The End Of March Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHEIJK ALMNOPAQRSST UVWAXLYZPA2B2C2D2TWE 2F2G2WJWAAH2DI2AJ2 HK2L2M2N2O2WWP2HQ2R2For John Malcolm Brinnin and Bill Read Duxbury | A |
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It was cold and windy scarcely the day | B |
to take a walk on that long beach | C |
Everything was withdrawn as far as possible | D |
indrawn the tide far out the ocean shrunken | E |
seabirds in ones or twos | F |
The rackety icy offshore wind | G |
numbed our faces on one side | H |
disrupted the formation | E |
of a lone flight of Canada geese | I |
and blew back the low inaudible rollers | J |
in upright steely mist | K |
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The sky was darker than the water | A |
it was the color of mutton fat jade | L |
Along the wet sand in rubber boots we followed | M |
a track of big dog prints so big | N |
they were more like lion prints Then we came on | O |
lengths and lengths endless of wet white string | P |
looping up to the tide line down to the water | A |
over and over Finally they did end | Q |
a thick white snarl man size awash | R |
rising on every wave a sodden ghost | S |
falling back sodden giving up the ghost | S |
A kite string But no kite | T |
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I wanted to get as far as my proto dream house | U |
my crypto dream house that crooked box | V |
set up on pilings shingled green | W |
a sort of artichoke of a house but greener | A |
boiled with bicarbonate of soda | X |
protected from spring tides by a palisade | L |
of are they railroad ties | Y |
Many things about this place are dubious | Z |
I'd like to retire there and do nothing | P |
or nothing much forever in two bare rooms | A2 |
look through binoculars read boring books | B2 |
old long long books and write down useless notes | C2 |
talk to myself and foggy days | D2 |
watch the droplets slipping heavy with light | T |
At night a grog a l'am eacute ricaine | W |
I'd blaze it with a kitchen match | E2 |
and lovely diaphanous blue flame | F2 |
would waver doubled in the window | G2 |
There must be a stove there is a chimney | W |
askew but braced with wires | J |
and electricity possibly | W |
at least at the back another wire | A |
limply leashes the whole affair | A |
to something off behind the dunes | H2 |
A light to read by perfect But impossible | D |
And that day the wind was much too cold | I2 |
even to get that far | A |
and of course the house was boarded up | J2 |
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On the way back our faces froze on the other side | H |
The sun came out for just a minute | K2 |
For just a minute set in their bezels of sand | L2 |
the drab damp scattered stones | M2 |
were multi colored | N2 |
and all those high enough threw out long shadows | O2 |
individual shadows then pulled them in again | W |
They could have been teasing the lion sun | W |
except that now he was behind them | P2 |
a sun who'd walked the beach the last low tide | H |
making those big majestic paw prints | Q2 |
who perhaps had batted a kite out of the sky to play with | R2 |
Elizabeth Bishop
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