The Bridge: Quaker Hill Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABBCBC BDEDFGFG HIHIJK JL MNMNOPPP PQPQPRPR STSTUPUP VWVWXYZY A2A2B2B2BBC2C2 A2A2HHPPD2E2F2D2D2| Perspective never withers from their eyes | A |
| They keep that docile edict of the Spring | B |
| That blends March with August Antarctic skies | A |
| These are but cows that see no other thing | B |
| Than grass and snow and their own inner being | B |
| Through the rich halo that they do not trouble | C |
| Even to cast upon the seasons fleeting | B |
| Though they should thin and die on last year s stubble | C |
| - | |
| And they are awkward ponderous and uncoy | B |
| While we who press the cider mill regarding them | D |
| We who with pledges taste the bright annoy | E |
| Of friendship s acid wine retarding phlegm | D |
| Shifting reprisals til who shall tell us when | F |
| The jest is too sharp to be kindly boast | G |
| Much of our store of faith in other men | F |
| Who would ourselves stalk down the merriest ghost | G |
| - | |
| Above them old Mizzentop palatial white | H |
| Hostelry floor by floor to cinquefoil dormer | I |
| Portholes the ceilings stack their stoic height | H |
| Long tiers of windows staring out toward former | I |
| Faces loose panes crown the hill and gleam | J |
| At sunset with a silent cobwebbed patience | K |
| - | |
| See them like eyes that still uphold some dream | J |
| Through mapled vistas cancelled reservations | L |
| - | |
| High from the central cupola they say | M |
| One s glance could cross the borders of three states | N |
| But I have seen death s stare in slow survey | M |
| From four horizons that no one relates | N |
| Weekenders avid of their turf won scores | O |
| Here three hours from the semaphores the Czars | P |
| Of golf by twos and threes in plaid plusfours | P |
| Alight with sticks abristle and cigars | P |
| - | |
| This was the Promised Land and still it is | P |
| To the persuasive suburban land agent | Q |
| In bootleg roadhouses where the gin fizz | P |
| Bubbles in time to Hollywood s new love nest pageant | Q |
| Fresh from the radio in the old Meeting House | P |
| Now the New Avalon Hotel volcanoes roar | R |
| A welcome to highsteppers that no mouse | P |
| Who saw the Friends there ever heard before | R |
| - | |
| What cunning neighbors history has in fine | S |
| The woodlouse mortgages the ancient deal | T |
| Table that Powitzky buys for only nine | S |
| Ty five at Adams auction eats the seal | T |
| The spinster polish of antiquity | U |
| Who holds the lease on time and on disgrace | P |
| What eats the pattern with ubiquity | U |
| Where are my kinsmen and the patriarch race | P |
| - | |
| The resigned factions of the dead preside | V |
| Dead rangers bled their comfort on the snow | W |
| But I must ask slain Iroquois to guide | V |
| Me farther than scalped Yankees knew to go | W |
| Shoulder the curse of sundered parentage | X |
| Wait for the postman driving from Birch Hill | Y |
| With birthright by blackmail the arrant page | Z |
| That unfolds a new destiny to fill | Y |
| - | |
| So must we from the hawk s far stemming view | A2 |
| Must we descend as worm s eye to construe | A2 |
| Our love of all we touch and take it to the Gate | B2 |
| As humbly as a guest who knows himself too late | B2 |
| His news already told Yes while the heart is wrung | B |
| Arise yes take this sheaf of dust upon your tongue | B |
| In one last angelus lift throbbing throat | C2 |
| Listen transmuting silence with that stilly note | C2 |
| - | |
| Of pain that Emily that Isadora knew | A2 |
| While high from dim elm chancels hung with dew | A2 |
| That triple noted clause of moonlight | H |
| Yes whip poor will unhusks the heart of fright | H |
| Breaks us and saves yes breaks the heart yet yields | P |
| That patience that is armour and that shields | P |
| Love from despair when love forsees the end | D2 |
| Leaf after autumnal leaf | E2 |
| break off | F2 |
| descend | D2 |
| descend | D2 |
Harold Hart Crane
(1)
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About The Bridge: Quaker Hill
The Bridge: Quaker Hill is a poem by Harold Hart Crane. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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