The Painter on Silk
Amy Lowell 1874 (Brookline) – 1925 (Brookline)
There was a man
Who made his living
By painting roses
Upon silk.
He sat in an upper chamber
And painted,
And the noises of the street
Meant nothing to him.
When he heard bugles, and fifes, and drums,
He thought of red, and yellow, and white roses
Bursting in the sunshine,
And smiled as he worked.
He thought only of roses,
And silk.
When he could get no more silk
He stopped painting
And only thought
Of roses.
The day the conquerors
Entered the city,
The old man
Lay dying.
He heard the bugles and drums,
And wished he could paint the roses
Bursting into sound.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 66 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCD XXXX ECXX CDDBXC XXABECX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 547 |
Words | 109 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 6, 7 |
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"The Painter on Silk" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/2330/the-painter-on-silk>.
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