VI Bluebeard
This door you might not open, and you did;So enter now, and see for what slight thingYou are betrayed. . . . Here is no treasure hid,No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroringThe sought-for truth, no heads of women slainFor greed like yours, no writhings of distress,But only what you see. . . . Look yet again--An empty room, cobwebbed and comfortless.Yet this alone out of my life I keptUnto myself, lest any know me quite;And you did so profane me when you creptUnto the threshold of this room to-nightThat I must never more behold your face.This now is yours. I seek another place.
Words in this poem
- greed n.
- An eager desire or longing; greediness; as, a greed of gain. [Akin to Goth. grdus hunger, Icel. graedhr. sq. root34. See Greedy.]
- cobwebbed a.
- Abounding in cobwebs.
- comfortless a.
- Without comfort or comforts; in want or distress; cheerless.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
VI Bluebeard is in the public domain. This text is taken from Renascence, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #109; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edna St. Vincent Millay, VI Bluebeard, in Renascence and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #109, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-renascence/vi-bluebeard.html, id L07741.
Form and metre
VI Bluebeard is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG didA · thingB · hidA · mirroringB · slainC · distressD · againC · comfortlessD · keptE · quiteF · creptE · nightF · faceG · placeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This door you might not open, and you did; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| So enter now, and see for what slight thing | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| You are betrayed. . . . Here is no treasure hid, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroring | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| The sought-for truth, no heads of women slain | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For greed like yours, no writhings of distress, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| But only what you see. . . . Look yet again-- | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| An empty room, cobwebbed and comfortless. | 10 | ·/˘·/··/˘˘ |
| Yet this alone out of my life I kept | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Unto myself, lest any know me quite; | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| And you did so profane me when you crept | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Unto the threshold of this room to-night | 10 | ···/······ |
| That I must never more behold your face. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| This now is yours. I seek another place. | 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.