Analysis of Manhattan
Lola Ridge 1873 – 1941
Out of the night you burn, Manhattan,
In a vesture of gold -
Span of innumerable arcs,
Flaring and multiplying -
Gold at the uttermost circles fading
Into the tenderest hint of jade,
Or fusing in tremulous twilight blues,
Robing the far-flung offices,
Scintillant-storied, forking flame,
Or soaring to luminous amethyst
Over the steeples aureoled -
Diaphanous gold,
Veiling the Woolworth, argently
Rising slender and stark
Mellifluous-shrill as a vender's cry,
And towers squatting graven and cold
On the velvet bales of the dark,
And the Singer's appraising
Indolent idol's eye,
And night like a purple cloth unrolled -
Nebulous gold
Throwing an ephemeral glory about life's vanishing points,
Wherein you burn…
You of unknown voltage
Whirling on your axis…
Scrawling vermillion signatures
Over the night's velvet hoarding…
Insolent, towering spherical
To apices ever shifting.
Scheme | XAXBBXXXXXA ACDEADBEA AXXXXXBCB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111010 00111 11010001 100100 11011010 0101111 110010011 1011100 110101 1101100100 100101 01001 10011 101001 111011 010101001 10101101 0010010 10011 01101011 1001 1010100100111001 0111 110110 101110 1010100 10011010 100100100 111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 867 |
Words | 137 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 237 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 327 Views
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"Manhattan" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/25911/manhattan>.
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