A Worn Rose
Where to-day would a dainty buyerImbibe your scented juice,Pale ruin with a heart of fire;Drain your succulence with her lips,Grown sapless from much use...Make minister of her desireA chalice cup where no bee sips--Where no wasp wanders in?
Close to her white flesh housed an hour,One held you... her spent formDrew on yours for its wasted dower--What favour could she do you more?Yet, of all who drink therein,None know it is the warmOdorous heart of a ravished flowerTingles so in her mouth's red core...
Words in this poem
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- succulence n.
- The quality or condition of being succulent; juiciness; as, the succulence of a peach. [See Succulent.]
- sapless a.
- Destitute of sap; not juicy.
- chalice n.
- A cup or bowl; especially, the cup used in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. [OR. chalis, calice, OF. chalice, calice, F. calice, fr. L. calix, akin to Gr. helmet. Cf. Calice, Calyx.]
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Worn Rose is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Ghetto, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #4332; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lola Ridge, A Worn Rose, in The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4332, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/ridge-ghetto/a-worn-rose.html, id L20914.
Form and metre
A Worn Rose is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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.
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 ABACBAC- buyerA · juiceB · fireA · lipsC · useB · desireA · sipsC · in
- 2 ABAC-BAC hourA · formB · dowerA · moreC · therein · warmB · flowerA · coreC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Where to-day would a dainty buyer | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Imbibe your scented juice, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Pale ruin with a heart of fire; | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Drain your succulence with her lips, | 8 | ········ |
| Grown sapless from much use... | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Make minister of her desire | 9 | ·/˘˘··˘/˘ |
| A chalice cup where no bee sips-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Where no wasp wanders in? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Close to her white flesh housed an hour, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| One held you... her spent form | 6 | ······ |
| Drew on yours for its wasted dower-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| What favour could she do you more? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Yet, of all who drink therein, | 7 | ······· |
| None know it is the warm | 6 | ······ |
| Odorous heart of a ravished flower | 10 | /˘˘·····/˘ |
| Tingles so in her mouth's red core... | 8 | /˘······ |
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.