The Courtesan Chats
Last night I met a passive manWith almost no curve to his face,And skin relentlessly white.He made me tell his fortuneWith a pack of cards.“Jack of hearts--your love will beA scullion overturning trays of foodAnd standing dubiously in their midst.”“Queen of diamonds--you will have a wifeLike a thistle dipped in frost,Helpless in your sheathed hands.”“Deuce of clubs--a downcast jesterWill pester you with slanting maliceWhen you seek to play the king.”“Ace of hearts--your life will standStraight in a desperate majesty,Its lurid robes ever slippingAnd one wound endlessly dripping.”The passive man blew out a candleOn the table and bade me leave,Not desiring me to see his face.
Words in this poem
- scullion n.
- A servant who cleans pots and kettles, and does other menial services in the kitchen. [OF. escouillon (Cot.) a dishclout, apparently for escouvillon, F. écouvillon a swab; cf. also OF. souillon a servant employed for base offices. Cf. Scovel.]
- dubiously adv.
- In a dubious manner.
- pester v. t.
- To trouble; to disturb; to annoy; to harass with petty vexations. [Abbrev. fr. impester, fr. OF. empaistrier, empestrer, to entangle the feet or legs, to embarrass, F. empêtrer; pref. em-, en- (L. in in) + LL. pastorium, pastor]
- desperate a.
- Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare. See Despair, and cf. Desperado.]
- lurid a.
- Pale yellow; ghastly pale; wan; gloomy; dismal. [L. luridus.]
- endlessly adv.
- In an endless manner.
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Courtesan Chats 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, The Courtesan Chats, in Advice: A Book of Poems (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60252, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bodenheim-advice/the-courtesan-chats.html, id L23387.
Form and metre
The Courtesan Chats is 21 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 AB-A---------C--CC--B manA · faceB · white · fortuneA · cards · be · food · midst · wife · frost · hands · jester · malice · kingC · stand · majesty · slippingC · drippingC · candle · leave · faceB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Last night I met a passive man | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With almost no curve to his face, | 8 | ·/······ |
| And skin relentlessly white. | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| He made me tell his fortune | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| With a pack of cards. | 5 | ····· |
| “Jack of hearts--your love will be | 7 | ······· |
| A scullion overturning trays of food | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘··· |
| And standing dubiously in their midst.” | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘˘··· |
| “Queen of diamonds--you will have a wife | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Like a thistle dipped in frost, | 8 | ··/˘·˘·· |
| Helpless in your sheathed hands.” | 7 | /˘···˘· |
| “Deuce of clubs--a downcast jester | 8 | ····/·/˘ |
| Will pester you with slanting malice | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| When you seek to play the king.” | 7 | ······· |
| “Ace of hearts--your life will stand | 7 | ······· |
| Straight in a desperate majesty, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Its lurid robes ever slipping | 8 | ·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| And one wound endlessly dripping.” | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| The passive man blew out a candle | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| On the table and bade me leave, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Not desiring me to see his face. | 9 | ·˘/˘····· |
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.