The Player Piano Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCD EFGHA CEIJJ KCLMN OPQJC RSTUV WBXYZ| I ate pancakes one night in a Pancake House | A |
| Run by a lady my age She was gay | B |
| When I told her that I came from Pasadena | C |
| She laughed and said I lived in Pasadena | C |
| When Fatty Arbuckle drove the El Molino bus | D |
| - | |
| I felt that I had met someone from home | E |
| No not Pasadena Fatty Arbuckle | F |
| Who's that Oh something that we had in common | G |
| Like like the false armistice Piano rolls | H |
| She told me her house was the first Pancake House | A |
| - | |
| East of the Mississippi and I showed her | C |
| A picture of my grandson Going home | E |
| Home to the hotel I began to hum | I |
| Smile a while I bid you sad adieu | J |
| When the clouds roll back I'll come to you | J |
| - | |
| Let's brush our hair before we go to bed | K |
| I say to the old friend who lives in my mirror | C |
| I remember how I'd brush my mother's hair | L |
| Before she bobbed it How long has it been | M |
| Since I hit my funnybone had a scab on my knee | N |
| - | |
| Here are Mother and Father in a photograph | O |
| Father's holding me They both look so young | P |
| I'm so much older than they are Look at them | Q |
| Two babies with their baby I don't blame you | J |
| You weren't old enough to know any better | C |
| - | |
| If I could I'd go back sit down by you both | R |
| And sign our true armistice you weren't to blame | S |
| I shut my eyes and there's our living room | T |
| The piano's playing something by Chopin | U |
| And Mother and Father and their little girl | V |
| - | |
| Listen Look the keys go down by themselves | W |
| I go over hold my hands out play I play | B |
| If only somehow I had learned to live | X |
| The three of us sit watching as my waltz | Y |
| Plays itself out a half inch from my fingers | Z |
Randall Jarrell
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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