Portrait Of A Lady Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EFGHCHCIJIKH JLMMMMNMNOMMMG MMMMPP MMMMM HHMQMMQM MBRST EEUVU VWW XBBX MBYZYZMA2MA2B2C2D2B2 C2 E2ME2MF2D2G2 G2 H2H2I2M YMY MI2UI2I2I2 J2MK2J2M EMUML2UERRSRThou hast committed | A |
Fornication but that was in another country | B |
And besides the wench is dead | C |
The Jew of Malta | D |
- | |
I | - |
- | |
Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoon | E |
You have the scene arrange itself as it will seem to do | F |
With 'I have saved this afternoon for you' | G |
And four wax candles in the darkened room | H |
Four rings of light upon the ceiling overhead | C |
An atmosphere of Juliet's tomb | H |
Prepared for all the things to be said or left unsaid | C |
We have been let us say to hear the latest Pole | I |
Transmit the Preludes through his hair and fingertips | J |
'So intimate this Chopin that I think his soul | I |
Should be resurrected only among friends | K |
Some two or three who will not touch the bloom | H |
That is rubbed and questioned in the concert room ' | - |
And so the conversation slips | J |
Among velleities and carefully caught regrets | L |
Through attenuated tones of violins | M |
Mingled with remote cornets | M |
And begins | M |
'You do not know how much they mean to me my friends | M |
And how how rare and strange it is to find | N |
In a life composed so much so much of odds and ends | M |
For indeed I do not love it you knew you are not blind | N |
How keen you are | O |
To find a friend who has these qualities | M |
Who has and gives | M |
Those qualities upon which friendship lives | M |
How much it means that I say this to you | G |
Without these friendships life what cauchemar ' | - |
- | |
Among the windings of the violins | M |
And the ariettes | M |
Of cracked cornets | M |
Inside my brain a dull tom tom begins | M |
Absurdly hammering a prelude of its own | P |
Capricious monotone | P |
That is at least one definite 'false note ' | - |
Let us take the air in a tobacco trance | M |
Admire the monuments | M |
Discuss the late events | M |
Correct our watches by the public clocks | M |
Then sit for half an hour and drink our bocks | M |
- | |
II | - |
- | |
Now that lilacs are in bloom | H |
She has a bowl of lilacs in her room | H |
And twists one in his fingers while she talks | M |
'Ah my friend you do not know you do not know | Q |
What life is you who hold it in your hands' | M |
Slowly twisting the lilac stalks | M |
'You let it flow from you you let it flow | Q |
And youth is cruel and has no remorse | M |
And smiles at situations which it cannot see ' | - |
I smile of course | M |
And go on drinking tea | B |
'Yet with these April sunsets that somehow recall | R |
My buried life and Paris in the Spring | S |
I feel immeasurably at peace and find the world | T |
To be wonderful and youthful after all ' | - |
- | |
The voice returns like the insistent out of tune | E |
Of a broken violin on an August afternoon | E |
'I am always sure that you understand | U |
My feelings always sure that you feel | V |
Sure that across the gulf you reach your hand | U |
- | |
You are invulnerable you have no Achilles' heel | V |
You will go on and when you have prevailed | W |
You can say at this point many a one has failed | W |
- | |
But what have I but what have I my friend | X |
To give you what can you receive from me | B |
Only the friendship and the sympathy | B |
Of one about to reach her journey's end | X |
- | |
I shall sit here serving tea to friends ' | - |
- | |
I take my hat how can I make a cowardly amends | M |
For what she has said to me | B |
You will see me any morning in the park | Y |
Reading the comics and the sporting page | Z |
Particularly I remark | Y |
An English countess goes upon the stage | Z |
A Greek was murdered at a Polish dance | M |
Another bank defaulter has confessed | A2 |
I keep my countenance | M |
I remain self possessed | A2 |
Except when a street piano mechanical and tired | B2 |
Reiterates some worn out common song | C2 |
With the smell of hyacinths across the garden | D2 |
Recalling things that other people have desired | B2 |
Are these ideas right or wrong | C2 |
- | |
III | - |
- | |
The October night comes down returning as before | E2 |
Except for a slight sensation of being ill at ease | M |
I mount the stairs and turn the handle of the door | E2 |
And feel as if I had mounted on my hands and knees | M |
'And so you are going abroad and when do you return | F2 |
But that's a useless question | D2 |
You hardly know when you are coming back | G2 |
You will find so much to learn ' | - |
My smile falls heavily among the bric agrave brac | G2 |
- | |
'Perhaps you can write to me ' | - |
My self possession flares up for a second | H2 |
This is as I had reckoned | H2 |
'I have been wondering frequently of late | I2 |
But our beginnings never know our ends | M |
Why we have not developed into friends ' | - |
I feel like one who smiles and turning shall remark | Y |
Suddenly his expression in a glass | M |
My self possession gutters we are really in the dark | Y |
- | |
'For everybody said so all our friends | M |
They all were sure our feelings would relate | I2 |
So closely I myself can hardly understand | U |
We must leave it now to fate | I2 |
You will write at any rate | I2 |
Perhaps it is not too late | I2 |
I shall sit here serving tea to friends ' | - |
- | |
And I must borrow every changing shape | J2 |
To find expression dance dance | M |
Like a dancing bear | K2 |
Cry like a parrot chatter like an ape | J2 |
Let us take the air in a tobacco trance | M |
- | |
Well and what if she should die some afternoon | E |
Afternoon grey and smoky evening yellow and rose | M |
Should die and leave me sitting pen in hand | U |
With the smoke coming down above the housetops | M |
Doubtful for a while | L2 |
Not knowing what to feel or if I understand | U |
Or whether wise or foolish tardy or too soon | E |
Would she not have the advantage after all | R |
This music is successful with a 'dying fall' | R |
Now that we talk of dying | S |
And should I have the right to smile | R |
T. S. Eliot
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Portrait Of A Lady poem by T. S. Eliot
Best Poems of T. S. Eliot