Analysis of The Naked and the Nude
Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)
For me, the naked and the nude
(By lexicographers construed
As synonyms that should express
The same deficiency of dress
Or shelter) stand as wide apart
As love from lies, or truth from art.
Lovers without reproach will gaze
On bodies naked and ablaze;
The Hippocratic eye will see
In nakedness, anatomy;
And naked shines the Goddess when
She mounts her lion among men.
The nude are bold, the nude are sly
To hold each treasonable eye.
While draping by a showman's trick
Their dishabille in rhetoric,
They grin a mock-religious grin
Of scorn at those of naked skin.
The naked, therefore, who compete
Against the nude may know defeat;
Yet when they both together tread
The briary pastures of the dead,
By Gorgons with long whips pursued,
How naked go the sometimes nude!
Scheme | AABBCC DDEEFF GGHHII JJKKAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010001 1010001 111101 01010011 11011101 11111111 10010111 11010001 00010111 010100 01010101 11010011 01110111 11111 1101011 110100 11010101 11111101 0101101 01011101 11110101 0110101 11011101 11010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 755 |
Words | 136 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 154 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 494 Views
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"The Naked and the Nude" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31191/the-naked-and-the-nude>.
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