Dinner At Eight Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFG HIBJGJKLMIBNOP ANNAABQQA LQRSN QNGNQJOGTU NNIQVBNNWN| At times I thought of swizzling white rum | A |
| in the tropics not as a vocation | B |
| dropping into the club | C |
| for a round of tennis | D |
| before dinner at eight | E |
| or a quiet set of darts | F |
| before retiring | G |
| - | |
| I had grown accustomed to my new routine | H |
| at least vicariously | I |
| In the best Somerset Maugham tradition | B |
| I would dress for dinner | J |
| decline to be patronizing | G |
| avoid the potential slur | J |
| if crisp linen did not appear | K |
| regularly on my bed or table | L |
| I still found time to stop | M |
| for breakfast coffee | I |
| take a moment from regimen | B |
| to fondle fresh wet flowers | N |
| look over the balcony at the | O |
| blueness of the bay | P |
| - | |
| The metaphysical qualities that come | A |
| into play erode such morning somnambulations | N |
| The heat depreciated any vainglorious | N |
| attempts to lionize the native Caribbean rum | A |
| Tennis and darts become ho hum | A |
| more of a task than a pleasant diversion | B |
| The little yellowed board seemed | Q |
| to symbolize not convivial cordiality | Q |
| but crabbed provincialism | A |
| - | |
| The tie collar were intolerable | L |
| against the saline tropic night and | Q |
| seemed rigid in a place and time | R |
| the locals could not possibly share | S |
| In short such things celebrated my apartness | N |
| - | |
| Linen rarely if ever appeared | Q |
| and to resort to complaints | N |
| resulted in only furthering | G |
| the distance between one and his hosts | N |
| Even the coffee tasted bitter and seemed | Q |
| unsuited to the needs of an interloper | J |
| Neither was fruit juice the promised manna | O |
| And one can take only so much nostalgic flower warbling | G |
| The hummingbirds and oleander came to grow | T |
| as commonplace and exhausting as the rain | U |
| - | |
| I began ruminating thoughts back to my previous existence | N |
| Surprised at my illogical shift in allegiances | N |
| I began stealing thoughts more and more surreptitiously | I |
| about the naturalness of working a full day | Q |
| donning the apparel of a civilized man | V |
| dropping the white man's burden | B |
| Disgust filled me with my former Rousseauian yearnings | N |
| With trepidation one's dreams | N |
| can erect barriers more effective | W |
| than the most ill sponsored illusions | N |
Paul Cameron Brown
(1)
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