William Stanley Merwin

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The Speed Of Light Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDAEFGHIAJKDKLMNOE PAQRJSATU

So gradual in those summers was the goingA
of the age it seemed that the long days setting outB
when the stars faded over the mountains were notC
leaving us even as the birds woke in full song and the dewD
glittered in the webs it appeared then that the clear morningA
opening into the sky was something of oursE
to have and keep and that the brightness we could not touchF
and the air we could not hold had come to be there all the timeG
for us and would never be gone and that the axleH
we did not hear was not turning when the ancient carI
coughed in the roofer's barn and rolled out echoingA
first thing into the lane and the only tractorJ
in the village rumbled and went into its rustyK
mutterings before heading out of its lean toD
into the cow pats and the shadow of the lime treeK
we did not see that the swallows flashing and the sparksL
of their cries were fast in the spokes of the hollowM
wheel that was turning and turning us taking usN
all away as one with the tires of the baker's vanO
where the wheels of bread were stacked like days in calendarsE
coming and going all at once we did not hearP
the rim of the hour in whatever we were sayingA
or touching all day we thought it was there and would stayQ
it was only as the afternoon lengthened on itsR
dial and the shadows reached out farther and fartherJ
from everything that we began to listen for whatS
might be escaping us and we heard high voices ringingA
the village at sundown calling their animals homeT
and then the bats after dark and the silence on its roadU

William Stanley Merwin



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