Kenneth Koch

Poems Books Biography Comments

On The Great Atlantic Rainway Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFFGHIJG KLMKDKKDDNNG MOOPQKKRSGGT U

I set forth one misted white day of JuneA
Beneath the great Atlantic rainway and heardB
Honestly you smite worlds of truth butC
Lose your own trains of thought like a pigeonD
Did you once ride in Kenneth s machineE
Yes I rode there an old man in shorts blindF
Who had lost his way in the filling station Kenneth was kindF
Did he fill your motionless ears with resonance and stainG
No he spoke not as a critic but as a manH
Tell me what did he say He saidI
My eyes are the white sky the gravel on the groundway my sad lamentJ
And yet he drives between the two Exactly JaneG
-
And that is the modern idea of fittingnessK
To always in motion lose nothing although beneath theL
Rainway they move in threes and twos completelyM
Ruined for themselves like moving picturesK
But how other Formulalessness to go from the sunD
Into love s sweet disrepair He would fondly expressK
Rain trees which is not a poem rain treesK
Still it is mysterious to have an engineD
That floats bouquets and one day in the rear visionD
Mirror of his car we vowed delightN
The insufficiency of the silverware in the sunlightN
The dreams he steals from and smiles losing gainG
-
Yet always beneath the rainway unsyntacticalM
Beauty might leap up That we might singO
From smiles ravines Rose the reverse of everythingO
May be profaned or talked at like a hatP
Oh that was sweet and short like the minuetQ
Of stars which would permit us to seem our best friendsK
By silver s eminent lights For nature is so small endsK
Falsely reign distending the time we didR
Behind our hope for body work riding with KennethS
Their voicing ceased then started again to complainG
That we are offered nothing when it starts to rainG
In the same way though we are dying for the truthT
-
-
On the Great Atlantic Rainway from The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch published by Alfred A Knopf Inc Copyright by Kenneth KochU

Kenneth Koch



Rate:
(1)



Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< Mountain Poem Next Poem

Write your comment about On The Great Atlantic Rainway poem by Kenneth Koch

 

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 5 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Popular Poets