Metropolitan Nightmare Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFAGH IJKELDMN OPGQK ROSKTU DVWXA OYZA2DB2C2K D2E2F2G2H2I2J2K2L2M2 N2O2P2Q2R2N2L2S2T2 C2B2U2L2V2W2TL2DL2 R2X2Y2Z2DA3 AB3AR2S2C3 D3O E3L2 F3G3I rained quite a lot that spring You woke in the morning | A |
And saw the sky still clouded the streets still wet | B |
But nobody noticed so much except the taxis | C |
And the people who parade You don't in a city | D |
The parks got very green All the trees were green | E |
Far into July and August heavy with leaf | F |
Heavy with leaf and the long roots were boring and spreading | A |
But nobody noticed that but the city gardeners | G |
And they didn't talk | H |
- | |
Oh on Sundays perhaps you'd notice | I |
Walking through certain blocks by the shut proud houses | J |
With the windows boarded the people gone away | K |
You'd suddenly see the queerest small shoots of green | E |
Poking through cracks and crevices in the stone | L |
And a bird sown flower red on the balcony | D |
But then you made jokes about grass growing in the streets | M |
And politics and grass roots and there were songs | N |
And gags and a musical show called 'Hot and Wet ' | - |
It all made a good box for the papers When the flamingo | O |
Flew into a meeting of the Board of Estimate | P |
The new Mayor acted at once and called the photographers | G |
When the first green creeper crawled over the Brooklyn Bridge | Q |
They thought it was ornamental They let it stay | K |
- | |
There was the year the termites came to New York | R |
And they don't do well in cold climates but listen Joe | O |
They're only ants and ants are nothing but insects | S |
It was funny and yet rather wistful in a way | K |
As Heywood Broun pointed out in the | T |
World Telegram | U |
- | |
To think of them looking for wood in a steel city | D |
It made you feel about life It was too divine | V |
There were funny pictures by all the smart funny artists | W |
And Macy's ran a terribly clever ad | X |
'The Widow's Termite' or something | A |
- | |
There was no | O |
Disturbance Even the Communists didn't protest | Y |
And say they were Morgan hirelings It was too hot | Z |
Too hot to protest too hot to get excited | A2 |
An even African heat lush fertile and steamy | D |
That soaked into bones and mind and never once broke | B2 |
The warm rain fell in fierce showers and ceased and fell | C2 |
Pretty soon you got used to its always being that way | K |
- | |
You got used to the changed rhythm the altered beat | D2 |
To people walking slower to the whole bright | E2 |
Fierce pulse of the city slowing to men in shorts | F2 |
To the new sun helmets from Best's and the cops' white uniforms | G2 |
And the long noon rest in the offices everywhere | H2 |
It wasn't a plan or anything It just happened | I2 |
The fingers tapped the keys slower the office boys | J2 |
Dozed on their benches the bookkeeper yawned at his desk | K2 |
The A T T was the first to change the shifts | L2 |
And establish a siesta room | M2 |
But they were always efficient Mostly it just | N2 |
Happened like sleep itself like a tropic sleep | O2 |
Till even the Thirties were deserted at noon | P2 |
Except for a few tourists and one damned cop | Q2 |
They ran boats to see the big lilies on the North River | R2 |
But it was only the tourists who really noticed | N2 |
The flocks of rose and green parrots and parrakeets | L2 |
Nesting in the stone crannies of the Cathedral | S2 |
The rest of us had forgotten when they first came | T2 |
- | |
There wasn't any real change it was just a heat spell | C2 |
A rain spell a funny summer a weather man's joke | B2 |
In spite of the geraniums three feet high | U2 |
In the tin can gardens of Hester and Desbrosses | L2 |
New York was New York It couldn't turn inside out | V2 |
When they got the news from Woods Hole about the Gulf Stream | W2 |
The | T |
Times | L2 |
ran an adequate story | D |
But nobody reads those stories but science cranks | L2 |
- | |
Until one day a somnolent city editor | R2 |
Gave a new cub the termite yarn to break his teeth on | X2 |
The cub was just down from Vermont so he took the time | Y2 |
He was serious about it He went around | Z2 |
He read all about termites in the Public Library | D |
And it made him sore when they fired him | A3 |
- | |
So one evening | A |
Talking with an old watchman beside the first | B3 |
Raw girders of the new Planetopolis Building | A |
Ten thousand brine cooled offices each with shower | R2 |
He saw a dark line creeping across the rubble | S2 |
And turned a flashlight on it | C3 |
- | |
'Say buddy ' he said | D3 |
'You'd better look out for those ants They eat wood you know | O |
They'll have your shack down in no time ' | - |
- | |
The watchman spat | E3 |
'Oh they've quit eating wood ' he said in a casual voice | L2 |
'I thought everyone knew that ' | - |
- | |
and reaching down | F3 |
He pried from the insect's jaw the bright crumb of steel | G3 |
Stephen Vincent Benet
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