Analysis of Ad Manus Puellae
Ernest Christopher Dowson 1867 – 1900
I was always a lover of ladies' hands!
Or ever mine heart came here to tryst,
For the sake of your carved white hands' commands;
The tapering fingers, the dainty wrist;
The hands of a girl were what I kissed.
I remember an hand like a _fleur-de-lys_
When it slid from its silken sheath, her glove;
With its odours passing ambergris:
And that was the empty husk of a love.
Oh, how shall I kiss your hands enough?
They are pale with the pallor of ivories;
But they blush to the tips like a curled sea-shell:
What treasure, in kingly treasuries,
Of gold, and spice for the thurible,
Is sweet as her hands to hoard and tell?
I know not the way from your finger-tips,
Nor how I shall gain the higher lands,
The citadel of your sacred lips:
I am captive still of my pleasant bands,
The hands of a girl, and most your hands.
Scheme | ABABB ACXCX ADXDD EAEAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1110101101 110111111 1011111101 0100100101 011010111 10101110111 1111110101 11110100 0110101101 111111101 11110111 11110110111 110010100 1101101 111011101 1110111101 111110101 01011101 1110111101 011010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 806 |
Words | 158 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 158 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 96 Views
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"Ad Manus Puellae" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12766/ad-manus-puellae>.
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