Analysis of In an Old Book
Constantine P. Cavafy 1863 (Alexandria) – 1933 (Alexandria)
Forgotten between the leaves of an old book—
almost a hundred years old—
I found an unsigned watercolor.
It must have been the work of a powerful artist.
Its title: "Representation of Love."
"...love of extreme sensualists" would have been more to the point.
Because it became clear as you looked at the work
(it was easy to see what the artist had in mind)
that the young man in the painting
was not designated for those
who love in ways that are more or less healthy,
inside the bounds of what is clearly permissible—
with his deep chestnut eyes,
the rare beauty of his face,
the beauty of anomalous charm,
with those ideal lips that bring
sensual delight to the body loved,
those ideal limbs shaped for beds
that common morality calls shameless.
Scheme | XXXXX X XXAXXXXXXAXXX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01001011111 101011 11101100 1111011010010 110001011 110111111101 011011111101 1110111010101 10110010 1110011 11011111110 0101111100100 11111 0110111 010101001 1101111 1000110101 1011111 1100100110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 746 |
Words | 138 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 1, 13 |
Lines Amount | 19 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 197 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 135 Views
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"In an Old Book" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7162/in-an-old-book>.
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