Night In State Street Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABA CDCDDDDD AEA FEFFGG HIIJHKHDLLD DCDMMMMNNOPPPP PPAPAPDDLLQQDDPP PPDMMRDRMMSSDDDTTDDU UVV MMMMFF MPMPWWXXMYMZMZMDDMM PA2PA2A2MMB2B2AAMMAA C2DC2DMMD2D2DDPPMYPY PMME2F2 YDMFMYMM ADDAArt thou he | A |
The seer and sage the hero and lover yea | B |
The man of men then away from the haughty | A |
day | B |
Come with me | A |
- | |
Ho ho to the night | C |
The spangled night that would the noon outstare | D |
Her skirts are fringed with light | C |
She is girdled and crowned with gems of fire that flare | D |
The city is dizzy with the thrill of her | D |
Her shining eyes and shadowy floating hair | D |
And curious winds her nebulous garments blur | D |
Blowing her moon white limbs and bosom bare | D |
- | |
She beckons me | A |
Down the deep street she goes to keep her tryst | E |
Come come oh follow oh see | A |
- | |
The many windowed walls uprear so high | F |
They dim and quiver and float away in mist | E |
Tangling the earth and sky | F |
And the pale stars go by | F |
Like spirits masterful and still and strong | G |
Dragging the heavy nets of life along | G |
- | |
Down in the deep | H |
Lightly the nets enmesh us with the swarm | I |
Of huddled human things that soft and warm | I |
Beat out so close the pulses of their lives | J |
We crowd and creep | H |
We jostle and push out of our halls and hives | K |
We chatter and laugh and weep | H |
Ah do you hear | D |
The choral of voices each the secret hiding | L |
Do you see the warren of souls each one abiding | L |
In separate solitude remote austere | D |
- | |
Here in the glare of the street we cling together | D |
Against the warning darkness the still height Of the awful night | C |
We blow like a feather | D |
From hope to hope along the winds of fate | M |
Importunate | M |
The lettered lights that twinkle in and out | M |
Lure us and laugh at us beckon and flout | M |
Flashing their slangy symbols in our eyes | N |
Blurting their gaudy lies | N |
The bold shop windows flaunt their empty wares | O |
Jewelled or tinselled shows of things | P |
The fripperies and furnishings | P |
Wherein stark life will stifle her shiverings | P |
Ere forth in the dawn she fares | P |
- | |
Ah tyranny perilous | P |
Vain shows that master us | P |
See the gay girls fluttering wistfully | A |
Where waxen dummies grin in gowns of lace | P |
Watch yonder woman in black whose dimmed eyes see | A |
Soft baby things folded with tender grace | P |
And look at the children crowding and shouting there | D |
Where dancing dolls jiggle and jerk and stare | D |
They hover and cling | L |
Possessed by signs and shadows of the thing | L |
They moor their bark | Q |
Close to the shore and fathom not the dark | Q |
The dark that glooms afar | D |
Beyond the invisible star | D |
Beyond faith's boundaries | P |
The plausible was and is | P |
- | |
Come ye adventurous | P |
Open your hearts to us | P |
You tiny newsboy calling extras there | D |
Pitiful burden bearer pale with blight | M |
What of the night | M |
The sullen night that brings you little one | R |
So heavy a load of care | D |
While happier children sleep from sun to sun | R |
And you wan youth haggard and spent | M |
By mad thirst driven and rent | M |
Thirst of the body thirst of the soul | S |
To what dark goal | S |
Does reeling night lead you her listless prey | D |
To gorge you and slay | D |
And hide forever from the searching day | D |
And you furtive and flaunting girl | T |
Whose heavy lidded eyes unfurl | T |
Red signal fires the while demure | D |
Your brooding lips deny their lure | D |
Ah does the lewd night lash you to her cave | U |
And will you never her ribald rage out brave | U |
And rise no more forlorn | V |
To greet the morn | V |
- | |
The street grows insolent | M |
With cries of dark delight | M |
And gestures impudent | M |
It rends the robe of night | M |
Up to the silent sky | F |
It shouts the human cry | F |
- | |
The crowds push in and out | M |
By all the open ways | P |
Eager to stare and shout | M |
At vaudeville waifs of plays | P |
They drop their coins and laugh | W |
At the wheezy phonograph | W |
They hush for the noisy drone | X |
Of the croaking megaphone | X |
That litters life with jest | M |
They pause that they may not go | Y |
On life's eternal quest | M |
They stifle truth with speech | Z |
They mimic love with lust | M |
For the glitter of gilt they reach | Z |
And cover the gold with dust | M |
They stoop to the din and glare | D |
Who have the lofty night for comrade rare | D |
They grope along the ground | M |
Whose stature like the night with stars is crowned | M |
- | |
Oh piteous | P |
Oh struggle vain | A2 |
Of puppets emulous | P |
We strive and strain | A2 |
To forge for our limbs a chain | A2 |
Come thou deep hearted Night so dark and bright | M |
Come holy Night come lawless dissolute Night | M |
Come human Night hushing thy dreams divine | B2 |
Give me thy dreams O Night they shall be mine | B2 |
Mine and this beggar's though we lie to thee | A |
Mine and this harlot's though from thee we | A |
flee Mine and this worldling's though with might and right | M |
We hide them from our sight | M |
Thy shadowed eyes the truth behold and we | A |
We too shall know the truth and so be free | A |
Even now yea now | C2 |
Through lies and vanities we pry and peer | D |
Even now we bow | C2 |
At little shrines where pale fires flicker and fleer | D |
Hark in the echoing street | M |
The drums that bang and beat | M |
Where the curb stone preachers tell | D2 |
The way to heaven and hell | D2 |
Look in yon window there | D |
A man through a glass astare | D |
At atoms and embryos | P |
The source whence all life flows | P |
Search the beginning and end | M |
We may not choose but follow | Y |
Yes you and I and these | P |
The fume of the noisome hollow | Y |
The gleam of the Pleiades | P |
Wherever one goes in quest | M |
With his quest we are cursed or blest | M |
And the street with its blazing mockery of | E2 |
noon Leads on to the quiet stars to the lofty moon | F2 |
- | |
The little lights go out now row on row | Y |
The dim crowds glide away | D |
The shadowed street | M |
Pillars the vaulted sky | F |
And Night proud Night | M |
Rapt in her dreams with stately tread and slow | Y |
Patrols the drowsy world O friend complete | M |
How may we read her deep delight aright | M |
- | |
Art thou he | A |
The seer and sage the hero and lover yea | D |
The man of men then even to the gates of day | D |
Lead thou me | A |
Harriet Monroe
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Night In State Street poem by Harriet Monroe
Best Poems of Harriet Monroe