At Pleasure Bay Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHEEIJKEGLMNGO EAPIGQRSTUVWEGXEYZA2 GB2C2GD2GWE2F2GRG2H2 I2B2J2REK2L2GVGEGGGG M2GC2H2EEN2GGGGGH2O2 GH2K2GGGGGEA

In the willows along the river at Pleasure BayA
A catbird singing never the same phrase twiceB
Here under the pines a little off the roadC
In the Chief of PoliceD
And Mrs W killed themselves togetherE
Sitting in a roadster Ancient unshaken pilingsF
And underwater chunks of still mortared brickG
In shapes like bits of puzzle strew the bottomH
Where the landing was for Price's Hotel and TheaterE
And here's where boats blew two blasts for the keeperE
To shunt the iron swing bridge He leaned on the gearsI
Like a skipper in the hut that housed the worksJ
And the bridge moaned and turned on its middle pierK
To let them through In the middle of the summerE
Two or three cars might wait for the iron trussworkG
Winching aside with maybe a child to noticeL
A name on the stern in black and gold on whiteM
Sandpiper Patsy Ann Do Not DisturbN
The Idler If a boat was running whiskeyG
The bridge clanged shut behind it as it passedO
And opened up again for the Coast Guard cutterE
Slowly as a sundial and always jammed halfwayA
The roadbed whole but opened like a switchP
The river pulling and coursing between the piersI
Never the same phrase twice the catbird fillingG
The humid August evening near the inletQ
With borrowed music that he melds and changesR
Dragonflies and sandflies frogs in the rushes two bodiesS
Not moving in the open car among the pinesT
A sliver of story The tenor at Price's HotelU
In clown costume unfurls the sorrow gatheredV
In ruffles at his throat and cuffs high quaversW
That hold like splashes of light on the dark waterE
The aria's closing phrases changed and fadingG
And after a gap of quiet cheers and applauseX
Audible in the houses across the riverE
Some in the audience weeping as if they had meltedY
Inside the music Never the same In BerlinZ
The daughter of an English lord in loveA2
With Adolf Hitler whom she has met She is takingG
Possession of the apartment of a coupleB2
Elderly well off Jews They survive the warC2
To settle here in the Bay the old ladyG
Teaches piano but the whole world swivelsD2
And gapes at their feet as the girl and a high up NaziG
Examine the furniture the glass the picturesW
The elegant story that was theirs and nowE2
Is part of hers A few months later the EnglishF2
Enter the war and she shoots herself in a parkG
An addled upper class girl her life that passesR
Into the lives of others or into a placeG2
The taking of lives the Chief and Mrs WH2
Took theirs to stay together as local ghostsI2
Last flurries of kisses the revolver's barrelB2
Shivers of a story that a child might hearJ2
And half remember voices in the rushesR
A singing in the willows From across the riverE
Faint quavers of music the same phrase twice and againK2
Ranging and building Over the high new bridgeL2
The flashing of traffic homeward from the racetrackG
With one boat chugging under the arches outwardV
Unnoticed through Pleasure Bay to the open seaG
Here's where the people stood to watch the theaterE
Burn on the water All that night the fireboatsG
Kept playing their spouts of water into the blazeG
In the morning smoking pilasters and beamsG
Black smell of char for weeks the ruin alreadyG
Soaking back into the river After you dieM2
You hover near the ceiling above your bodyG
And watch the mourners awhile A few days moreC2
You float above the heads of the ones you knewH2
And watch them through a twilight As it grows darkerE
You wander off and find your way to the riverE
And wade across On the other side night airN2
Willows the smell of the river and a massG
Of sleeping bodies all along the bankG
A kind of singing from among the rushesG
Calling you further forward in the darkG
You lie down and embrace one body the limbsG
Heavy with sleep reach eagerly up around youH2
And you make love until your soul brims upO2
And burns free out of you and shifts and spillsG
Down over into that other body and youH2
Forget the life you had and begin againK2
On the same crossing maybe as a child who passesG
Through the same place But never the same way twiceG
Here in the daylight the catbird in the willowsG
The new caf eacute with a terrace and a landingG
Frogs in the cattails where the swing bridge wasG
Here's where you might have slipped across the waterE
When you were only a presence at Pleasure BayA

Robert Pinsky



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