Nimmo Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAC DEDE FGFG HIHI GJGJ KLKL MNON PQPQ IDID FRSR JTJT AUVU WXWX YZYZ NA2NA2 B2C2B2C2 D2E2D2E2 UF2UF2| Since you remember Nimmo and arrive | A |
| At such a false and florid and far drawn | B |
| Confusion of odd nonsense I connive | A |
| No longer though I may have led you on | C |
| - | |
| So much is told and heard and told again | D |
| So many with his legend are engrossed | E |
| That I more sorry now than I was then | D |
| May live on to be sorry for his ghost | E |
| - | |
| You knew him and you must have known his eyes | F |
| How deep they were and what a velvet light | G |
| Came out of them when anger or surprise | F |
| Or laughter or Francesca made them bright | G |
| - | |
| No you will not forget such eyes I think | H |
| And you say nothing of them Very well | I |
| I wonder if all history's worth a wink | H |
| Sometimes or if my tale be one to tell | I |
| - | |
| For they began to lose their velvet light | G |
| Their fire grew dead without and small within | J |
| And many of you deplored the needless fight | G |
| That somewhere in the dark there must have been | J |
| - | |
| All fights are needless when they're not our own | K |
| But Nimmo and Francesca never fought | L |
| Remember that and when you are alone | K |
| Remember me and think what I have thought | L |
| - | |
| Now mind you I say nothing of what was | M |
| Or never was or could or could not be | N |
| Bring not suspicion's candle to the glass | O |
| That mirrors a friend's face to memory | N |
| - | |
| Of what you see see all but see no more | P |
| For what I show you here will not be there | Q |
| The devil has had his way with paint before | P |
| And he's an artist and you needn't stare | Q |
| - | |
| There was a painter and he painted well | I |
| He'd paint you Daniel in the lions' den | D |
| Beelzebub Elaine or William Tell | I |
| I'm coming back to Nimmo's eyes again | D |
| - | |
| The painter put the devil in those eyes | F |
| Unless the devil did and there he stayed | R |
| And then the lady fled from paradise | S |
| And there's your fact The lady was afraid | R |
| - | |
| She must have been afraid or may have been | J |
| Of evil in their velvet all the while | T |
| But sure as I'm a sinner with a skin | J |
| I'll trust the man as long as he can smile | T |
| - | |
| I trust him who can smile and then may live | A |
| In my heart's house where Nimmo is today | U |
| God knows if I have more than men forgive | V |
| To tell him but I played and I shall pay | U |
| - | |
| I knew him then and if I know him yet | W |
| I know in him defeated and estranged | X |
| The calm of men forbidden to forget | W |
| The calm of women who have loved and changed | X |
| - | |
| But there are ways that are beyond our ways | Y |
| Or he would not be calm and she be mute | Z |
| As one by one their lost and empty days | Y |
| Pass without even the warmth of a dispute | Z |
| - | |
| God help us all when women think they see | N |
| God save us when they do I'm fair but though | A2 |
| I know him only as he looks to me | N |
| I know him and I tell Francesca so | A2 |
| - | |
| And what of Nimmo Little would you ask | B2 |
| Of him could you but see him as I can | C2 |
| At his bewildered and unfruitful task | B2 |
| Of being what he was born to be a man | C2 |
| - | |
| Better forget that I said anything | D2 |
| Of what your tortured memory may disclose | E2 |
| I know him and your worst remembering | D2 |
| Would count as much as nothing I suppose | E2 |
| - | |
| Meanwhile I trust him and I know his way | U |
| Of trusting me as always in his youth | F2 |
| I'm painting here a better man you say | U |
| Than I the painter and you say the truth | F2 |
Edwin Arlington Robinson
(1)
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