The Bridge: The Dance Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFGF HIHI JKJJ JBJB DLML NONO PQPR STST JUJV WXWX BYBY YZYZ A2B2A2B2 C2D2DD2 XIXI YE2YE2 F2G2F2G2 KE2KE2 FYH2Y E2BE2B KI2KI2 E2J2E2J2 E2K2E2K2 YYYYThe swift red flesh a winter king | A |
Who squired the glacier woman down the sky | B |
She ran the neighing canyons all the spring | A |
She spouted arms she rose with maize to die | B |
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And in the autumn drouth whose burnished hands | C |
With mineral wariness found out the stone | D |
Where prayers forgotten streamed the mesa sands | C |
He holds the twilight s dim perpetual throne | D |
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Mythical brows we saw retiring loth | E |
Disturbed and destined into denser green | F |
Greeting they sped us on the arrow s oath | G |
Now lie incorrigibly what years between | F |
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There was a bed of leaves and broken play | H |
There was a veil upon you Pocahontas bride | I |
O Princess whose brown lap was virgin May | H |
And bridal flanks and eyes hid tawny pride | I |
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I left the village for dogwood By the canoe | J |
Tugging below the mill race I could see | K |
Your hair s keen crescent running and the blue | J |
First moth of evening take wing stealthily | J |
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What laughing chains the water wove and threw | J |
I learned to catch the trout s moon whisper I | B |
Drifted how many hours I never knew | J |
But watching saw that fleet young crescent die | B |
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And one star swinging take its place alone | D |
Cupped in the larches of the mountain pass | L |
Until immortally it bled into the dawn | M |
I left my sleek boat nibbling margin grass | L |
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I took the portage climb then chose | N |
A further valley shed I could not stop | O |
Feet nozzled wat ry webs of upper flows | N |
One white veil gusted from the very top | O |
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O Appalachian Spring I gained the ledge | P |
Steep inaccessible smile that eastward bends | Q |
And northward reaches in that violet wedge | P |
Of Adirondacks wisped of azure wands | R |
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Over how many bluffs tarns streams I sped | S |
And knew myself within some boding shade | T |
Grey tepees tufting the blue knolls ahead | S |
Smoke swirling through the yellow chestnut glade | T |
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A distant cloud a thunder bud it grew | J |
That blanket of the skies the padded foot | U |
Within I heard it til its rhythm drew | J |
Siphoned the black pool from the heart s hot root | V |
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A cyclone threshes in the turbine crest | W |
Swooping in eagle feathers down your back | X |
Know Maquokeeta greeting know death s best | W |
Fall Sachem strictly as the tamarack | X |
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A birch kneels All her whistling fingers fly | B |
The oak grove circles in a crash of leaves | Y |
The long moan of a dance is in the sky | B |
Dance Maquokeeta Pocahontas grieves | Y |
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And every tendon scurries toward the twangs | Y |
Of lightning deltaed down your saber hair | Z |
Now snaps the flint in every tooth red fangs | Y |
And splay tongues thinly busy the blue air | Z |
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Dance Maquokeeta snake that lives before | A2 |
That casts his pelt and lives beyond Sprout horn | B2 |
Spark tooth Medicine man relent restore | A2 |
Lie to us dance us back the tribal morn | B2 |
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Spears and assemblies black drums thrusting on | C2 |
O yelling battlements I too was liege | D2 |
To rainbows currying each pulsant bone | D |
Surpassed the circumstance danced out the siege | D2 |
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And buzzard circleted screamed from the stake | X |
I could not pick the arrows from my side | I |
Wrapped in that fire I saw more escorts wake | X |
Flickering sprint up the hill groins like a tide | I |
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I heard the hush of lava wrestling your arms | Y |
And stag teeth foam about the raven throat | E2 |
Flame cataracts of heaven in seething swarms | Y |
Fed down your anklets to the sunset s moat | E2 |
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like the lizard in the furious noon | F2 |
That drops his legs and colors in the sun | G2 |
And laughs pure serpent Time itself and moon | F2 |
Of his own fate I saw thy change begun | G2 |
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And saw thee dive to kiss that destiny | K |
Like one white meteor sacrosanct and blent | E2 |
At last with all that s consummate and free | K |
There where the first and last gods keep thy tent | E2 |
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Thewed of the levin thunder shod and lean | F |
Lo through what infinite seasons dost thou gaze | Y |
Across what bivouacs of thine angered slain | H2 |
And see st thy bride immortal in the maize | Y |
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Totem and fire gall slumbering pyramid | E2 |
Though other calendars now stack the sky | B |
Thy freedom is her largesse Prince and hid | E2 |
On paths thou knewest best to claim her by | B |
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High unto Labrador the sun strikes free | K |
Her speechless dream of snow and stirred again | I2 |
She is the torrent and the singing tree | K |
And she is virgin to the last of men | I2 |
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West west and south winds over Cumberland | E2 |
And winds across the liana grass resume | J2 |
Her hair s warm sibilance Her breasts are fanned | E2 |
O stream by slope and vineyard into bloom | J2 |
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And when the caribou slant down for salt | E2 |
Do arrows thirst and leap Do antlers shine | K2 |
Alert star triggered in the listening vault | E2 |
Of dusk And are her perfect brows to thine | K2 |
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We danced Brave we danced beyond their farms | Y |
In cobalt desert closures made our vows | Y |
Now is the strong prayer folded in thine arms | Y |
The serpent with the eagle in the boughs | Y |
Harold Hart Crane
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