Sappho Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEF G HIJKLM NOPQRSTS UNVWAXJBYZA2F ISAB2 PC2UD2E2F2 BG2SH2BU I2G2J2K2L2M2N2O2 G2L2L2P2Q2SU R2B2S2T2U2V2G2W2X2G2 Y2B JZ2A3NB3U R2C3D3C3E3 B2F3G3G2H3I3J3PK3The twilight falls I soften the dusting feathers | A |
And clean again | B |
The house has lain and moldered for three days | C |
The windows smeared with rain the curtains torn | D |
The mice come in | E |
The kitchen blown with cold | F |
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I keep the house and say no words | G |
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It is true I am as twisted as the cactus | H |
That gnarls and turns beside the milky light | I |
That cuts the fingers easily and means nothing | J |
For all the pain that shoots along the hand | K |
I dust the feathers down the yellow thorns | L |
I light the stove | M |
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The gas curls round the iron fretwork the flame | N |
Floats above the lace | O |
And bounces like a dancer stayed on air | P |
Fire does not rest on iron it drifts like a blue blossom | Q |
And catches on my breath | R |
Coiling spinning the blue foam of the gas fire | S |
Writhes like a naked girl | T |
Turns up its face like her | S |
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She came to me in rain | U |
I did not know her I did not know my name | N |
After she left to bed her children down | V |
To phone her husband they were gone asleep | W |
And she lying a pure fire in the feathers | A |
Dancing above the ironwork of her bed | X |
Roaring and singeing nothing | J |
She had not wound her arms about me then | B |
She had not dared | Y |
I only took her coat and smiled to hear | Z |
How she had left her purse and her umbrella | A2 |
In the theater how she was sopping cold | F |
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With the fall rain and mine was the one light | I |
In the neighborhood She came to my gas fire | S |
And lay before it sprawled her pure bare shoulders | A |
Folded in a doze a clear cold curve of stone | B2 |
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I only leaned above the hair | P |
Turned back the quilt arranged the feet the arms | C2 |
And kissed the sleeping shoulder lightly like the rain | U |
And when she woke to wear her weathered clothes | D2 |
I sent her home | E2 |
She floated a blue blossom over the street | F2 |
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And when she came again | B |
It was not long before she turned to me | G2 |
And let her shawl slide down her neck and shoulder | S |
Let her hair fall | H2 |
And when she came again | B |
It did not rain | U |
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Her husband came to pluck her like an apple | I2 |
As the drunken farmer lurches against the tree | G2 |
Grips the green globe not long beyond its bloom | J2 |
And tears the skin brutally out of the bark | K2 |
Leaves the whole bough broken | L2 |
The orchard torn with many footprints | M2 |
The fence swung wide | N2 |
On a raw hinge | O2 |
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And now it is said of me | G2 |
That my love is nothing because I have borne no children | L2 |
Or because I have fathered none | L2 |
That I twisted the twig in my hands | P2 |
And cut the blossom free too soon from the seed | Q2 |
That I lay across the fire | S |
And snuffed it dead sooner than draft or rain | U |
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But I have turned away and drawn myself | R2 |
Upright to walk along the room alone | B2 |
Across the dark the spines of cactus plants | S2 |
Remind me how I go aloof obscure | T2 |
Indifferent to the words the children chalk | U2 |
Against my house and down the garden walls | V2 |
They cannot tear the garden out of me | G2 |
Nor smear my love with names Love is a cliff | W2 |
A clear cold curve of stone mottled by stars | X2 |
smirched by the morning carved by the dark sea | G2 |
Till stars and dawn and waves can slash no more | Y2 |
Till the rock s heart is found and shaped again | B |
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I keep the house and say no words the evening | J |
Falls like a petal down the shawl of trees | Z2 |
I light the fire and see the blossom dance | A3 |
On air alone I will not douse that flame | N |
That searing flower I will burn in it | B3 |
I will not banish love to empty rain | U |
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For I know that I am asked to hate myself | R2 |
For their sweet sake | C3 |
Who sow the world with child | D3 |
I am given to burn on the dark fire they make | C3 |
With their sly voices | E3 |
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But I have burned already down to bone | B2 |
There is a fire that burns beyond the names | F3 |
Of sludge and filth of which this world is made | G3 |
Agony sears the dark flesh of the body | G2 |
And lifts me higher than the smoke to rise | H3 |
Above the earth above the sacrifice | I3 |
Until my soul flares outward like a blue | J3 |
Blossom of gas fire dancing in mid air | P |
Free of the body s work of twisted iron | K3 |
James Arlington Wright
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