Twice Shy

Her scarf a la Bardot,
In suede flats for the walk,
She came with me one evening
For air and friendly talk.
We crossed the quiet river,
Took the embankment walk.

Traffic holding its breath,
Sky a tense diaphragm:
Dusk hung like a backcloth
That shook where a swan swam,
Tremulous as a hawk
Hanging deadly, calm.

A vacuum of need
Collapsed each hunting heart
But tremulously we held
As hawk and prey apart,
Preserved classic decorum,
Deployed our talk with art.

Our Juvenilia
Had taught us both to wait,
Not to publish feeling
And regret it all too late -
Mushroom loves already
Had puffed and burst in hate.

So, chary and excited,
As a thrush linked on a hawk,
We thrilled to the March twilight
With nervous childish talk:
Still waters running deep
Along the embankment walk. 

This poem grabbed my attention initially as I was confused as to what connotation the title may have. The description throughout the beginning of the poem, leaving the reader questioning what may happen. A large portion of the poem is spent setting up the scene, which in turn correlates to the actions between the two individuals in the poem. Although there is no final outcome of the actions, I enjoyed the rhyming the author employed.

Alliteration with the use of repeating s sound in  “shook where a swan swam” in line 10.

Uses personification in line 7 with “traffic holding its breath”, and “sky a tense diaphragm” (8).  The poem is a sestet, with six lines in each stanza, and the 2^nd, 4^th, and 6^th line in each stanza rhyme. The author also repeats the end of the first stanza in the last sstanza, with “took the embankment walk” (6) and “along the embankment walk” (30).