In The Room Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CDCDEFEF CACAAGAG HAHAAIAI F JKJKLMLM F NBNBAAAA F OAOAPQPQ F LALARASA F TATAFAFA F AFAFKAKA F UAUAVWVW F AFAFAFAF F AFAFQDQD F XIXIYMYM F ZAZAKFKF F AAAAFAFA F FAFAHPHP F AFAFNA2NA2 F B2C2D2C2AAAA F GDGDFFFF F WE2WE2FAFA F AAAAJF2JF2 F AFAFEFEF F LALAFEFE F AFAFAFAF F AAAAKAKA F FAG2AFFFF| Ceste insigne fable et tragicque comedie | A |
| RABELAIS | B |
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| I | - |
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| The sun was down and twilight grey | C |
| Filled half the air but in the room | D |
| Whose curtain had been drawn all day | C |
| The twilight was a dusky gloom | D |
| Which seemed at first as still as death | E |
| And void but was indeed all rife | F |
| With subtle thrills the pulse and breath | E |
| Of multitudinous lower life | F |
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| II | - |
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| In their abrupt and headlong way | C |
| Bewildered flies for light had dashed | A |
| Against the curtain all the day | C |
| And now slept wintrily abashed | A |
| And nimble mice slept wearied out | A |
| With such a double night's uproar | G |
| But solid beetles crawled about | A |
| The chilly hearth and naked floor | G |
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| III | - |
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| And so throughout the twilight hour | H |
| That vaguely murmurous hush and rest | A |
| There brooded and beneath its power | H |
| Life throbbing held its throbs supprest | A |
| Until the thin voiced mirror sighed | A |
| I am all blurred with dust and damp | I |
| So long ago the clear day died | A |
| So long has gleamed nor fire nor lamp | I |
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| IV | F |
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| Whereon the curtain murmured back | J |
| Some change is on us good or ill | K |
| Behind me and before is black | J |
| As when those human things lie still | K |
| But I have seen the darkness grow | L |
| As grows the daylight every morn | M |
| Have felt out there long shine and glow | L |
| In here long chilly dusk forlorn | M |
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| V | F |
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| The cupboard grumbled with a groan | N |
| Each new day worse starvation brings | B |
| Since he came here I have not known | N |
| Or sweets or cates or wholesome things | B |
| But now a pinch of meal a crust | A |
| Throughout the week is all I get | A |
| I am so empty it is just | A |
| As when they said we were to let | A |
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| VI | F |
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| What is become then of our Man | O |
| The petulant old glass exclaimed | A |
| If all this time he slumber can | O |
| He really ought to be ashamed | A |
| I wish we had our Girl again | P |
| So gay and busy bright and fair | Q |
| The girls are better than these men | P |
| Who only for their dull selves care | Q |
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| VII | F |
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| It is so many hours ago | L |
| The lamp and fire were both alight | A |
| I saw him pacing to and fro | L |
| Perturbing restlessly the night | A |
| His face was pale to give one fear | R |
| His eyes when lifted looked too bright | A |
| He muttered what I could not hear | S |
| Bad words though something was not right | A |
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| VIII | F |
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| The table said He wrote so long | T |
| That I grew weary of his weight | A |
| The pen kept up a cricket song | T |
| It ran and ran at such a rate | A |
| And in the longer pauses he | F |
| With both his folded arms downpressed | A |
| And stared as one who does not see | F |
| Or sank his head upon his breast | A |
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| IX | F |
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| The fire grate said I am as cold | A |
| As if I never had a blaze | F |
| The few dead cinders here I hold | A |
| I held unburned for days and days | F |
| Last night he made them flare but still | K |
| What good did all his writing do | A |
| Among my ashes curl and thrill | K |
| Thin ghosts of all those papers too | A |
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| X | F |
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| The table answered Not quite all | U |
| He saved and folded up one sheet | A |
| And sealed it fast and let it fall | U |
| And here it lies now white and neat | A |
| Whereon the letter's whisper came | V |
| My writing is dosed up too well | W |
| Outside there's not a single name | V |
| And who should read me I can't tell | W |
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| XI | F |
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| The mirror sneered with scornful spite | A |
| That ancient crack which spoiled her looks | F |
| Had marred her temper Write and write | A |
| And read those stupid worn out books | F |
| That's all he does read write and read | A |
| And smoke that nasty pipe which stinks | F |
| He never takes the slightest heed | A |
| How any of us feels or thinks | F |
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| XII | F |
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| But Lucy fifty times a day | A |
| Would come and smile here in my face | F |
| Adjust a tress that curled astray | A |
| Or tie a ribbon with more grace | F |
| She looked so young and fresh and fair | Q |
| She blushed with such a charming bloom | D |
| It did one good to see her there | Q |
| And brightened all things in the room | D |
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| XIII | F |
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| She did not sit hours stark and dumb | X |
| As pale as moonshine by the lamp | I |
| To lie in bed when day was come | X |
| And leave us curtained chill and damp | I |
| She slept away the dreary dark | Y |
