Manuelzinho Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGGHIJJKLMKJNOPP GPPPPPQPKRS JTUPPJVWJXJPPYZPA2B2 VPPJJC2D2E2VPPPPE2JJ F2PP KAE2E2JG2PH2F2I2WE2P JYE2H2JYJPJJYJ2K2 JL2PPJM2JJP N2B2PO2JAJPJJYVVJB2 P2PYPJJJO2Q2PH2R2S2J PT2PT2PPU2C2C2PPPO2| Brazil A friend of the writer is speaking | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| Half squatter half tenant no rent | B |
| a sort of inheritance white | C |
| in your thirties now and supposed | D |
| to supply me with vegetables | E |
| but you don't or you won't or you can't | F |
| get the idea through your brain | G |
| the world's worst gardener since Cain | G |
| Titled above me your gardens | H |
| ravish my eyes You edge | I |
| the beds of silver cabbages | J |
| with red carnations and lettuces | J |
| mix with alyssum And then | K |
| umbrella ants arrive | L |
| or it rains for a solid week | M |
| and the whole thing's ruined again | K |
| and I buy you more pounds of seeds | J |
| imported guaranteed | N |
| and eventually you bring me | O |
| a mystic thee legged carrot | P |
| or a pumpkin quot bigger than the baby quot | P |
| - | |
| I watch you through the rain | G |
| trotting light on bare feet | P |
| up the steep paths you have made | P |
| or your father and grandfather made | P |
| all over my property | P |
| with your head and back inside | P |
| a sodden burlap bag | Q |
| and feel I can't endure it | P |
| another minute then | K |
| indoors beside the stove | R |
| keep on reading a book | S |
| - | |
| You steal my telephone wires | J |
| or someone does You starve | T |
| your horse and yourself | U |
| and your dogs and family | P |
| among endless variety | P |
| you eat boiled cabbage stalks | J |
| And once I yelled at you | V |
| so loud to hurry up | W |
| and fetch me those potatoes | J |
| your holey hat flew off | X |
| you jumped out of your clogs | J |
| leaving three objects arranged | P |
| in a triangle at my feet | P |
| as if you'd been a gardener | Y |
| in a fairy tale all this time | Z |
| and at the word quot potatoes quot | P |
| had vanished to take up your work | A2 |
| of fairy prince somewhere | B2 |
| - | |
| The strangest things happen to you | V |
| Your cows eats a quot poison grass quot | P |
| and drops dead on the spot | P |
| Nobody else's does | J |
| And then your father dies | J |
| a superior old man | C2 |
| with a black plush hat and a moustache | D2 |
| like a white spread eagled sea gull | E2 |
| The family gathers but you | V |
| no you quot don't think he's dead | P |
| I look at him He's cold | P |
| They're burying him today | P |
| But you know I don't think he's dead quot | P |
| I give you money for the funeral | E2 |
| and you go and hire a bus | J |
| for the delighted mourners | J |
| so I have to hand over some more | F2 |
| and then have to hear you tell me | P |
| you pray for me every night | P |
| - | |
| And then you come again | K |
| sniffing and shivering | A |
| hat in hand with that wistful | E2 |
| face like a child's fistful | E2 |
| of bluets or white violets | J |
| improvident as the dawn | G2 |
| and once more I provide | P |
| for a shot of penicillin | H2 |
| down at the pharmacy or | F2 |
| one more bottle of | I2 |
| Electrical Baby Syrup | W |
| Or briskly you come to settle | E2 |
| what we call our quot accounts quot | P |
| with two old copybooks | J |
| one with flowers on the cover | Y |
| the other with a camel | E2 |
| immediate confusion | H2 |
| You've left out decimal points | J |
| Your columns stagger | Y |
| honeycombed with zeros | J |
| You whisper conspiratorially | P |
| the numbers mount to millions | J |
| Account books They are Dream Books | J |
| in the kitchen we dream together | Y |
| how the meek shall inherit the earth | J2 |
| or several acres of mine | K2 |
| - | |
| With blue sugar bags on their heads | J |
| carrying your lunch | L2 |
| your children scuttle by me | P |
| like little moles aboveground | P |
| or even crouch behind bushes | J |
| as if I were out to shoot them | M2 |
| Impossible to make friends | J |
| though each will grab at once | J |
| for an orange or a piece of candy | P |
| - | |
| Twined in wisps of fog | N2 |
| I see you all up there | B2 |
| along with Formoso the donkey | P |
| who brays like a pump gone dry | O2 |
| then suddenly stops | J |
| All just standing staring | A |
| off into fog and space | J |
| Or coming down at night | P |
| in silence except for hoofs | J |
| in dim moonlight the horse | J |
| or Formoso stumbling after | Y |
| Between us float a few | V |
| big soft pale blue | V |
| sluggish fireflies | J |
| the jellyfish of the air | B2 |
| - | |
| Patch upon patch upon patch | P2 |
| your wife keeps all of you covered | P |
| She has gone over and over | Y |
| forearmed is forewarned | P |
| your pair of bright blue pants | J |
| with white thread and these days | J |
| your limbs are draped in blueprints | J |
| You paint heaven knows why | O2 |
| the outside of the crown | Q2 |
| and brim of your straw hat | P |
| Perhaps to reflect the sun | H2 |
| Or perhaps when you were small | R2 |
| your mother said quot Manuelzinho | S2 |
| one thing be sure you always | J |
| paint your straw hat quot | P |
| One was gold for a while | T2 |
| but the gold wore off like plate | P |
| One was bright green Unkindly | T2 |
| I called you Klorophyll Kid | P |
| My visitors thought it was funny | P |
| I apologize here and now | U2 |
| You helpless foolish man | C2 |
| I love you all I can | C2 |
| I think Or I do | P |
| I take off my hat unpainted | P |
| and figurative to you | P |
| Again I promise to try | O2 |
Elizabeth Bishop
(1)
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About Manuelzinho
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