A Dream Of Bric-a-brac Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDD EEAAFF GGHHIIJJ KLKLDDDD DMDMNKNKDDDDGGOGPPQQ DDRR KDKDDSDDS AAGGTTUVWWXXXBBYYTDT DDAGAGZZA2A2 B2B2C2C2D2E2AADDDDF2 C2F2C2DD C2C2KKDDG2C2G2C2C2C2 DDC2C2KKDDDDCCC2C2BB C2KKC2C2H2C2H2I dreamed I was in fair Niphon | A |
Amid tea fields I journeyed on | A |
Reclined in my jinrikishaw | B |
Across the rolling plains I saw | C |
The lordly Fusi yama rise | D |
His blue cone lost in bluer skies | D |
- | |
At last I bade my bearers stop | E |
Before what seemed a china shop | E |
I roused myself and entered in | A |
A fearful joy like some sweet sin | A |
Pierced through my bosom as I gazed | F |
Entranced transported and amazed | F |
- | |
For all the house was but one room | G |
And in its clear and grateful gloom | G |
Filled with all odors strange and strong | H |
That to the wondrous East belong | H |
I saw above around below | I |
A sight to make the warm heart glow | I |
And leave the eager soul no lack | J |
An endless wealth of bric a brac | J |
- | |
I saw bronze statues old and rare | K |
Fashioned by no mere mortal skill | L |
With robes that fluttered in the air | K |
Blown out by Art's eternal will | L |
And delicate ivory netsukes | D |
Richer in tone than Cheddar cheese | D |
Of saints and hermits cats and dogs | D |
Grim warriors and ecstatic frogs | D |
- | |
And here and there those wondrous masks | D |
More living flesh than sandal wood | M |
Where the full soul in pleasure basks | D |
And dreams of love the only good | M |
The walls were all with pictures hung | N |
Gay villas bright in rain washed air | K |
Trees to whose boughs brown monkeys clung | N |
Outlineless dabs of fuzzy hair | K |
And all about the opulent shelves | D |
Littered with porcelain beyond price | D |
Imari pots arrayed themselves | D |
Beside Ming dishes grain of rice | D |
Vied with the Royal Satsuma | G |
Proud of its sallow ivory beam | G |
And Kaga's Thousand Hermits lay | O |
Tranced in some punch bowl's golden gleam | G |
Over bronze censers black with age | P |
The five clawed dragons strife engage | P |
A curled and insolent Dog of Foo | Q |
Sniffs at the smoke aspiring through | Q |
- | |
In what old days in what far lands | D |
What busy brains what cunning hands | D |
With what quaint speech what alien thought | R |
Strange fellow men these marvels wrought | R |
- | |
As thus I mused I was aware | K |
There grew before my eager eyes | D |
A little maid too bright and fair | K |
Too strangely lovely for surprise | D |
It seemed the beauty of the place | D |
Had suddenly become concrete | S |
So full was she of Orient grace | D |
From her slant eyes and burnished face | D |
Down to her little gold bronze feet | S |
- | |
She was a girl of old Japan | A |
Her small hand held a gilded fan | A |
Which scattered fragrance through the room | G |
Her cheek was rich with pallid bloom | G |
Her eye was dark with languid fire | T |
Her red lips breathed a vague desire | T |
Her teeth of pearl inviolate | U |
Sweetly proclaimed her maiden state | V |
Her garb was stiff with broidered gold | W |
Twined with mysterious fold on fold | W |
That gave no hint where hidden well | X |
Her dainty form might warmly dwell | X |
A pearl within too large a shell | X |
So quaint so short so lissome she | B |
It seemed as if it well might be | B |
Some jocose god with sportive whirl | Y |
Had taken up a long lithe girl | Y |
And tied a graceful knot in her | T |
I tried to speak and found oh bliss | D |
I needed no interpreter | T |
I knew the Japanese for kiss | D |
I had no other thought but this | D |
And she with smile and blush divine | A |
Kind to my stammering prayer did seem | G |
My thought was hers and hers was mine | A |
In the swift logic of my dream | G |
My arms clung round her slender waist | Z |
Through gold and silk the form I traced | Z |
And glad as rain that follows drouth | A2 |
I kissed and kissed her bright red mouth | A2 |
- | |
What ailed the girl No loving sigh | B2 |
Heaved the round bosom in her eye | B2 |
Trembled no tear from her dear throat | C2 |
Bubbled a sweet and silvery note | C2 |
Of girlish laughter shrill and clear | D2 |
That all the statues seemed to hear | E2 |
The bronzes tinkled laughter fine | A |
I heard a chuckle argentine | A |
Ring from the silver images | D |
Even the ivory netsukes | D |
Uttered in every silent pause | D |
Dry bony laughs from tiny jaws | D |
The painted monkeys on the wall | F2 |
Waked up with chatter impudent | C2 |
Pottery porcelain bronze and all | F2 |
Broke out in ghostly merriment | C2 |
Faint as rain pattering on dry leaves | D |
Or cricket's chirp on summer eves | D |
- | |
And suddenly upon my sight | C2 |
There grew a portent left and right | C2 |
On every side as if the air | K |
Had taken substance then and there | K |
In every sort of form and face | D |
A throng of tourists filled the place | D |
I saw a Frenchman's sneering shrug | G2 |
A German countess in one hand | C2 |
A sky blue string which held a pug | G2 |
With the other a fiery face she fanned | C2 |
A Yankee with a soft felt hat | C2 |
A Coptic priest from Ararat | C2 |
An English girl with cheeks of rose | D |
A Nihilist with Socratic nose | D |
Paddy from Cork with baggage light | C2 |
And pockets stuffed with dynamite | C2 |
A haughty Southern Readjuster | K |
Wrapped in his pride and linen duster | K |
Two noisy New York stock brokers | D |
And twenty British globe trotters | D |
To my disgust and vast surprise | D |
They turned on me lack lustre eyes | D |
And each with dropped and wagging jaw | C |
Burst out into a wild guffaw | C |
They laughed with huge mouths opened wide | C2 |
They roared till each one held his side | C2 |
They screamed and writhed with brutal glee | B |
With fingers rudely stretched to me | B |
Till lo at once the laughter died | C2 |
The tourists faded into air | K |
None but my fair maid lingered there | K |
Who stood demurely by my side | C2 |
Who were your friends I asked the maid | C2 |
Taking a tea cup from its shelf | H2 |
This audience is disclosed she said | C2 |
Whenever a man makes a fool of himself | H2 |
John Hay
(1)
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