Dispossessed
Tender and tremulous green of leavesTurned up by the wind,Twanging among the vines--Wind in the grassBlowing a clear pathFor the new-stripped soul to pass...
The naked soul in the sunlight...Like a wisp of smoke in the sunlightOn the hill-side shimmering.
Dance light on the wind, little soul,Like a thistle-down floatingOver the butterfliesAnd the lumbering bees...
Come away from that treeAnd its shadow grey as a stone...
Bathe in the pools of lightOn the hillside shimmering--Shining and wetted and warm in the sun-spray falling like golden rain--
But do not linger and lookAt that bleak thing under the tree.
Words in this poem
- wisp n.
- A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance. [OE. wisp, wips; probably akin to D. & G. wisch, Icel. visk, and perhaps to L. virga a twig, rod. Cf. Verge a rod, Whisk, n.]
- shimmering n.
- A gleam or glimmering.
- lumbering n.
- The business of cutting or getting timber or logs from the forest for lumber. [U.S.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dispossessed 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, Dispossessed, in The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4332, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/ridge-ghetto/dispossessed.html, id L20916.
Form and metre
Dispossessed is 20 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 ---A-A leaves · wind · vines · grassA · path · passA
- 2 AA- sunlightA · sunlightA · shimmering
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Tender and tremulous green of leaves | 9 | /˘·/˘˘··· |
| Turned up by the wind, | 5 | ····· |
| Twanging among the vines-- | 6 | /˘···· |
| Wind in the grass | 4 | ···· |
| Blowing a clear path | 5 | /˘··· |
| For the new-stripped soul to pass... | 7 | ······· |
| The naked soul in the sunlight... | 8 | ·/˘···/· |
| Like a wisp of smoke in the sunlight | 9 | ·······/· |
| On the hill-side shimmering. | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Dance light on the wind, little soul, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Like a thistle-down floating | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Over the butterflies | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And the lumbering bees... | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| Come away from that tree | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| And its shadow grey as a stone... | 8 | ··/····· |
| Bathe in the pools of light | 6 | ······ |
| On the hillside shimmering-- | 7 | ··/·/˘˘ |
| Shining and wetted and warm in the sun-spray falling like golden rain-- | 17 | /˘·/˘······/˘·/˘· |
| But do not linger and look | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| At that bleak thing under the tree. | 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.