Analysis of The White Bird
Lola Ridge 1873 – 1941
Man of the flame-eyes
And mouth with the bitter twist of in-grown laughter,
And little bald man . . . whose seeming stillness
Is akin to the velocity of a spinning star
Holding its perfect poise—
You two yea-sayers
Beetling over the little deniers,
Two great levelers, building from the earth up, among
puttiers and pluggers of rotten piles—
You of the rich life, running in ample measure, amidst
life deleted of its old raw fire as earth is deleted
of its coal and iron— You be mighty hunters and keepers,
Trotsky and Lenine—
Yet can you hold . . . the unconstrainable One
Of the slow and flaming deaths
And multiple resurrections ?
Hands, reaching in hundreds of millions,
Backs, straightening under the keeling floor of the world,
Can you hold the great white bird?—
She that sweeps low over the chain-gangs
When they glance up from their stone7breaking
Into morning's burning gold;
She that goes down into underground cells,
Sending the cool wind of her wings
Through unsevering stone . . .
And departs, unbeknown, from those who announce her,
Saying: 'Lo, she is ours!'
Ah, what a mighty destiny shall be yours,
Should you persuade her—
The Unconstrainable One
Who has slid out of the arms of so many lovers,
Leaving'not'a feather in their hands!
Scheme | ABXXXCAXXXXCDDXA XXXXXXXXDBC XBDCX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011 011010110110 0101111010 10110010010101 101011 11110 1100101 1110010101101 1011101 11011100101001 1010111110111010 111010111010010 101 1111011 1010101 01001 110010110 1100100101101 1110111 111110011 111111110 0110101 111101101 10011101 111 00101111010 1011110 11010100111 11010 011 1111101111010 101010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,245 |
Words | 212 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 11, 5 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 328 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 73 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 131 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The White Bird" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/25947/the-white-bird>.
Discuss this Lola Ridge poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In