Albâtre
This lady in the white bath-robe which she calls a peignoirIs, for the time being, the mistress of my friend,And the delicate white feet of her little white dogAre not more delicate than she is,Nor would Gautier himself have despised their contrasts in whitenessAs she sits in the great chairBetween the two indolent candles.
Words in this poem
- peignoir n.
- A woman's loose dressing sack; hence, a loose morning gown or wrapper.
- indolent a.
- Free from toil, pain, or trouble. [Pref. in- not + L. dolens, -entis, p. pr. of dolere to feel pain: cf. F. indolent. See Dolorous.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Albâtre is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lustra of Ezra Pound, Project Gutenberg ebook #55564; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ezra Pound, Albâtre, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/alb-tre.html, id L01253.
Form and metre
Albâtre is 7 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 11.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| This lady in the white bath-robe which she calls a peignoir | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| Is, for the time being, the mistress of my friend, | 12 | ····/˘·/˘··· |
| And the delicate white feet of her little white dog | 13 | ··/˘˘····/˘·· |
| Are not more delicate than she is, | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Nor would Gautier himself have despised their contrasts in whiteness | 16 | ··/˘˘˘/·˘/·/˘·/˘ |
| As she sits in the great chair | 7 | ······· |
| Between the two indolent candles. | 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.