To LI T’Ai Po
They are writing poems to you:White devils who have notSmeared the distant yellow of your lifeUpon their skins.Faces where snob and harlequinOgle each other in two, cold colours,White and red;Faces where middle ageSits, tearing a last gardenia;Faces continually crackedBy the brittle larceny of age;Faces where emotionsStand disarmed within a calm mirage:These faces bend over paperAnd steal from you a little silver and redSo that their lives may seem to bleedUnder the prick of a flashing need.The old and tired smileOf one who spies too much within himselfTo spare the effort of a halting frown,Brushed its sceptre over your face.You gave kind eyes to your hope,Desiring it to grope unfearingUnderneath the toppling mountain-tops.The wine you drank was a lakeIn which you splashed and found a vigour;The wine you drank was void of taste.Your yellow skin resembledA balanced docilitySmiling at all things--even at itself--Li T’ai Po.
Words in this poem
- snob n.
- A vulgar person who affects to be better, richer, or more fashionable, than he really is; a vulgar upstart; one who apes his superiors. Thackeray. [Icel. snapr a dolt, impostor, charlatan. Cf. Snub.]
- ogle v. t.
- To view or look at with side glances, as in fondness, or with a design to attract notice. [From a Dutch word corresponding to G. äugeln to ogle, fr. auge eye; cf. D. ooglonken to ogle, OD. oogen to cast sheep's eyes upon, ooge eye. See Eye.]
- gardenia n.
- A genus of plants, some species of which produce beautiful and fragrant flowers; Cape jasmine; -- so called in honor of Dr. [NL.]
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
- disarmed a.
- Deprived of arms.
- sceptre n.
- A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. [F. sceptre, L. sceptrum, from Gr. shaft. See Shaft, and cf. Scape a stem, shaft.]
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- vigour v. t.
- To invigorate. Feltham.
- docility n.
- teachableness; aptness for being taught; docibleness. [L. docilitas, fr. docilis: cf. F. docilité.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To LI T’Ai Po 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, To LI T’Ai Po, in Advice: A Book of Poems (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60252, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bodenheim-advice/to-li-t-ai-po.html, id L23389.
Form and metre
To LI T’Ai Po is 31 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 ---------------AA-------------- you · not · life · skins · harlequin · colours · red · age · gardenia · cracked · age · emotions · mirage · paper · red · bleedA · needA · smile · himself · frown · face · hope · unfearing · tops · lake · vigour · taste · resembled · docility · itself · po
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 are writing poems to you: | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| White devils who have not | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Smeared the distant yellow of your life | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Upon their skins. | 4 | ···· |
| Faces where snob and harlequin | 8 | /˘···/˘˘ |
| Ogle each other in two, cold colours, | 10 | /˘·/˘···/˘ |
| White and red; | 3 | ··· |
| Faces where middle age | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Sits, tearing a last gardenia; | 8 | ·/˘··˘/˘ |
| Faces continually cracked | 8 | /˘˘/˘˘˘· |
| By the brittle larceny of age; | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| Faces where emotions | 6 | /˘·˘/˘ |
| Stand disarmed within a calm mirage: | 9 | ·˘/····˘/ |
| These faces bend over paper | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| And steal from you a little silver and red | 11 | ·····/˘/˘·· |
| So that their lives may seem to bleed | 8 | ········ |
| Under the prick of a flashing need. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| The old and tired smile | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Of one who spies too much within himself | 10 | ········˘/ |
| To spare the effort of a halting frown, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Brushed its sceptre over your face. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| You gave kind eyes to your hope, | 7 | ······· |
| Desiring it to grope unfearing | 9 | ˘/˘······ |
| Underneath the toppling mountain-tops. | 9 | ·˘/·/˘/˘· |
| The wine you drank was a lake | 7 | ······· |
| In which you splashed and found a vigour; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The wine you drank was void of taste. | 8 | ········ |
| Your yellow skin resembled | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| A balanced docility | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/˘˘ |
| Smiling at all things--even at itself-- | 9 | /˘···/·˘/ |
| Li T’ai Po. | 3 | ··· |
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.