The Contest
Your stature is modelledwith straight tool-edge:you are chiselled like rocksthat are eaten into by the sea.
The ridge of your breast is taut,and under each the shadow is sharp,and between the clenched musclesof your slender hips.
From the circle of your cropped hairthere is light,and about your male torseand the foot-arch and the straight ankle.
You stand rigid and mighty--granite and the ore in rocks;a great band clasps your foreheadand its heavy twists of gold.
You are splendid,your arms are fire;you have entered the hill-straits--a sea treads upon the hill-slopes.
Myrtle is about your head,you have bent and caught the spray:each leaf is sharpagainst the lift and furrowof your bound hair.
The narcissus has copied the archof your slight breast:your feet are citron-flowers,your knees, cut from white-ash,your thighs are rock-cistus.
Your chin lifts straightfrom the hollow of your curved throat.Your shoulders are level--they have melted rare silverfor their breadth.
Words in this poem
- narcissus n.
- A genus of endogenous bulbous plants with handsome flowers, having a cup-shaped crown within the six-lobed perianth, and comprising the daffodils and jonquils of several kinds. [L. narcissus, and (personified) Narcissus, Gr. na`rkissos, Na`rkissos, fr. na`rkh torpor, in allusion to the narcotic properties of the flower. Cf. Narcotic.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Contest is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sea Garden, Project Gutenberg ebook #28665; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: H.D., The Contest, in Sea Garden (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28665, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hd-sea-garden/the-contest.html, id L08256.
Form and metre
The Contest is 35 lines in 8 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.3 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Your stature is modelled | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| with straight tool-edge: | 4 | ···· |
| you are chiselled like rocks | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| that are eaten into by the sea. | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| The ridge of your breast is taut, | 7 | ······· |
| and under each the shadow is sharp, | 9 | ·····/··· |
| and between the clenched muscles | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| of your slender hips. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| From the circle of your cropped hair | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| there is light, | 3 | ··· |
| and about your male torse | 6 | ······ |
| and the foot-arch and the straight ankle. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| You stand rigid and mighty-- | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| granite and the ore in rocks; | 7 | /˘····· |
| a great band clasps your forehead | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| and its heavy twists of gold. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| You are splendid, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| your arms are fire; | 5 | ···/˘ |
| you have entered the hill-straits-- | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| a sea treads upon the hill-slopes. | 8 | ········ |
| Myrtle is about your head, | 7 | /˘····· |
| you have bent and caught the spray: | 7 | ······· |
| each leaf is sharp | 4 | ···· |
| against the lift and furrow | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| of your bound hair. | 4 | ···· |
| The narcissus has copied the arch | 9 | ·˘/˘·/˘·· |
| of your slight breast: | 4 | ···· |
| your feet are citron-flowers, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| your knees, cut from white-ash, | 6 | ······ |
| your thighs are rock-cistus. | 6 | ······ |
| Your chin lifts straight | 4 | ···· |
| from the hollow of your curved throat. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Your shoulders are level-- | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| they have melted rare silver | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| for their breadth. | 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.