Betty Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Lola Ridge

Betty Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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You can see the sandhills from our new room	A
Butterflies	B
live in the sandhills	B
and lizards	B
and centipedes	B
If you keep very still	C
lizards will think you a stone	D
and run over your lap	E
Butterflies' liveries	B
are scarlet and black	F
They drive chariots in air	G
People in the chariots	B
are pale as dew	H
you can see right through them	I
but the chariots	B
are made of gold of the sun	J
They go up to heaven	J
and never catch fire	K
There are green centipedes	B
and brown centipedes	B
and black centipedes	B
because green and brown and black	F
are the colors in hell's flag	L
Centipedes	B
have hundreds of feet	M
because it is so far from hell	N
to come up for air	G
Centipedes	B
do not hurry	O
They are waiting for the last day	P
when they will creep over the false prophets	B
who will have their hands tied	Q
	-
	-
	-
Night calls to the sandhills	B
and gathers them under her	K
she pushes away cities	B
because their sharp lights	B
hurt her soft breast	R
Even candles make a sore place	B
when they stick in the night	S
	-
There are things in the sandhills	B
that no one knows about	T
they come out at dark when the young snakes play	P
and tell each other secrets	B
in the deaf logs	B
	-
Sometimes before rain	U
when the stars have gone inside	Q
the night comes close to your window	V
and sniffs at the light	S
But you must not run away	P
you must keep your face to the night	S
and walk backward	W
	-
	-
	-
When it rains	B
and you are pulling off flies' legs	B
mama lets you play houses	B
with Lizzie and Clara	X
Because you are the Only One	J
and because Only Ones have to live alone	D
while sisters stay together	K
Lizzie and Clara	X
give you the dry house	B
and take the one with the leaking roof	Y
	-
Rain like curly hairpins	B
blows on Lizzie and Clara's two heads	B
turned like one head	Z
two mouths	B
spread into one laugh	A2
Lizzie is saying	B2
why don't you want to play	P
when you feel you'd like to braid	C2
the crinkled silver rain	U
into a shining rope	D2
to climb up and up and up into the wet sky	E2
and never see any one again	F2
	-
Our gate doesn't hang right	S
It must have pawed at the wind	G2
and gotten a kick	H2
as the wind passed over	K
The sitting sky	E2
puffs out a gray smoke	I2
and the wind makes a red striped sound	J2
blowing out straight	K2
but our gate drags its foot	L2
and whines to itself on one hinge	M2
	-
	-
	-
What do you think I've found	J2
two wee knickers of fairy brass	B
or two gold sovereigns folded up	N2
in a bit of green silk	O2
or two gold bugs	B
in little green shirts	B
If you want to know	V
you must walk tip toe	V
so your feet just whisper in the grass	B
you must carry them careful	P2
and very proud	Q2
for their stems bleed drops of milk	O2
but Lizzie and Clara shout in glee	O
Pee a bed pee a bed	Z
dandelions	B
You look in the eyes of grown up people	P2
to see if they feel	R2
the way you feel	R2
but they hide inside of themselves	B
and so you do not find out	T
Grown up people say	P
The stars are bright to night	S
but they do not say	P
what you are thinking about stars	B
not even mama says what you are thinking about stars	B
This makes you feel very lonely	O
	-
	-
	-
It's strange about stars	B
You have to be still when they look at you	H
They push your song inside of you with their song	S2
Their long silvery rays	B
sink into you and do not hurt	T2
It is good to feel them resting on you	H
like great white birds	B
and their shining whiteness	B
doesn't burn like the sun	J
it washes all over you	H
and makes you feel cleaner'n water	K
	-
	-
	-
My doll Janie has no waist	U2
and her body is like a tub with feet on it	V2
Sometimes I beat her	K
but I always kiss her afterwards	B
When I have kissed all the paint off her body	O
I shall tie a ribbon about it	V2
so she shan't look shabby	O
But it must be blue	H
it mustn't be pink	W2
pink shows the dirt on her face	B
that won't wash off	X2
	-
	-
	-
I beat Janie	O
and beat her	K
but still she smiled	Y2
so I scratched her between the eyes with a pin	Z2
Now she doesn't love me anymore	A3
she scowls and scowls	B
though I've begged her to forgive me	O
and poured sugar in the hole at the back of her head	Z
	-
	-
	-
Mama says Janie is a fairy doll	B3
and she has forgiven me	O
that she's gone to the market	C3
to buy me some sweets	B
Now she's at the door	A3
and a little bag tied to her neck	D3
I run to Janie	O
and kiss her all over	K
Ah she is still frowning	B2
I let the sweets drop on the floor	A3
mama	X
has told you a lie	E2
	-
	-
	-
Chinaman	O
singing in street	M
gleen ledd ish es gleen ledd ish es	B
hot sun	O
shining on your face	B
it must be a new day	P
But why aren't you happy	O
if it's a new day	P
Because something has happened	E3
something sad and terrible	P2
Now I remember it's Janie	O
