Analysis of The House Of Dust: Part 03: 05: Melody In A Restaurant
Conrad Potter Aiken 1889 (Savannah, Georgia) – 1973 (Savannah, Georgia)
The cigarette-smoke loops and slides above us,
Dipping and swirling as the waiter passes;
You strike a match and stare upon the flame.
The tiny fire leaps in your eyes a moment,
And dwindles away as silently as it came.
This melody, you say, has certain voices—
They rise like nereids from a river, singing,
Lift white faces, and dive to darkness again.
Wherever you go you bear this river with you:
A leaf falls,—and it flows, and you have pain.
So says the tune to you—but what to me?
What to the waiter, as he pours your coffee,
The violinist who suavely draws his bow?
That man, who folds his paper, overhears it.
A thousand dreams revolve and fall and flow.
Some one there is who sees a virgin stepping
Down marble stairs to a deep tomb of roses:
At the last moment she lifts remembering eyes.
Green leaves blow down. The place is checked with shadows.
A long-drawn murmur of rain goes down the skies.
And oaks are stripped and bare, and smoke with lightning:
And clouds are blown and torn upon high forests,
And the great sea shakes its walls.
And then falls silence . . . And through long silence falls
This melody once more:
'Down endless stairs she goes, as once before.'
So says the tune to him—but what to me?
What are the worlds I see?
What shapes fantastic, terrible dreams? . . .
I go my secret way, down secret alleys;
My errand is not so simple as it seems.
Scheme | XABXB ACXXX DDXXX CXEXECXFFGG DDHXH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0011101011 10010101010 1101010101 010101011010 010011100111 11001111010 1111101010 11100111001 010111111011 0110110111 1101111111 11010111110 0001011111 11111101011 0101010101 11111101010 11011011110 101101101001 1111011111 01110111101 01110101110 01110101110 0011111 01110011101 110011 1101111101 1101111111 110111 110101001 11110111010 11011110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,360 |
Words | 255 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 11, 5 |
Lines Amount | 31 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 212 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 98 Views
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"The House Of Dust: Part 03: 05: Melody In A Restaurant" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7070/the-house-of-dust%3A-part-03%3A-05%3A-melody-in-a-restaurant>.
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