To Orrick Johns
The tread-mill roar that ever tramps betweenThe smirched geometries of this stern place,Sweeps vainly on your drowsily reckless faceLost in a swirl of raped loves barely seen.Sometimes your keenly pagan lips are raisedBy thoughts too tense to shape themselves in speech:Still, wounded thoughts that silently beseechYour life to make them impotent and dazed.
O tangled and half-strangled child, you shrinkFor ever from yourself, and wear a poseOf nimble and impenetrable pride.Yet sometimes, wavering on the sudden brinkOf jaded bitterness, you drop your clothesAnd weave a prayer into your naked stride.
Words in this poem
- drowsily adv.
- In a drowsy manner.
- swirl v. t.
- To whirl, or cause to whirl, as in an eddy. [Akin to Norw. svirla to whirl, freq. of sverra to whirl, Dan. svirre, G. schwirren to whiz, to buzz. *177. See Swarm, n.]
- keenly adv.
- In a keen manner.
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- stride v. t.
- To walk with long steps, especially in a measured or pompous manner. [AS. stridan to stride, to strive; akin to LG. striden, OFries. strida to strive, D. strijden to strive, to contend, G. streiten, OHG. stritan; of uncertain orig]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Orrick Johns 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 Orrick Johns, in Advice: A Book of Poems (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60252, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bodenheim-advice/to-orrick-johns.html, id L23401.
Form and metre
To Orrick Johns is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBACDDC betweenA · placeB · faceB · seenA · raisedC · speechD · beseechD · dazedC
- 2 ABCABC shrinkA · poseB · prideC · brinkA · clothesB · strideC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The tread-mill roar that ever tramps between | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The smirched geometries of this stern place, | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| Sweeps vainly on your drowsily reckless face | 11 | ·/˘··/˘˘/˘· |
| Lost in a swirl of raped loves barely seen. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sometimes your keenly pagan lips are raised | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| By thoughts too tense to shape themselves in speech: | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Still, wounded thoughts that silently beseech | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| Your life to make them impotent and dazed. | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| O tangled and half-strangled child, you shrink | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| For ever from yourself, and wear a pose | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Of nimble and impenetrable pride. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘˘· |
| Yet sometimes, wavering on the sudden brink | 10 | ·/·/˘··/˘· |
| Of jaded bitterness, you drop your clothes | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| And weave a prayer into your naked stride. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
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.