Columbine Reflects
They have moulded my face with a tear and a sneer.They have sandalled me with caprice,And the heart they have given meIs a bag of red tissue-paper.Their loves are ragged and fatAnd seek the consolationOf a tinkling effigy!But even an effigy may winkAn eye at its slinking masters!I can laugh at their frantic, tattered armsSpinning me into impish posturings,And jeer at the faces behind me!After my play I go to sleep,But they must sit, heavily looking at each other.
Words in this poem
- impish a.
- Having the qualities, or showing the characteristics, of an imp.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Columbine Reflects is in the public domain. This text is taken from Advice: A Book of Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #60252; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Maxwell Bodenheim, Columbine Reflects, in Advice: A Book of Poems (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60252, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bodenheim-advice/columbine-reflects.html, id L23383.
Form and metre
Columbine Reflects is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 --A--------A-- sneer · caprice · meA · paper · fat · consolation · effigy · wink · masters · arms · posturings · meA · sleep · other
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| They have moulded my face with a tear and a sneer. | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| They have sandalled me with caprice, | 8 | ··/˘··˘/ |
| And the heart they have given me | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Is a bag of red tissue-paper. | 9 | ·····/·/˘ |
| Their loves are ragged and fat | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| And seek the consolation | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Of a tinkling effigy! | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘˘ |
| But even an effigy may wink | 8 | ·/·/˘˘·· |
| An eye at its slinking masters! | 8 | ······/˘ |
| I can laugh at their frantic, tattered arms | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Spinning me into impish posturings, | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| And jeer at the faces behind me! | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| After my play I go to sleep, | 8 | ········ |
| But they must sit, heavily looking at each other. | 12 | ····/˘/˘··/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.