My Last Afternoon With Uncle Devereux Winslow Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDCECFGDGHI JKLIIMNOPQ DHKDDRIDJGSKTE QQD KDKGKUQDU DDGVDDKKVI KWKKKVTDDKEV DD KEDKDKEXKTIK KKIDIDDEEEDDDID DEK KKDIDYKK DDDDED VVKDVKXVKKDEDDQDQDKR TTDDDU OKK

the stone porch of my Grandfather s summer houseA
-
I-
I won t go with you I want to stay with GrandpaB
That s how I threw cold waterC
on my Mother and Father sD
watery martini pipe dreams at Sunday dinnerC
Fontainebleau Mattapoisett Puget SoundE
Nowhere was anywhere after a summerC
at my Grandfather s farmF
Diamond pointed athirst and NormanG
its alley of poplarsD
paraded from Grandmother s rose gardenG
to a scary stand of virgin pineH
scrub and paths forever pioneeringI
-
-
One afternoon inJ
I sat on the stone porch looking throughK
screens as black grained as drifting coalL
Tockytock tockytockI
clumped our Alpine Edwardian cuckoo clockI
slung with strangled wooden gameM
Our farmer was cementing a root house under the hillN
One of my hands was cool on a pileO
of black earth the other warmP
on a pile of lime All about meQ
-
-
were the works of my Grandfather s handsD
snapshots of his Liberty Bell silver mineH
his high school at Stuttgart am NeckarK
stogie brown beams fools gold nuggetsD
octagonal red tilesD
sweaty with a secret dank crummy with ant staleR
a Rocky Mountain chaise longueI
its legs shellacked saplingsD
A pastel pale Huckleberry FinnJ
fished with a broom straw in a basinG
hollowed out of a millstoneS
Like my Grandfather the d corK
was manly comfortableT
overbearing disproportionedE
-
-
What were those sunflowers Pumpkins floating shoulder high-
It was sunset Sadie and NellieQ
bearing pitchers of ice teaQ
oranges lemons mint and peppermintsD
and the jug of shandygaff-
which Grandpa made by blending half and half-
yeasty wheezing homemade sarsaparilla with beerK
The farm entitled Char de saD
in the Social RegisterK
was named for my Grandfather s childrenG
Charlotte Devereux and SarahK
No one had died there in my lifetimeU
Only Cinder our Scottie puppyQ
paralyzed from gobbling toadsD
I sat mixing black earth and limeU
-
-
II-
I was five and a half-
My formal pearl gray shortsD
had been worn for three minutesD
My perfection was the OlympianG
poise of my models in the imperishable autumnV
display windowsD
of Rogers Peet s boys store below the State HouseD
in Boston Distorting drops of waterK
pinpricked my face in the basin s mirrorK
I was a stuffed toucanV
with a bibulous multicolored beakI
-
-
III-
Up in the airK
by the lakeview window in the billiards roomW
lurid in the doldrums of the sunset hourK
my Great Aunt SarahK
was learning Samson and DelilahK
She thundered on the keyboard of her dummy pianoV
with gauze curtains like a boudoir tableT
accordionlike yet soundlessD
It had been bought to spare the nervesD
of my GrandmotherK
tone deaf quick as a cricketE
now needing a fourth for AuctionV
and casting a thirsty eye-
on Aunt Sarah risen like the phoenixD
from her bed of troublesome snacks and Tauchnitz classicsD
-
-
Forty years earlierK
twenty auburn headedE
grasshopper notes of geniusD
Family gossip says Aunt SarahK
tilted her archaic Athenian noseD
and jilted an AstorK
Each morning she practicedE
on the grand piano at Symphony HallX
deathlike in the off season summerK
its naked Greek statues draped with purpleT
like the saints in Holy WeekI
On the recital day she failed to appearK
-
-
IV-
I picked with a clean finger nail at the blue anchorK
on my sailor blouse washed white as a spinnakerK
What in the world was I wishingI
A sail colored horse browsing in the bullrushesD
A fluff of the west wind puffingI
my blouse kiting me over our seven chimneysD
troubling the watersD
As small as sapphires were the ponds Quittacus SnippituitE
and Assawompset halved by the IslandE
where my Uncle s duck blindE
floated in a barrage of smoke cloudsD
Double barreled shotgunsD
stuck out like bundles of baby crow barsD
A single sculler in a camouflaged kayakI
was quacking to the decoysD
-
-
At the cabin between the watersD
the nearest windows were already boardedE
Uncle Devereux was closing camp for the winterK
As if posed for the engagement photograph-
he was wearing his severeK
war uniform of a volunteer Canadian officerK
Daylight from the doorway riddled his student postersD
tacked helter skelter on walls as raw as a boardwalkI
Mr Punch a water melon in hockey tightsD
was tossing off a decanter of ScotchY
La Belle France in a red white and blue togaK
was accepting the arm of her protectorK
the ingenu and porcine Edward VII-
The pre war music hall bellesD
had goose necks glorious signatures beauty molesD
and coils of hair like rooster tailsD
The finest poster was two or three young men in khaki kiltsD
being bushwhacked on the veldtE
They were almost life sizeD
-
-
My Uncle was dying at twenty nineV
You are behaving like childrenV
said my GrandfatherK
when my Uncle and Aunt left their three baby daughtersD
and sailed for Europe on a last honeymoonV
I cowered in terrorK
I wasn t a child at allX
unseen and all seeing I was AgrippinaV
in the Golden House of NeroK
Near me was the white measuring doorK
my Grandfather had penciled with my Uncle s heightsD
In he had stopped growing at just six feetE
While I sat on the tilesD
and dug at the anchor on my sailor blouseD
Uncle Devereux stood behind meQ
He was as brushed as Bayard our riding horseD
His face was puttyQ
His blue coat and white trousersD
grew sharper and straighterK
His coat was a blue jay s tailR
his trousers were solid cream from the top of the bottleT
He was animated hierarchicalT
like a ginger snap man in a clothes pressD
He was dying of the incurable Hodgkin s diseaseD
My hands were warm then cool on the pilesD
of earth and limeU
-
-
a black pile and a white pileO
Come winterK
Uncle Devereux would blend to the one colorK

Robert Lowell



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