Analysis of A Bit Of Color
Oh, damsel fair at the Porte Maillot,
With the soft blue eyes that haunt me so,
Pray what should I do
When a girl like you
Bestows her smile, her glance, and her sigh
On the first fond fool that is passing by,
Who listens and longs as the sweet words flow
From her pretty red lips at the Porte Maillot?
There were lips as red ere you were born,
Now wreathed in smiles, now curled in scorn,
And other bright eyes
With their truth and lies,
That broke the heart and turned the brain
Of many a tender, lovelorn swain;
But never, I ween, brought half the woe
That comes from the lips at the Porte Maillot.
A charming picture, there you stand,
A perfect work from a master's hand!
With your face so fair
And your wondrous hair,
Your glorious color, your light and shade,
And your classic head that the gods have made,
Your cheeks with crimson all aglow,
As you wait for a lover at the Porte Maillot.
There are gorgeous tints in the jeweled crown,
There are brilliant shades when the sun goes down;
But your lips vie
With the western sky,
And give to the world so rare a hue
That the painter must learn his art anew,
And the sunset borrow a brighter glow
From the lips of the girl at the Porte Maillot.
Come, tell me truly, fair-haired youth,
Do her eyes flash love, her lips speak truth?
Or does she beguile
With her glance and smile,
And burn you, spurn you all day long
With a Circe's art and a Siren's song?
Ah! would that your foolish heart might know
The lie in the heart at the Porte Maillot!
Scheme | ABACDDBA EEFFGGBA AAHHAABA IIDDCCBA JJKKLLBA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) Tetractys (25%) |
Metre | 11011011 101111111 11111 10111 010101001 1011111101 1100110111 1010111011 101111101 11011101 01011 11101 11010101 11001011 110111101 111011011 01010111 001110101 11111 01101 1100101101 0110110111 11110101 11110101011 111010011 1110110111 1111 10101 011011101 1010111101 00110101 1011011011 11110111 101110111 11101 10101 01111111 10110011 111110111 010011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,719 |
Words | 288 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 232 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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"A Bit Of Color" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54284/a-bit-of-color>.
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