Analysis of The Woman With Jewels
Lola Ridge 1873 – 1941
The woman with jewels sits in the cafe,
Spraying light like a fountain.
Diamonds glitter on her bulbous fingers
And on her arms, great as thighs,
Diamonds gush from her ear-lobes over the goitrous throat.
She is obesely beautiful.
Her eyes are full of bleared lights,
Like little pools of tar, spilled by a sailor in mad haste for shore…
And her mouth is scarlet and full - only a little crumpled -
like a flower that has been pressed apart…
Why does she come alone to this obscure basement -
She who should have a litter and hand-maidens to support her
on either side?
She ascends the stairway, and the waiters turn to look at her,
spilling the soup.
The black satin dress is a little lifted, showing the dropsical legs
in their silken fleshings…
The mountainous breasts tremble…
There is an agitation in her gems,
That quiver incessantly, emitting trillions of fiery rays…
She erupts explosive breaths…
Every step is an adventure
From this…
The serpent's tooth
Saved Cleopatra.
Scheme | XXAXXBXXXX XCX CXXABXXXCXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 01011010001 1011010 1010101010 0101111 101101110011 111100 0111111 1101111101001111 001110011001010 1010111101 111101110110 111101001101010 1101 10101001011110 1001 0110110101010011 01101 0100110 111010001 11001000101011001 110101 100111010 11 0101 1010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 980 |
Words | 173 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 3, 12 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 260 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 107 Views
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