Autumn Perspective Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHDIJIKLMNOPQR STOUVDW XYZA2B2EE C2D2E2F2G2R H2I2J2K2J2L2M2J2 N2| Now moving in cartons on the floor | A |
| the radio playing to bare walls | B |
| picture hooks left stranded | C |
| in the unsoiled squares where paintings were | D |
| and something reminding us | E |
| this is like all other moving days | F |
| finding the dirty ends of someone else's life | G |
| hair fallen in the sink a peach pit | H |
| and burned out matches in the corner | D |
| things not preserved yet never swept away | I |
| like fragments of disturbing dreams | J |
| we stumble on all day | I |
| in ordering our lives we will discard them | K |
| scrub clean the floorboards of this our home | L |
| lest refuse from the lives we did not lead | M |
| become in some strange frightening way our own | N |
| And we have plans that will not tolerate | O |
| our fears a year laid out like rooms | P |
| in a new house the dusty wine glasses | Q |
| rinsed off the vases filled and bookshelves | R |
| sagging with heavy winter books | S |
| Seeing the room always as it will be | T |
| we are content to dust and wait | O |
| We will return here from the dark and silent | U |
| streets arms full of books and food | V |
| anxious as we always are in winter | D |
| and looking for the Good Life we have made | W |
| - | |
| I see myself then tense solemn | X |
| in high heeled shoes that pinch | Y |
| not basking in the light of goals fulfilled | Z |
| but looking back to now and seeing | A2 |
| a lazy sunburned sandaled girl | B2 |
| in a bare room full of promise | E |
| and feeling envious | E |
| - | |
| Now we plan postponing pushing our lives forward | C2 |
| into the future as if when the room | D2 |
| contains us and all our treasured junk | E2 |
| we will have filled whatever gap it is | F2 |
| that makes us wander discontented | G2 |
| from ourselves | R |
| - | |
| The room will not change | H2 |
| a rug or armchair or new coat of paint | I2 |
| won't make much difference | J2 |
| our eyes are fickle | K2 |
| but we remain the same beneath our suntans | J2 |
| pale frightened | L2 |
| dreaming ourselves backward and forward in time | M2 |
| dreaming our dreaming selves | J2 |
| - | |
| I look forward and see myself looking back | N2 |
Erica Jong
(1)
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