The Patchwork Bonnet
Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)
Across the room my silent love I throw,
Where you sit sewing in bed by candlelight,
Your young stern profile and industrious fingers
Displayed against the blind in a shadow-show,
To Dinda's grave delight.
The needle dips and pokes, the cheerful thread
Runs after, follow-my-leader down the seam:
The patchwork pieces cry for joy together,
O soon to sit as a crown on Dinda's head,
Fulfilment of their dream.
Snippets and odd ends folded by, forgotten,
With camphor on a top shelf, hard to find,
Now wake to this most happy resurrection,
To Dinda playing toss with a reel of cotton
And staring at the blind.
Dinda in sing-song stretching out one hand
Calls for the playthings; mother does not hear:
Her mind sails far away on a patchwork Ocean,
And all the world must wait till she touches land;
So Dinda cries in fear,
Then Mother turns, laughing like a young fairy,
And Dinda smiles to see her look so kind,
Calls out again for playthings, playthings, playthings;
And now the shadows make an Umbrian Mary
Adoring, on the blind.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 94 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABXAB CDXCD EFEEF GXEGX HFXHF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,012 |
Words | 183 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
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"The Patchwork Bonnet" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/31193/the-patchwork-bonnet>.
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