Shirt Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC DEF BGH GIJ KLM NOP QRS TUV WPX YZZ UA2B ZZB BUZ B2C2D2 E2PU ZF2G2| The back the yoke the yardage Lapped seams | A |
| The nearly invisible stitches along the collar | B |
| Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians | C |
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| Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break | D |
| Or talking money or politics while one fitted | E |
| This armpiece with its overseam to the band | F |
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| Of cuff I button at my wrist The presser the cutter | B |
| The wringer the mangle The needle the union | G |
| The treadle the bobbin The code The infamous blaze | H |
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| At the Triangle Factory in nineteen eleven | G |
| One hundred and forty six died in the flames | I |
| On the ninth floor no hydrants no fire escapes | J |
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| The witness in a building across the street | K |
| Who watched how a young man helped a girl to step | L |
| Up to the windowsill then held her out | M |
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| Away from the masonry wall and let her drop | N |
| And then another As if he were helping them up | O |
| To enter a streetcar and not eternity | P |
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| A third before he dropped her put her arms | Q |
| Around his neck and kissed him Then he held | R |
| Her into space and dropped her Almost at once | S |
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| He stepped up to the sill himself his jacket flared | T |
| And fluttered up from his shirt as he came down | U |
| Air filling up the legs of his gray trousers | V |
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| Like Hart Crane's Bedlamite shrill shirt ballooning | W |
| Wonderful how the patern matches perfectly | P |
| Across the placket and over the twin bar tacked | X |
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| Corners of both pockets like a strict rhyme | Y |
| Or a major chord Prints plaids checks | Z |
| Houndstooth Tattersall Madras The clan tartans | Z |
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| Invented by mill owners inspired by the hoax of Ossian | U |
| To control their savage Scottish workers tamed | A2 |
| By a fabricated heraldry MacGregor | B |
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| Bailey MacMartin The kilt devised for workers | Z |
| to wear among the dusty clattering looms | Z |
| Weavers carders spinners The loader | B |
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| The docker the navvy The planter the picker the sorter | B |
| Sweating at her machine in a litter of cotton | U |
| As slaves in calico headrags sweated in fields | Z |
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| George Herbert your descendant is a Black | B2 |
| Lady in South Carolina her name is Irma | C2 |
| And she inspected my shirt Its color and fit | D2 |
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| And feel and its clean smell have satisfied | E2 |
| both her and me We have culled its cost and quality | P |
| Down to the buttons of simulated bone | U |
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| The buttonholes the sizing the facing the characters | Z |
| Printed in black on neckband and tail The shape | F2 |
| The label the labor the color the shade The shirt | G2 |
Robert Pinsky
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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