Behind a Wall
Amy Lowell 1874 (Brookline) – 1925 (Brookline)
I own a solace shut within my heart,
A garden full of many a quaint delight
And warm with drowsy, poppied sunshine; bright,
Flaming with lilies out of whose cups dart
Shining things
With powdered wings.
Here terrace sinks to terrace, arbors close
The ends of dreaming paths; a wanton wind
Jostles the half-ripe pears, and then, unkind,
Tumbles a-slumber in a pillar rose,
With content
Grown indolent.
By night my garden is o'erhung with gems
Fixed in an onyx setting. Fireflies
Flicker their lanterns in my dazzled eyes.
In serried rows I guess the straight, stiff stems
Of hollyhocks
Against the rocks.
So far and still it is that, listening,
I hear the flowers talking in the dawn;
And where a sunken basin cuts the lawn,
Cinctured with iris, pale and glistening,
The sudden swish
Of a waking fish.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 140 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBACC XDDXXX EFFEGG HIIHJJ |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 808 |
Words | 142 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
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"Behind a Wall" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/2206/behind-a-wall>.
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