Yesterday	P
I took Janie out	T
and tied my handkerchief over her face	B
and put sand in it	V2
and threw her into the ditch	F3
down in the black water	K
under the dock leaves	B
and when mama asked me where Janie was	B
I said I had lost her	K
	-
	-
	-
I'm glad it is night time	G3
so I'll be able to go to sleep	H3
and forget all about it	V2
But mama looks at my tongue	I3
and says she will give me senna tea	O
When you smell the tea	O
you shut your eyes tight	S
and pretend not to hear	J3
the soft cool voice of mama	X
that goes over your forehead	Z
like a little wind	G2
And then you lie in the dark	K3
and stare and stare	G
till the faces come	L3
yellow faces with leering eyes	B
drifting in a greeny mist	M3
I wonder	K
if Janie sees faces	B
out there alone in the dark	K3
I wonder	K
if she has got the handkerchief off	X2
or if the water has gone in the hole	N3
where the whistle was	B
at the back of her head	Z
and drowned her	K
or if the stars	B
can see her under the dock leaves	B
	-
	-
	-
It's smoky blue and still	C
over the red road	O3
Wind must be lying down with its tail under it	V2
doesn't even flick off the flies	B
And you can hear the silence	B
buzzing in the gum trees	B
the way the angels buzzed	P3
when they flew through the cedars of Lebanon	O
with thin gauze wings	B
you could see through	H
Nice to hear the silence buzzing	B2
till it comes too close	B
and booms in your ears	B
and presses all over you	H
till you scream	Q3
When you scream at the silence	B
it goes to jingling pieces	B
like a silver mirror	K
broken into tiny bits	B
Perhaps its wings are made of glass	B
perhaps it lives down in a dark dark cave	R3
and only comes up	N2
to warm its wings in the sun	O
It's cold in the cave	R3
no matter how you cover yourself up	N2
Little girls sit there	G
dressed in white	S
and the dolls in their arms	B
all have white handkerchiefs	B
over their faces	B
Their shadows cannot play with them	I
their shadows lie down at their feet	M
for the little girls sit stiff as stones	B
with their backs to the mouth of the cave	R3
where a little light falls off	X2
the wings of the silence	B
when it comes down out of the sun	O
	-
	-
	-
Moon catches the flying fish	S3
as they dive in the bay	P
Flying fish	S3
spin over and over	K
slippity silver	K
into the water	K
Mom bends over jungles	B
and touches the foreheads of tigers	B
as they pass under openings made by dropped leaves	B
Tigers stop on the trail of the deer	T3
while the moon is on their foreheads	B
they let the stags go by	E2
	-
Moon is shining strangely	O
on the white palings of the fence	B
Fence keeps very still	C
most times it moves a little	P2
everything moves a little	P2
though you mayn't know it	V2
but now the little fence	B
wouldn't change places with the great cross	B
that stands so stiff and high	E2
with its back to the moon	O
Moon shining strangely	O
on the white palings of the fence	B
I am shining too	H
but my light is shut inside of me	O
and can't get out	T
	-
	-
	-
Old house with black windows	B
blind house begging moonlight	S
to put out the shadows	B
why do you want so much light	S
You creak when the wind steps on you	H
you cough up dust	U3
and your beams ache	V3
you know you will soon fall	W3
the moon just pities you	H
Don't waste yourself moon	O
come on my bed and play with me	O
Wrap me up in blue light	S
you who are cool	X3
I am too hot	Y3
I am all alive	Z3
and the shadows are outside of me	O
	-
	-
	-
There are different kinds of shadows	B
The blind ones	B
are the shadows of things	B
These are the tame shadows	B
they love to play on the wall with you	H
and follow you about like cats and dogs	B
Sometimes	B
they hiss at you softly	O
like snakes that do not bite	S
or swish like women's dresses	B
but if you poke a candle at them	I
they pull in their heads and disappear	T3
	-
But there is a shadow	V
that is not the shadow of a thing	B2
it is a thing itself	A4
When you meet this shadow	V
you must not look at it too long	S2
it grows with your looking at it	V2
till you are all alone	O
with nothing around you	H
nothing nothing nothing	B2
but a shadow	V
with its eyes full of black light	S
	-
	-
	-
There's a shadow in the corner of the shed	Z
crouching lying in wait	K2
a black coiled shadow	V
watching ready to strike	B4
but I mustn't be afraid of it	V2
I mustn't be afraid of anything	B2
Poor evil shadow	V
the candle would chase it away	P
only she can't get at it	V2
Do you think that every one hates you	H
shadow with your back to the wall	W3
afraid to lie down and sleep	H3
But I don't hate you	H
Even the moon means to be kind	G2
She just treads on you	H
as I'd tread on a worm that I didn't see	O
Don't be afraid of me shadow	V
See I've no light in my hand	C4
nothing to save myself with	D4
yet I walk right up to you	H
if you'll let me	O
I'll put my arms around you	H
and stroke you softly	O
Are you surprised I'd put my arms around you	H
Is it your black black sorrow	V
that nobody loves you	H