Anastasia & Sandman Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC D BE F GHG E IJKLMNOP QRPSC CTUVWXYZA2CB2HC2D2E2 F2G2IA2H2I2PSHNJ2K2I L2M2N2O2P2Q2 R2S2 J2T2 J EYIIICU2Q2 E V2YW2PP C J2IJ2J2DJ2EJ2S2X2EJ2 PK2 J2J2Y2Z2A3NJ2CJ2B3YC 3GB3D3J2EJ2The brow of a horse in that moment when | A |
The horse is drinking water so deeply from a trough | B |
It seems to inhale the water is holy | C |
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I refuse to explain | D |
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When the horse had gone the water in the trough | B |
All through the empty summer | E |
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Went on reflecting clouds amp stars | F |
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The horse cropping grass in a field | G |
And the fly buzzing around its eyes are more real | H |
Than the mist in one corner of the field | G |
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Or the angel hidden in the mist for that matter | E |
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Members of the Committee on the Ineffable | I |
Let me illustrate this with a story amp ask you all | J |
To rest your heads on the table cushioned | K |
If you wish in your hands amp if you want | L |
Comforted by a small carton of milk | M |
To drink from as you once did long ago | N |
When there was only a curriculum of beach grass | O |
When the University of Flies was only a distant humming | P |
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In Romania after the war Stalin confiscated | Q |
The horses that had been used to work the fields | R |
You won't need horses now Stalin said cupping | P |
His hand to his ear Can't you hear the tractors | S |
Coming in the distance I hear them already | C |
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The crowd in the Callea Victoria listened closely | C |
But no one heard anything In the distance | T |
There was only the faint glow of a few clouds | U |
And the horses were led into boxcars amp emerged | V |
As the dimly remembered meals of flesh | W |
That fed the starving Poles | X |
During that famine amp part of the next one | Y |
In which even words grew thin amp transparent | Z |
Like the pale wings of ants that flew | A2 |
Out of the oldest houses amp slowly | C |
What had been real in words began to be replaced | B2 |
By what was not real by the not exactly real | H |
Well not exactly but became the preferred | C2 |
Administrative phrasing so that the man | D2 |
Standing with his hat in his hands would not guess | E2 |
That the phrasing of a few words had already swept | F2 |
The earth from beneath his feet That horse I had | G2 |
He was more real than any angel | I |
The housefly when I had a house was real too | A2 |
Is what the man thought | H2 |
Yet it wasn't more than a few months | I2 |
Before the man began to wonder talking | P |
To himself out loud before the others | S |
Was the horse real Was the house real | H |
An angel flew in and out of the high window | N |
In the factory where the man worked his hands | J2 |
Numb with cold He hated the window amp the light | K2 |
Entering the window amp he hated the angel | I |
Because the angel could not be carved into meat | L2 |
Or dumped into the ossuary amp become part | M2 |
Of the landfill at the edge of town | N2 |
It therefore could not acquire a soul | O2 |
And resembled in significance nothing more | P2 |
Than a light summer dress when the body has gone | Q2 |
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The man survived because after a while | R2 |
He shut up about it | S2 |
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Stalin had a deep understanding of the kulaks | J2 |
Their sense of marginalization amp belief in the land | T2 |
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That is why he killed them all | J |
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Members of the Committee on Solitude consider | E |
Our own impoverishment amp the progress of that famine | Y |
In which now it is becoming impossible | I |
To feel anything when we contemplate the burial | I |
Alive in a two hour period of hundreds of people | I |
Who were not clich eacute s who did not know they would be | C |
The illegible blank of the past that lives in each | U2 |
Of us even in some guy watering his lawn | Q2 |
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On a summer night Consider | E |
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The death of Stalin amp the slow uninterrupted | V2 |
Evolution of the horse a species no one | Y |
Not even Stalin could extinguish almost as if | W2 |
What could not be altered was something | P |
Noble in the look of its face something | P |
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Incapable of treachery | C |
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Then imagine in your planning proposals | J2 |
The exact moment in the future when an angel | I |
Might alight amp crawl like a fly into the ear of a horse | J2 |
And then eventually into the brain of a horse | J2 |
And imagine further that the angel in the brain | D |
Of this horse is for the horse cropping grass | J2 |
In the field largely irrelevant a mist in the corner | E |
Of the field something that disappears | J2 |
The horse thinks when weight is passed through it | S2 |
Something that will not even carry the weight | X2 |
Of its own father | E |
On its back the horse decides amp so demonstrates | J2 |
This by swishing at a fly with its tail by continuing | P |
To graze as the dusk comes on amp almost until it is night | K2 |
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Old contrivers daydreamers walking chemistry sets | J2 |
Exhausted chimneysweeps of the spaces | J2 |
Between words where the Holy Ghost tastes just | Y2 |
Like the dust it is made of | Z2 |
Let's tear up our lecture notes amp throw them out | A3 |
The window | N |
Let's do it right now before wisdom descends upon us | J2 |
Like a spiderweb over a burned out theater marquee | C |
Because what's the use | J2 |
I keep going to meetings where no one's there | B3 |
And contributing to the discussion | Y |
And besides behind the angel hissing in its mist | C3 |
Is a gate that leads only into another field | G |
Another outcropping of stones amp withered grass where | B3 |
A horse named Sandman amp a horse named Anastasia | D3 |
Used to stand at the fence amp watch the traffic pass | J2 |
Where there were outdoor concerts once in summer | E |
Under the missing amp innumerable stars | J2 |
Larry Levis
(1)
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