The Circle Game Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC DCEFEG HIJK LMNLOP QRS TUCVWXAYZPCIIC DA2 IB2LC2 L D2WE2 F2G2H2B2I2OJ2C2 A2K2O KJ2KL2M2I M2N2 A2 O2 P2K A2 IQ2R2C2 IS2T2 U2KHV2W2 X2IEIX2U Y2Z2T2V2DU F2A3 B3KC3D3E3 X2F3 G3IIIH3C2A3 I3B2F3 J A2Y2J3K3K3Y2LK3L3H2 DK3ELM3N3LK3 O3M2IK3KIK3K3K3IP3K3 K3 LLOOQ3R3S3T3K3EM2 U3K3K3 L V3W3I2 LK3I2K3X3EK3K3K3K3 IK3C2 I3KKKK3 K3Y3IK3K3EK3 SKKK3Z3A4IZ3K J B4B4 B4C4 LK3 K3K3 D4K3E4K3 L K3M3K3JIC2IK3III F4G4JP3 J K3H3E D K3K3E K3K3K3 J GA2KI3 M2JGK3GK3K3H4H3 K3I4A3DK3K3K3 PDK3S JIE2LGW3J4KK KK3A2 K3IS GK3IGK3 JK4KKK3 H3K3IIK3 K3KKG EGThe children on the lawn | A |
joined hand to hand | B |
go round and round | C |
- | |
each arm going into | D |
the next arm around | C |
full circle | E |
until it comes | F |
back into each of the single | E |
bodies again | G |
- | |
They are singing but | H |
not to each other | I |
their feet move | J |
almost in time to the singing | K |
- | |
We can see | L |
the concentration on | M |
their faces their eyes | N |
fixed on the empty | L |
moving spaces just in | O |
front of them | P |
- | |
We might mistake this | Q |
tranced moving for joy | R |
but there is no joy in it | S |
- | |
We can see arm in arm | T |
as we watch them go | U |
round and round | C |
intent almost | V |
studious the grass | W |
underfoot ignored the trees | X |
circling the lawn | A |
ignored the lake ignored | Y |
that the whole point | Z |
for them | P |
of going round and round | C |
is faster | I |
slower | I |
going round and round | C |
- | |
- | |
ii | - |
- | |
Being with you | D |
here in this room | A2 |
- | |
is like groping through a mirror | I |
whose glass has melted | B2 |
to the consistency | L |
of gelatin | C2 |
- | |
You refuse to be | L |
and I | - |
an exact reflection yet | D2 |
will not walk from the glass | W |
be separate | E2 |
- | |
Anyway it is right | F2 |
that they have put | G2 |
so many mirrors here | H2 |
chipped hung crooked | B2 |
in this room with its high transom | I2 |
and empty wardrobe even | O |
the back of the door | J2 |
has one | C2 |
- | |
There are people in the next room | A2 |
arguing opening and closing drawers | K2 |
the walls are thin | O |
- | |
You look past me listening | K |
to them perhaps or | J2 |
watching | K |
your own reflection somewhere | L2 |
behind my head | M2 |
over my shoulder | I |
- | |
You shift and the bed | M2 |
sags under us losing its focus | N2 |
- | |
there is someone in the next room | A2 |
- | |
there is always | O2 |
- | |
your face | P2 |
remote listening | K |
- | |
someone in the next room | A2 |
- | |
- | |
iii | - |
- | |
However | I |
in all their games | Q2 |
there seems | R2 |
to be some reason | C2 |
- | |
however | I |
abstract they | S2 |
at first appear | T2 |
- | |
When we read them legends | U2 |
in the evening | K |
of monstrous battles and secret | H |
betrayals in the forest | V2 |
and brutal deaths | W2 |
- | |
they scarcely listened | X2 |
one yawned and fidgeted another | I |
chewed the wooden handle | E |
of a hammer | I |
the youngest one examined | X2 |
a slight cut on his toe | U |
- | |
and we wondered how | Y2 |
they could remain | Z2 |
completely without fear | T2 |
or even interest | V2 |
as the final sword slid through | D |
the dying hero | U |
- | |
The next night | F2 |
walking along the beach | A3 |
- | |
we found the trenches | B3 |
they had been making | K |
fortified with pointed sticks | C3 |
driven into the sides | D3 |
of their sand moats | E3 |
- | |
and a lake enclosed island | X2 |
with no bridges | F3 |
- | |
a last attempt | G3 |
however | I |
eroded by the water | I |
in an hour | I |
to make | H3 |
maybe a refuge human | C2 |
and secure from the reach | A3 |
- | |
of whatever walks along | I3 |
sword hearted | B2 |
these night beaches | F3 |
- | |
- | |
iv | J |
- | |
Returning to the room | A2 |
I notice how | Y2 |
all your word | J3 |
plays calculated ploys | K3 |
of the body the witticisms | K3 |
of touch are now | Y2 |
attempts to keep me | L |
at a certain distance | K3 |
and at length avoid | L3 |
admitting I am here | H2 |
- | |
I watch you | D |
watching my face | K3 |
indifferently | E |
yet with the same taut curiosity | L |
with which you might regard | M3 |
a suddenly discovered part | N3 |
of your own body | L |
a wart perhaps | K3 |
- | |
and I remember that | O3 |
you said | M2 |
in childhood you were | I |
a tracer of maps | K3 |
not making but moving | K |
a pen or a forefinger | I |
over the courses of the rivers | K3 |
the different colours | K3 |
that mark the rise of mountains | K3 |
a memorizer | I |
