which none e'er would goH
That other exit had and never knockW
Was heard thereat bearing a curious lockW
Some chance had shown me fashioned faultilyH
Whereof Life held content the useless keyB
And great coarse hinges thick and rough with rustU
Whose sudden voice across a silence mustU
I knew be harsh and horrible to hearX
A strange door ugly like a dwarf So nearY
I came I felt upon my feet the chillH
Of acid wind creeping across the sillH
So stood longtime till over me at lastU
Came weariness and all things other passedU
To make it room the still night drifted deepZ
Like snow about me and I longed for sleepZ
-
But suddenly marking the morning hourA2
Bayed the deep throated bell within the towerA2
Startled I raised my head and with a shoutU
Laid hold upon the latch and was withoutU
-
-
-
Ah long forgotten well remembered roadU
Leading me back unto my old abodeU
My father's house There in the night I cameM
And found them feasting and all things the sameM
As they had been before A splendour hungB2
Upon the walls and such sweet songs were sungB2
As echoing out of very long agoH
Had called me from the house of Life I knowH
So fair their raiment shone I looked in shameM
On the unlovely garb in which I cameM
Then straightway at my hesitancy mockedU
It is my father's house I said and knockedU
And the door opened To the shining crowdU
Tattered and dark I entered like a cloudU
Seeing no face but his to him I creptU
And Father I cried and clasped his knees and weptU
Ah days of joy that followed All aloneG
I wandered through the house My own my ownG
My own to touch my own to taste and smellH
All I had lacked so long and loved so wellH
None shook me out of sleep nor hushed my songC2
Nor called me in from the sunlight all day longC2
-
I know not when the wonder came to meB
Of what my father's business might beB
And whither fared and on what errands bentU
The tall and gracious messengers he sentU
Yet one day with no song from dawn till nightU
Wondering I sat and watched them out of sightU
And the next day I called and on the thirdU
Asked them if I might go but no one heardU
Then sick with longing I arose at lastU
And went unto my father in that vastU
Chamber wherein he for so many yearsC
Has sat surrounded by his charts and spheresC
Father I said Father I cannot playH
The harp that thou didst give me and all dayH
I sit in idleness while to and froH
About me thy serene grave servants goH
And I am weary of my lonely easeD2
Better a perilous journey overseasD2
Away from thee than this the life I leadU
To sit all day in the sunshine like a weedU
That grows to naught I love thee more than theyH
Who serve thee most yet serve thee in no wayH
Father I beg of thee a little taskE2
To dignify my days 'tis all I askE2
Forever but forever this deniedU
I perishF2
Child my father's voice repliedU
All things thy fancy hath desired of meB
Thou hast received I have prepared for theeB
Within my house a spacious chamber whereG2
Are delicate things to handle and to wearG2
And all these things are thine Dost thou love songC2
My minstrels shall attend thee all day longC2
Or sigh for flowers My fairest gardens standU
Open as fields to thee on every handU
And all thy days this word shall hold the sameM
No pleasure shalt thou lack that thou shalt nameM
But as for tasks he smiled and shook his headU
Thou hadst thy task and laidst it by he saidU

Edna St. Vincent Millay



Rate:
(1)



Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation


Write your comment about The Suicide poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay


 

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 8 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Popular Poets