Analysis of Madala Goes By The Orphanage
Unaware of its terror,
And but half aware
Of the world's beauty near her-
Of sunlight on the stones,
And trembling birds in the square,
Lightly went Madala-
A rose blown suddenly
From Spring's gay mouth; part of the Spring was she.
Warmed to her delicate bones,
Cool in its linen her skin,
her hair up-combed and circled,
Lightly she flowered on the sin
And pain of the Spring-struck world.
Down the street went crazy men,
The winter misery of their blood
Budding in new pain
While beggars whined beside her,
While the street's daughters eyed her,--
Poor flowers that kept midsummer
With desperate bloom, and thrust
Stale rose at each newcomer,
And crime and hunger and lust
Raged in the noisy dust.
Lightly went Madala,
Unshaken still of that spell,
Coral beads and jade to buy,
While her thoughts roamed easily-
Thoughts like bees in lavender,--
Thoughts gay and fragile as a robin's shell.
Till suddenly she had come
To grim age-stubborned wall
Behind whose mask of bars
Starts up in shame the Foundling's Hospital.*
At the gates to watch her pass
A caged thing eyed her dumb,
Most mercifully unaware of
Its own hurt, but Madala
Stopped short of Spring that day.
The air grew pinched and wan,
A hand came over the sun,
Birds huddled, stones went grey,
Her lace and linen white
Seemed but her body's sin,
her flesh unscarred and bright
Burnt like a leper's skin.
Her mouth was stale with bread
Flung her by strangers, she was fed,
Housed, fathered by the State, and she had grown
A thing belonged to, and loved, by none.
Though the shut mouth said no word,
from the caged thing she heard,
'Who has wronged me, that this Spring
'Gives me nothing and you everything,
'Who alike were made,
'Who beckon the same dream?
'You buy coral and jade,
'I sew long, hungry seams
'To pay for charity . . .'
Then Madala's heart, afraid,
Cried the first selfish cry;
'Is it my fault? Can I
'Help what the world has done?
'Can the flower in the shade
'Blame the flower in the sun?'
Then quick the caged thing said,
As if to ask pardon that its words had made
Madala's Spring so spoiled for her that day:
'But there's a way, a way!
'If flowers would share their Spring
'There's be sunshine enough for all the flowers.
'Such sunshine you could bring,
'Such joy that swings and flies
'With posies your hours through,
'So just beyond my hours.
'If I could walk with you-
'Not in pitiful two by two
Flayed by free children's eyes,
Your sister for an hour to be,
It would double joy and woo
Spring back to you, and more than Spring to me.'
Then something quaked in Madala,
Quaked with magic, quaked with awe.
Love-quickening, She became a part
Of this caged thing, she was aware
Of strange lips tugging at her heart.
So clear the way was! Tenderer
Grew her eyes, and as they grew,
Back to the flowers rushed the dew,
The earth filled out with the sun,
The cold birds in the square
Unbunched and preened upon
Their twigs in the softening air;
The cold wind dwindled and dropped,
Nearer drew Madala,
At the dumb thing she smiled,
And Spring that a child had stopped
Came back from the eyes of a child.
Scheme | abacbDdecfxfxxxxaaagaggDdhdadidxdxixdjkljmfmfnnxlooppqxqxeqhhlqlnqjjprpstrttsete dxubuattlbkbvdwvw |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011110 01101 1011010 11101 01001001 1011 011100 1111110111 1101001 1011001 0111010 10110101 0110111 1011101 010100111 10011 1101010 1011010 11011110 110101 111110 0101001 100101 1011 0101111 1010111 1011100 1110100 1101010101 1100111 11111 011111 11010110 1011101 011101 11000011 11111 111111 011101 0111001 110111 010101 110101 01101 11011 011111 10110111 1101010111 010110111 1011111 101111 1111111 11100110 10101 110011 111001 111101 111100 11101 101101 111111 110111 1010001 1010001 110111 11111011111 11111011 110101 1101111 1110111010 11111 111101 111101 1101110 111111 10100111 111101 110111011 1110101 1111011111 110101 1110111 110010101 11111101 11110101 110111 1010111 11010101 0111101 011001 10101 11001001 0111001 1011 101111 0110111 11101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,990 |
Words | 569 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 80, 17 |
Lines Amount | 97 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,193 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 282 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:53 min read
- 87 Views
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"Madala Goes By The Orphanage" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28351/madala-goes-by-the-orphanage>.
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