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 YYYY

The swift red flesh a winter kingA
Who squired the glacier woman down the skyB
She ran the neighing canyons all the springA
She spouted arms she rose with maize to dieB
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And in the autumn drouth whose burnished handsC
With mineral wariness found out the stoneD
Where prayers forgotten streamed the mesa sandsC
He holds the twilight s dim perpetual throneD
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Mythical brows we saw retiring lothE
Disturbed and destined into denser greenF
Greeting they sped us on the arrow s oathG
Now lie incorrigibly what years betweenF
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There was a bed of leaves and broken playH
There was a veil upon you Pocahontas brideI
O Princess whose brown lap was virgin MayH
And bridal flanks and eyes hid tawny prideI
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I left the village for dogwood By the canoeJ
Tugging below the mill race I could seeK
Your hair s keen crescent running and the blueJ
First moth of evening take wing stealthilyJ
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What laughing chains the water wove and threwJ
I learned to catch the trout s moon whisper IB
Drifted how many hours I never knewJ
But watching saw that fleet young crescent dieB
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And one star swinging take its place aloneD
Cupped in the larches of the mountain passL
Until immortally it bled into the dawnM
I left my sleek boat nibbling margin grassL
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I took the portage climb then choseN
A further valley shed I could not stopO
Feet nozzled wat ry webs of upper flowsN
One white veil gusted from the very topO
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O Appalachian Spring I gained the ledgeP
Steep inaccessible smile that eastward bendsQ
And northward reaches in that violet wedgeP
Of Adirondacks wisped of azure wandsR
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Over how many bluffs tarns streams I spedS
And knew myself within some boding shadeT
Grey tepees tufting the blue knolls aheadS
Smoke swirling through the yellow chestnut gladeT
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A distant cloud a thunder bud it grewJ
That blanket of the skies the padded footU
Within I heard it til its rhythm drewJ
Siphoned the black pool from the heart s hot rootV
-
-
A cyclone threshes in the turbine crestW
Swooping in eagle feathers down your backX
Know Maquokeeta greeting know death s bestW
Fall Sachem strictly as the tamarackX
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A birch kneels All her whistling fingers flyB
The oak grove circles in a crash of leavesY
The long moan of a dance is in the skyB
Dance Maquokeeta Pocahontas grievesY
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And every tendon scurries toward the twangsY
Of lightning deltaed down your saber hairZ
Now snaps the flint in every tooth red fangsY
And splay tongues thinly busy the blue airZ
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Dance Maquokeeta snake that lives beforeA2
That casts his pelt and lives beyond Sprout hornB2
Spark tooth Medicine man relent restoreA2
Lie to us dance us back the tribal mornB2
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Spears and assemblies black drums thrusting onC2
O yelling battlements I too was liegeD2
To rainbows currying each pulsant boneD
Surpassed the circumstance danced out the siegeD2
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And buzzard circleted screamed from the stakeX
I could not pick the arrows from my sideI
Wrapped in that fire I saw more escorts wakeX
Flickering sprint up the hill groins like a tideI
-
-
I heard the hush of lava wrestling your armsY
And stag teeth foam about the raven throatE2
Flame cataracts of heaven in seething swarmsY
Fed down your anklets to the sunset s moatE2
-
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like the lizard in the furious noonF2
That drops his legs and colors in the sunG2
And laughs pure serpent Time itself and moonF2
Of his own fate I saw thy change begunG2
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And saw thee dive to kiss that destinyK
Like one white meteor sacrosanct and blentE2
At last with all that s consummate and freeK
There where the first and last gods keep thy tentE2
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Thewed of the levin thunder shod and leanF
Lo through what infinite seasons dost thou gazeY
Across what bivouacs of thine angered slainH2
And see st thy bride immortal in the maizeY
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Totem and fire gall slumbering pyramidE2
Though other calendars now stack the skyB
Thy freedom is her largesse Prince and hidE2
On paths thou knewest best to claim her byB
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High unto Labrador the sun strikes freeK
Her speechless dream of snow and stirred againI2
She is the torrent and the singing treeK
And she is virgin to the last of menI2
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West west and south winds over CumberlandE2
And winds across the liana grass resumeJ2
Her hair s warm sibilance Her breasts are fannedE2
O stream by slope and vineyard into bloomJ2
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And when the caribou slant down for saltE2
Do arrows thirst and leap Do antlers shineK2
Alert star triggered in the listening vaultE2
Of dusk And are her perfect brows to thineK2
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We danced Brave we danced beyond their farmsY
In cobalt desert closures made our vowsY
Now is the strong prayer folded in thine armsY
The serpent with the eagle in the boughsY

Harold Hart Crane



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