Mussel Hunter At Rock Harbor Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDA ECFGHIB JKLMNOP QRSTUVW XYZA2B2C2 VD2C2C2E2C2C2 C2ZC2C2F2C2T XD2G2H2ZBX D2I2C2XJ2C2C2 XZUNC2K2L2 UM2C2C2C2K2H2 C2NZEXXX C2XN2XXC2Zf the Cape light that scours | A |
Sand grit to sided crystal | B |
And buffs and sleeks the blunt hulls | C |
Of the three fishing smacks beached | D |
On the bank of the river's | A |
- | |
Backtracking tail I'd come for | E |
Free fish bait the blue mussels | C |
Clumped like bulbs at the grassroot | F |
Margin of the tidal pools | G |
Dawn tide stood dead low I smelt | H |
Mud stench shell guts gulls' leavings | I |
Heard a queer crusty scrabble | B |
- | |
Cease and I neared the silenced | J |
Edge of a cratered pool bed | K |
The mussels hung dull blue and | L |
Conspicuous yet it seemed | M |
A sly world's hinges had swung | N |
Shut against me All held still | O |
Though I counted scant seconds | P |
- | |
Enough ages lapsed to win | Q |
Confidence of safe conduct | R |
In the wary other world | S |
Eyeing me Grass put forth claws | T |
Small mud knobs nudged from under | U |
Displaced their domes as tiny | V |
Knights might doff their casques The crabs | W |
- | |
Inched from their pygmy burrows | X |
And from the trench dug mud all Camouflaged in mottled mail | Y |
Of browns and greens Each wore one | Z |
Claw swollen to a shield large | A2 |
As itself no fiddler's arm | B2 |
Grown Gargantuan by trade | C2 |
- | |
But grown grimly and grimly | V |
Borne for a use beyond my | D2 |
Guessing of it Sibilant | C2 |
Mass motived hordes they sidled | C2 |
Out in a converging stream | E2 |
Toward the pool mouth perhaps to | C2 |
Meet the thin and sluggish thread | C2 |
- | |
Of sea retracing its tide | C2 |
Way up the river basin | Z |
Or to avoid me They moved | C2 |
Obliquely with a dry wet | C2 |
Sound with a glittery wisp | F2 |
And trickle Could they feel mud | C2 |
Pleasurable under claws | T |
- | |
As I could between bare toes | X |
That question ended it I | D2 |
Stood shut out for once for all | G2 |
Puzzling the passage of their | H2 |
Absolutely alien | Z |
Order as I might puzzle | B |
At the clear tail of Halley's | X |
- | |
Comet coolly giving my | D2 |
Orbit the go by made known | I2 |
By a family name it | C2 |
Knew nothing of So the crabs | X |
Went about their business which | J2 |
Wasn't fiddling and I filled | C2 |
A big handkerchief with blue | C2 |
- | |
Mussels From what the crabs saw | X |
If they could see I was one | Z |
Two legged mussel picker | U |
High on the airy thatching | N |
Of the dense grasses I found | C2 |
The husk of a fiddler crab | K2 |
Intact strangely strayed above | L2 |
- | |
His world of mud green color | U |
And innards bleached out blown off | M2 |
Somewhere by much sun and wind | C2 |
There was no telling if he'd | C2 |
Died recluse of suicide | C2 |
Or headstrong Columbus crab | K2 |
The crab face etched and set there | H2 |
- | |
Grimaced as skulls grimace it | C2 |
Had an Oriental look | N |
A samurai death mask done | Z |
On a tiger tooth less for | E |
Art's sake than God's Far from sea | X |
Where red freckled crab backs claws | X |
And whole crabs dead their soggy | X |
- | |
Bellies pallid and upturned | C2 |
Perform their shambling waltzes | X |
On the waves' dissolving turn | N2 |
And return losing themselves | X |
Bit by bit to their friendly | X |
Element this relic saved | C2 |
Face to face the bald faced sun | Z |
Sylvia Plath
(1)
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