The Babysitters Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCADAEF AGHIAJK L MNLOAPQRA GAFACACHA SMGTUAVSA

e sun flamed straight down that noon on the water off MarbleheadA
That summer we wore black glasses to hide our eyesB
We were always crying in our spare rooms little put upon sistersC
In the two huge white handsome houses in SwampscottA
When the sweetheart from England appeared with her cream skin and Yardley cosmeticsD
I had to sleep in the same room with the baby on a too short cotA
And the seven year old wouldn't go out unless his jersey stripesE
Matched the stripes of his socksF
-
Or it was richness eleven rooms and a yachtA
With a polished mahogany stair to let into the waterG
And a cabin boy who could decorate cakes in six colored frostingH
But I didn't know how to cook and babies depressed meI
Nights I wrote in my diary spitefully my fingers redA
With triangular scorch marks from ironing tiny ruchings and puffed sleevesJ
When the sporty wife and her doctor husband went on one of their cruisesK
They left me a borrowed maid named Ellen 'for protection '-
And a small DalmationL
-
In your house the main house you were better offM
You had a rose garden and a guest cottage and a model apothecary shopN
And a cook and a maid and knew about the key to the bourbonL
I remember you playing 'Ja Da' in a pink piqu dressO
On the game room piano when the 'big people' were outA
And the maid smoked and shot pool under a green shaded lampP
The cook had one walleye and couldn't sleep she was so nervousQ
On trial from Ireland she burned batch after batch of cookiesR
Till she was firedA
-
O what has come over us my sisterG
On that day off the two of us cried so hard to getA
We lifted a sugared ham and a pineapple from the grownups' iceboxF
And rented an old green boat I rowed You readA
Aloud cross legged on the stern seat from the Generation of VipersC
So we bobbed out to the island It was desertedA
A gallery of creaking porches and still interiorsC
Stopped and awful as a photograph of somebody laughingH
But ten years deadA
-
The bold gulls dove as if they owned it allS
We picked up sticks of driftwood and beat them offM
Then stepped down the steep beach shelf and into the waterG
We kicked and talked The thick salt kept us upT
I see us floating there yet inseparable two cork dollsU
What keyhole have we slipped through what door has shutA
The shadows of the grasses inched round like hands of a clockV
And from our opposite continents we wave and callS
Everything has happenedA

Sylvia Plath



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