From Book I, Paterson Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHCIJBKK LMNKKK COPQRKSE TUVW CXC KK| Paterson lies in the valley under the Passaic Falls | A |
| its spent waters forming the outline of his back He | B |
| lies on his right side head near the thunder | C |
| of the waters filling his dreams Eternally asleep | D |
| his dreams walk about the city where he persists | E |
| incognito Butterflies settle on his stone ear | F |
| Immortal he neither moves nor rouses and is seldom | G |
| seen though he breathes and the subtleties of his machinations | H |
| drawing their substance from the noise of the pouring river | C |
| animate a thousand automations Who because they | I |
| neither know their sources nor the sills of their | J |
| disappointments walk outside their bodies aimlessly | B |
| for the most part | K |
| locked and forgot in their desires unroused | K |
| - | |
| Say it no ideas but in things | L |
| nothing but the blank faces of the houses | M |
| and cylindrical trees | N |
| bent forked by preconception and accident | K |
| split furrowed creased mottled stained | K |
| secret into the body of the light | K |
| - | |
| From above higher than the spires higher | C |
| even than the office towers from oozy fields | O |
| abandoned to gray beds of dead grass | P |
| black sumac withered weed stalks | Q |
| mud and thickets cluttered with dead leaves | R |
| the river comes pouring in above the city | K |
| and crashes from the edge of the gorge | S |
| in a recoil of spray and rainbow mists | E |
| - | |
| What common language to unravel | T |
| combed into straight lines | U |
| from that rafter of a rock's | V |
| lip | W |
| - | |
| A man like a city and a woman like a flower | C |
| who are in love Two women Three women | X |
| Innumerable women each like a flower | C |
| - | |
| But | K |
| only one man like a city | K |
William Carlos Williams
(1)
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