of names to hold | P3 |
these places | K3 |
in their proper places | K3 |
- | |
So now you trace me | L |
like a country's boundary | L |
or a strange new wrinkle in | O |
your own wellknown skin | O |
and I am fixed stuck | Q3 |
down on the outspread map | R3 |
of this room of your mind's continent | S3 |
here and yet not here like | T3 |
the wardrobe and the mirrors | K3 |
the voices through the wall | E |
your body ignored on the bed | M2 |
- | |
transfixed | U3 |
by your eyes' | K3 |
cold blue thumbtacks | K3 |
- | |
- | |
v | L |
- | |
The children like the block | V3 |
of grey stone that was once a fort | W3 |
but now is a museum | I2 |
- | |
especially | L |
they like the guns | K3 |
and the armour brought from | I2 |
other times and countries | K3 |
and when they go home | X3 |
their drawings will be full | E |
for some days of swords | K3 |
archaic sunburst maces | K3 |
broken spears | K3 |
and vivid red explosions | K3 |
- | |
While they explore | I |
the cannons | K3 |
they aren't our children | C2 |
- | |
we walk outside along | I3 |
the earthworks noting | K |
how they are crumbling | K |
under the unceasing | K |
attacks of feet and flower roots | K3 |
- | |
The weapons | K3 |
that were once outside | Y3 |
sharpening themselves on war | I |
are now indoors | K3 |
there in the fortress | K3 |
fragile | E |
in glass cases | K3 |
- | |
Why is it | S |
I'm thinking | K |
of the careful moulding | K |
round the stonework archways | K3 |
that in this time such | Z3 |
elaborate defences keep | A4 |
things that are no longer | I |
much | Z3 |
worth defending | K |
- | |
- | |
vi | J |
- | |
And you play the safe game | B4 |
the orphan game | B4 |
- | |
the ragged winter game | B4 |
that says I am alone | C4 |
- | |
hungry I know you want me | L |
to play it also | K3 |
- | |
the game of the waif who stands | K3 |
at every picture window | K3 |
- | |
shivering pinched nose pressed | D4 |
against the glass the snow | K3 |
collecting on his neck | E4 |
watching the happy families | K3 |
- | |
a game of envy | L |
- | |
Yet he despises them they are so | K3 |
Victorian Christmas card | M3 |
the cheap paper shows | K3 |
under the pigments of | J |
their cheerful fire | I |
places and satin | C2 |
ribboned suburban laughter | I |
and they have their own forms | K3 |
of parlour | I |
games father and mother | I |
playing father and mother | I |
- | |
He's glad | F4 |
to be left | G4 |
out by himself | J |
in the cold | P3 |
- | |
hugging himself | J |
- | |
When I tell you this | K3 |
you say with a smile fake | H3 |
as a tinsel icicle | E |
- | |
You do it too | D |
- | |
Which in some ways | K3 |
is a lie but also I suppose | K3 |
is right as usual | E |
- | |
although I tend to pose | K3 |
in other seasons | K3 |
outside other windows | K3 |
- | |
- | |
vii | J |
- | |
Summer again | G |
in the mirrors of this room | A2 |
the children wheel singing | K |
the same song | I3 |
- | |
This casual bed | M2 |
scruffy as dry turf | J |
the counterpane | G |
rumpled with small burrows is | K3 |
their grassy lawn | G |
and these scuffed walls | K3 |
contain their circling trees | K3 |
that low clogged sink | H4 |
their lake | H3 |
- | |
a wasp comes | K3 |
drawn by the piece of sandwich | I4 |
left on the nearby beach | A3 |
how carefully you do | D |
such details | K3 |
one of the children flinches | K3 |
but won't let go | K3 |
- | |
You make them | P |
turn and turn according to | D |
the closed rules of your games | K3 |
but there is no joy in it | S |
- | |
and as we lie | J |
arm in arm neither | I |
joined nor separate | E2 |
your observations change me | L |
to a spineless woman in | G |
a cage of bones obsolete fort | W3 |
pulled inside out | J4 |
our lips moving | K |
almost in time to their singing | K |
- | |
listening to the opening | K |
and closing of the drawers | K3 |
in the next room | A2 |
- | |
of course there is always | K3 |
danger but where | I |
would you locate it | S |
- | |
the children spin | G |
a round cage of glass | K3 |
from the warm air | I |
with their thread thin | G |
insect voices | K3 |
- | |
and as we lie | J |
here caught | K4 |
in the monotony of wandering | K |
from room to room shifting | K |
the place of our defences | K3 |
- | |
I want to break | H3 |
these bones your prisoning rhythms | K3 |
winter | I |
summer | I |
all the glass cases | K3 |
- | |
erase all maps | K3 |
crack the protecting | K |
eggshell of your turning | K |
singing children | G |
- | |
I want the circle | E |
broken | G |
Margaret Atwood
(1)
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