Analysis of The New Woman

Arthur Henry Adams 1872 (Lawrence) – 1936 (Sydney, New South Wales)



THE stone that all the sullen centuries,
 With sluggish hands and massive fingers rude,
 Against the sepulchre of womanhood
 Had sternly held, she has thrust back with ease,
 And stands, superbly arrogant, the keys
 Of knowledge in her hand, won by a mood
 Of daring, in her beauty flaunting nude,
 Eager to drain life's wine unto the lees.  
  So she shall tempt and touch and try and taste,
 And in the wrestle of the world shall lose
 Her dimpled prettiness, her petals bruise;
 But moulding ever to a truer type
 She shall return to man, no more abased—
 His counterpart, a woman, rounded, ripe.


Scheme ABCAABBADEEFBF
Poetic Form
Metre 0111010100 1101010101 0101110 1101111111 0110010001 1100011101 1100010101 1011111001 1111010101 0001010111 01010101 1101010101 110111111 110010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 608
Words 106
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 460
Words per stanza (avg) 104
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
103

Arthur Henry Adams

Arthur Henry Adams was a journalist and author. He started his career in New Zealand, though he spent most of it in Australia, and for a short time lived in China and London.  more…

All Arthur Henry Adams poems | Arthur Henry Adams Books

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