The Bight Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFBGHCIJCKCBCCFL CCCHCBMNLOCCPFCF| At low tide like this how sheer the water is | A |
| White crumbling ribs of marl protrude and glare | B |
| and the boats are dry the pilings dry as matches | C |
| Absorbing rather than being absorbed | D |
| the water in the bight doesn't wet anything | E |
| the color of the gas flame turned as low as possible | F |
| One can smell it turning to gas if one were Baudelaire | B |
| one could probably hear it turning to marimba music | G |
| The little ocher dredge at work off the end of the dock | H |
| already plays the dry perfectly off beat claves | C |
| The birds are outsize Pelicans crash | I |
| into this peculiar gas unnecessarily hard | J |
| it seems to me like pickaxes | C |
| rarely coming up with anything to show for it | K |
| and going off with humorous elbowings | C |
| Black and white man of war birds soar | B |
| on impalpable drafts | C |
| and open their tails like scissors on the curves | C |
| or tense them like wishbones till they tremble | F |
| The frowsy sponge boats keep coming in | L |
| with the obliging air of retrievers | C |
| bristling with jackstraw gaffs and hooks | C |
| and decorated with bobbles of sponges | C |
| There is a fence of chicken wire along the dock | H |
| where glinting like little plowshares | C |
| the blue gray shark tails are hung up to dry | B |
| for the Chinese restaurant trade | M |
| Some of the little white boats are still piled up | N |
| against each other or lie on their sides stove in | L |
| and not yet salvaged if they ever will be from the last bad storm | O |
| like torn open unanswered letters | C |
| The bight is littered with old correspondences | C |
| Click Click Goes the dredge | P |
| and brings up a dripping jawful of marl | F |
| All the untidy activity continues | C |
| awful but cheerful | F |
Elizabeth Bishop
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Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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