Larry Levis

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Those Graves In Rome Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHGIJKEKLGEMNM OPQRSTUGOLVWXVYZGGA2 RGB2C2D2E2F2G2GH2I2J 2GOVVVXOGK2L2QM2GN2D O2P2Q2 V

There are places where the eye can starveA
But not here Here for example isB
The Piazza Navona amp here is his narrow roomC
Overlooking the Steps amp the crowds of sunbathingD
Tourists And here is the Protestant CemeteryE
Where Keats amp Joseph Severn join handsF
Forever under a little shawl of grassG
And where Keats's name isn't even onH
His gravestone because it is on Severn'sG
And Joseph Severn's infant son is buriedI
Two modest grassy steps behind them bothJ
But you'd have to know the story how bedriddenK
Keats wanted the inscription to beE
Simple amp unbearable quot Here lies oneK
Whose name is writ in water quot On a warm dayL
I stood here with my two oldest friendsG
I thought then that the three of us would beE
Indissoluble at the end amp also thatM
We would all die of course And not dieN
And maybe we should have joined hands at thatM
Moment We didn't All we did was followO
A lame man in a rumpled suit who climbedP
A slight incline of graves blurring intoQ
The passing marble of other graves to visitR
The vacant home of whatever is not leftS
Of Shelley amp Trelawney That walk uphill mustT
Be hard if you can't walk At the top the manU
Wheezed for breath sweat beaded his faceG
And his wife wore a look of concern soO
Habitual it seemed more like the wayL
Our bodies someday will have to wear stoneV
Later that night the three of us strolledW
Our arms around each other through the ViaX
Del Corso amp toward the Piazza di EspagnaV
As each street grew quieter untilY
Finally we heard nothing at the endZ
Except the occasional scrape of our own stepsG
And so said good bye Among such friendsG
Who never allowed anything still aliveA2
To die I'd almost forgotten that whatR
Most people leave behind them disappearsG
Three days later staying alone in a cheapB2
Hotel in Naples I noticed a child's smearedC2
Fingerprint on a bannister ItD2
Had been indifferently preserved beneathE2
A patina of varnish applied I guessed afterF2
The last war It seemed I could almost hearG2
His shout years later on that street But thisG
Is speculation amp no doubt the simplest factH2
Could shame me Perhaps the child was fromI2
Calabria amp went back to it withJ2
A mother who failed to find work amp perhapsG
The child died there twenty years agoO
Of malaria It was so common thenV
The children crying to the doctors for quinineV
And to the tourists who looked like doctors for quinineV
It was so common you did not expect an ariaX
And not much on a gravestone either althoughO
His name is on it amp weathered stone still wearsG
His name not the way a girl might wearK2
The too large faded blue workshirt ofL2
A lover as she walks thoughtfully throughQ
The Via Fratelli to buy bread shrimpM2
And wine for the evening meal with candlesG
The laughter of her friends amp later the sweetN2
Enkindling of desire but something else somethingD
Cut simply in stone by hand amp meant to lastO2
Because of the way a name any nameP2
Is empty And not empty And almost enoughQ2
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Anonymous submissionV

Larry Levis



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