| And rose to greet the pleasant morn | M |
| And sang as gaily as a lark | Y |
| While busy as the flies sun born | M |
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| XIV | F |
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| And how she loved us every one | Z |
| And dusted this and mended that | A |
| With trills and laughs and freaks of fun | Z |
| And tender scoldings in her chat | A |
| And then her bird that sang as shrill | K |
| As she sang sweet her darling flowers | F |
| That grew there in the window sill | K |
| Where she would sit at work for hours | F |
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| XV | F |
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| It was not much she ever wrote | A |
| Her fingers had good work to do | A |
| Say once a week a pretty note | A |
| And very long it took her too | A |
| And little more she read I wis | F |
| Just now and then a pictured sheet | A |
| Besides those letters she would kiss | F |
| And croon for hours they were so sweet | A |
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| XVI | F |
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| She had her friends too blithe young girls | F |
| Who whispered babbled laughed caressed | A |
| And romped and danced with dancing curls | F |
| And gave our life a joyous zest | A |
| But with this dullard glum and sour | H |
| Not one of all his fellow men | P |
| Has ever passed a social hour | H |
| We might be in some wild beast's den | P |
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| XVII | F |
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| This long tirade aroused the bed | A |
| Who spoke in deep and ponderous bass | F |
| Befitting that calm life he led | A |
| As if firm rooted in his place | F |
| In broad majestic bulk alone | N |
| As in thrice venerable age | A2 |
| He stood at once the royal throne | N |
| The monarch the experienced sage | A2 |
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| XVIII | F |
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| I know what is and what has been | B2 |
| Not anything to me comes strange | C2 |
| Who in so many years have seen | D2 |
| And lived through every kind of change | C2 |
| I know when men are good or bad | A |
| When well or ill he slowly said | A |
| When sad or glad when sane or mad | A |
| And when they sleep alive or dead | A |
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| XIX | F |
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| At this last word of solemn lore | G |
| A tremor circled through the gloom | D |
| As if a crash upon the floor | G |
| Had jarred and shaken all the room | D |
| For nearly all the listening things | F |
| Were old and worn and knew what curse | F |
| Of violent change death often brings | F |
| From good to bad from bad to worse | F |
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| XX | F |
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| They get to know each other well | W |
| To feel at home and settled down | E2 |
| Death bursts among them like a shell | W |
| And strews them over all the town | E2 |
| The bed went on This man who lies | F |
| Upon me now is stark and cold | A |
| He will not any more arise | F |
| And do the things he did of old | A |
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| XXI | F |
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| But we shall have short peace or rest | A |
| For soon up here will come a rout | A |
| And nail him in a queer long chest | A |
| And carry him like luggage out | A |
| They will be muffled all in black | J |
| And whisper much and sigh and weep | F2 |
| But he will never more come back | J |
| And some one else in me must sleep | F2 |
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| XXII | F |
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| Thereon a little phial shrilled | A |
| Here empty on the chair I lie | F |
| I heard one say as I was filled | A |
| With half of this a man would die | F |
| The man there drank me with slow breath | E |
| And murmured Thus ends barren strife | F |
| O sweeter thou cold wine of death | E |
| Than ever sweet warm wine of life | F |
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| XXIII | F |
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| One of my cousins long ago | L |
| A little thing the mirror said | A |
| Was carried to a couch to show | L |
| Whether a man was really dead | A |
| Two great improvements marked the case | F |
| He did not blur her with his breath | E |
| His many wrinkled twitching face | F |
| Was smooth old ivory verdict Death | E |
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| XXIV | F |
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| It lay the lowest thing there lulled | A |
| Sweet sleep like in corruption's truce | F |
| The form whose purpose was annulled | A |
| While all the other shapes meant use | F |
| It lay the he become now it | A |
| Unconscious of the deep disgrace | F |
| Unanxious how its parts might flit | A |
| Through what new forms in time and space | F |
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| XXV | F |
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| It lay and preached as dumb things do | A |
| More powerfully than tongues can prate | A |
| Though life be torture through and through | A |
| Man is but weak to plain of fate | A |
| The drear path crawls on drearier still | K |
| To wounded feet and hopeless breast | A |
| Well he can lie down where he will | K |
| And straight all ends in endless rest | A |
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| XXVI | F |
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| And while the black night nothing saw | F |
| And till the cold morn came at last | A |
| That old bed held the room in awe | G2 |
| With tales of its experience vast | A |
| It thrilled the gloom it told such tales | F |
| Of human sorrows and delights | F |
| Of fever moans and infant wails | F |
| Of births and deaths and bridal nights | F |
James Thomson - (bysshe Vanolis)
(1)
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About In The Room
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