Sappho Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEF G HIJKLM NOPQRSTS UNVWAXJBYZA2F ISAB2 PC2UD2E2F2 BG2SH2BU I2G2J2K2L2M2N2O2 G2L2L2P2Q2SU R2B2S2T2U2V2G2W2X2G2 Y2B JZ2A3NB3U R2C3D3C3E3 B2F3G3G2H3I3J3PK3

The twilight falls I soften the dusting feathersA
And clean againB
The house has lain and moldered for three daysC
The windows smeared with rain the curtains tornD
The mice come inE
The kitchen blown with coldF
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I keep the house and say no wordsG
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It is true I am as twisted as the cactusH
That gnarls and turns beside the milky lightI
That cuts the fingers easily and means nothingJ
For all the pain that shoots along the handK
I dust the feathers down the yellow thornsL
I light the stoveM
-
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The gas curls round the iron fretwork the flameN
Floats above the laceO
And bounces like a dancer stayed on airP
Fire does not rest on iron it drifts like a blue blossomQ
And catches on my breathR
Coiling spinning the blue foam of the gas fireS
Writhes like a naked girlT
Turns up its face like herS
-
-
She came to me in rainU
I did not know her I did not know my nameN
After she left to bed her children downV
To phone her husband they were gone asleepW
And she lying a pure fire in the feathersA
Dancing above the ironwork of her bedX
Roaring and singeing nothingJ
She had not wound her arms about me thenB
She had not daredY
I only took her coat and smiled to hearZ
How she had left her purse and her umbrellaA2
In the theater how she was sopping coldF
-
-
With the fall rain and mine was the one lightI
In the neighborhood She came to my gas fireS
And lay before it sprawled her pure bare shouldersA
Folded in a doze a clear cold curve of stoneB2
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I only leaned above the hairP
Turned back the quilt arranged the feet the armsC2
And kissed the sleeping shoulder lightly like the rainU
And when she woke to wear her weathered clothesD2
I sent her homeE2
She floated a blue blossom over the streetF2
-
-
And when she came againB
It was not long before she turned to meG2
And let her shawl slide down her neck and shoulderS
Let her hair fallH2
And when she came againB
It did not rainU
-
-
Her husband came to pluck her like an appleI2
As the drunken farmer lurches against the treeG2
Grips the green globe not long beyond its bloomJ2
And tears the skin brutally out of the barkK2
Leaves the whole bough brokenL2
The orchard torn with many footprintsM2
The fence swung wideN2
On a raw hingeO2
-
-
And now it is said of meG2
That my love is nothing because I have borne no childrenL2
Or because I have fathered noneL2
That I twisted the twig in my handsP2
And cut the blossom free too soon from the seedQ2
That I lay across the fireS
And snuffed it dead sooner than draft or rainU
-
-
But I have turned away and drawn myselfR2
Upright to walk along the room aloneB2
Across the dark the spines of cactus plantsS2
Remind me how I go aloof obscureT2
Indifferent to the words the children chalkU2
Against my house and down the garden wallsV2
They cannot tear the garden out of meG2
Nor smear my love with names Love is a cliffW2
A clear cold curve of stone mottled by starsX2
smirched by the morning carved by the dark seaG2
Till stars and dawn and waves can slash no moreY2
Till the rock s heart is found and shaped againB
-
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I keep the house and say no words the eveningJ
Falls like a petal down the shawl of treesZ2
I light the fire and see the blossom danceA3
On air alone I will not douse that flameN
That searing flower I will burn in itB3
I will not banish love to empty rainU
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For I know that I am asked to hate myselfR2
For their sweet sakeC3
Who sow the world with childD3
I am given to burn on the dark fire they makeC3
With their sly voicesE3
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But I have burned already down to boneB2
There is a fire that burns beyond the namesF3
Of sludge and filth of which this world is madeG3
Agony sears the dark flesh of the bodyG2
And lifts me higher than the smoke to riseH3
Above the earth above the sacrificeI3
Until my soul flares outward like a blueJ3
Blossom of gas fire dancing in mid airP
Free of the body s work of twisted ironK3

James Arlington Wright



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