Two Women on a Street
This street is callous apathyIn a scale of greys and browns.Its black roof-line suggestsFlat bodies unable to rise.Even its screams are listlessnessHaving an evil dream.Its air is swarthy rawnessTroubled with ash cans and cellars.
An old woman ambles onWith a black bag that seems part of her back,And a candidly hawk-like face.She croons a smothered lullabyThat sifts a flitting roundnessInto her sharply parted face.Then she surrenders her handTo the welter of a garbage can.A hugely wilted woman slinks byWith a cracked stare on her face.Her eyes are beaten discsOf the lamplight’s ghastly keenness.She glides away as though the nightWere a lover flogging her;Glides into the callous apathyOf this street, like one who cringesHappily into her lover’s hallway.
Words in this poem
- rawness n.
- The quality or state of being raw.
- candidly adv.
- In a candid manner.
- lullaby n.
- A song to quiet babes or lull them to sleep; that which quiets. [From Lull, v. t.]
- flitting n.
- A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.
- welter v. i.
- To roll, as the body of an animal; to tumble about, especially in anything foul or defiling; to wallow. [Freq. of OE. walten to roll over, AS. wealtan; akin to LG. weltern, G. walzen to roll, to waltz, sich wälzen to welter, OHG. walzan to roll, Icel. velta, Dan. v]
- garbage n.
- Offal, as the bowels of an animal or fish; refuse animal or vegetable matter from a kitchen; hence, anything worthless, disgusting, or loathsome. Grainger. [OE. also garbash, perh. orig., that which is purged or cleansed away; cf. OF. garber to make fine, neat, OHG. garawan to make ready, prepare, akin to E. garb dr]
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
- happily adv.
- By chance; peradventure; haply. Piers Plowman. [From Happy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Two Women on a Street 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, Two Women on a Street, in Advice: A Book of Poems (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60252, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bodenheim-advice/two-women-on-a-street.html, id L23397.
Form and metre
Two Women on a Street is 25 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other poems in trochaic 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-BA apathy · browns · suggests · riseA · listlessnessB · dream · rawnessB · cellarsA
- 2 --AB-A--BA------- on · back · faceA · lullabyB · roundness · faceA · hand · can · byB · faceA · discs · keenness · night · her · apathy · cringes · hallway
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| This street is callous apathy | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| In a scale of greys and browns. | 7 | ······· |
| Its black roof-line suggests | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Flat bodies unable to rise. | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘·· |
| Even its screams are listlessness | 8 | /˘······ |
| Having an evil dream. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Its air is swarthy rawness | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Troubled with ash cans and cellars. | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| An old woman ambles on | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| With a black bag that seems part of her back, | 10 | ·········· |
| And a candidly hawk-like face. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| She croons a smothered lullaby | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| That sifts a flitting roundness | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Into her sharply parted face. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Then she surrenders her hand | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
| To the welter of a garbage can. | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| A hugely wilted woman slinks by | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘·· |
| With a cracked stare on her face. | 8 | ···˘···· |
| Her eyes are beaten discs | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Of the lamplight’s ghastly keenness. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| She glides away as though the night | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Were a lover flogging her; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Glides into the callous apathy | 9 | ····/˘/˘˘ |
| Of this street, like one who cringes | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Happily into her lover’s hallway. | 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.