Analysis of Nocturne Of Remembered Spring
Conrad Potter Aiken 1889 (Savannah, Georgia) – 1973 (Savannah, Georgia)
Moonlight silvers the tops of trees,
Moonlight whitens the lilac shadowed wall
And through the evening fall,
Clearly, as if through enchanted seas,
Footsteps passing, an infinite distance away,
In another world and another day.
Moonlight turns the purple lilacs blue,
Moonlight leaves the fountain hoar and old,
And the boughs of elms grow green and cold,
Our footsteps echo on gleaming stones,
The leaves are stirred to a jargon of muted tones.
This is the night we have kept, you say:
This is the moonlit night that will never die.
Through the grey streets our memories retain
Let us go back again.
Mist goes up from the river to dim the stars,
The river is black and cold; so let us dance
To flare of horns, and clang of cymbals and drums;
And strew the glimmering floor with roses,
And remember, while the rich music yawns and closes,
With a luxury of pain, how silence comes.
Yes, we loved each other, long ago;
We moved like wind to a music's ebb and flow.
At a phrase from violins you closed your eyes,
And smiled, and let me lead you how young we were!
Your hair, upon that music, seemed to stir.
Let us return there, let us return, you and I;
Through changeless streets our memories retain
Let us go back again.
Mist goes up from the rain steeped earth, and clings
Ghostly with lamplight among drenched maple trees.
We walk in silence and see how the lamplight flings
Fans of shadow upon it the music's mournful pleas
Die out behind us, the door is closed at last,
A net of silver silence is softly cast
Over our thought slowly we walk,
Quietly with delicious pause, we talk,
Of foolish trivial things; of life and death,
Time, and forgetfulness, and dust and truth;
Lilacs and youth.
You laugh, I hear the after taken breath,
You darken your eyes and turn away your head
At something I have said
Some intuition that flew too deep,
And struck a plageant chord.
Tonight, tonight you will remember it as you fall asleep,
Your dream will suddenly blossom with sharp delight,
Goodnight! You say.
The leaves of the lilac dip and sway;
The purple spikes of bloom
Nod their sweetness upon us, lift again,
Your white face turns, I am caught with pain
And silence descends, and dripping of dew from eaves,
And jeweled points of leaves.
I walk in a pleasure of sorrow along the street
And try to remember you; slow drops patter;
Water upon the lilacs has made them sweet;
I brush them with my sleeve, the cool drops scatter;
And suddenly I laugh and stand and listen
As if another had laughed a gust
Rustles the leaves, the wet spikes glisten;
And it seems as though it were you who had shaken the bough,
And spilled the fragrance I pursue your face again,
It grows more vague and lovely, it eludes me now.
I remember that you are gone, and drown in pain.
Something there was I said to you I recall,
Something just as the music seemed to fall
That made you laugh, and burns me still with pleasure.
What were those words the words like dripping fire?
I remember them now, and in sweet leisure
Rehearse the scene, more exquisite than before,
And you more beautiful, and I more wise.
Lilacs and spring, and night, and your clear eyes,
And you, in white, by the darkness of a door:
These things, like voices weaving to richest music,
Flow and fall in the cool night of my mind,
I pursue your ghost among green leaves that are ghostly,
I pursue you, but cannot find.
And suddenly, with a pang that is sweetest of all,
I become aware that I cannot remember you;
The ghost I knew
Has silently plunged in shadows, shadows that stream and fall.
Let us go in and dance once more
On the dream's glimmering floor,
Beneath the balcony festooned with roses.
Let us go in and dance once more.
The door behind us closes
Against an evening purple with stars and mist.
Let us go in and keep our tryst
With music and white roses, and spin around
In swirls of sound.
Do you foresee me, married and grown old?
And you, who smile about you at this room,
Is it foretold
That you must step from tumult into gloom,
Forget me, love another?
No, you are Cleopatra, fiercely young,
Laughing upon the topmost stair of night;
Roses upon the desert must be flung;
Above us, light by light,
Weaves the delirious darkness, petal fall,
And music breaks in waves on the pillared wall;
And you are Cleopatra, and do not
Scheme | abbaccdeeffcghI xxjkkjllmnnghI oaoappqqrssrttuxuvccwihxx ynynzxz1 i1 hbbnnn2 mm2 x3 x3 bdDb 2 2 k2 k4 4 5 5 ewewn6 v6 vbbx |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1100111 1101101 010101 101110101 11011001001 0010100101 1101011 11010101 001111101 101101101 011110101101 110111111 1101111101 10111010001 111101 11110101101 01011011111 11110111001 0101001110 0010101101010 10100111101 111110101 11111010101 10110011111 01011111110 1101110111 110111101101 1111010001 111101 1111011101 1011011101 11010011011 111011010101 11011011111 01110101101 101011011 1001010111 11010011101 1010101 101 1111010101 11011010111 110111 10101111 01011 010111010111101 111100101101 111 01101101 010111 1110011101 111111111 010010101111 01111 1100101100101 01101011110 1001011111 11111101110 01001101010 110101101 10101110 01111101111001 010101011101 111101010111 101011110101 1011111111 1011010111 11110111110 10110111010 10101100110 01011100101 0111000111 101010111 01011010101 111101011010 1010011111 1011101111110 10111101 0100101111011 1010111100101 0111 110010111101 11100111 1011001 0101001110 11100111 0101110 01110101101 111001101 11001100101 0111 1101110011 0111011111 1101 1111110011 0111010 111010101 100101111 1001010111 011111 10010010101 01010110101 011010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,304 |
Words | 792 |
Sentences | 34 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 14, 25, 28, 21 |
Lines Amount | 103 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 672 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 157 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:58 min read
- 121 Views
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"Nocturne Of Remembered Spring" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7026/nocturne-of-remembered-spring>.
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