Flotsam
Crass rays streaming from the vestibules;Cafes glittering like jeweled teeth;High-flung signsBlinking yellow phosphorescent eyes;Girls in blackCircling monotonouslyAbout the orange lights...
Nothing to guess at...Save the darkness aboveCrouching like a great cat.
In the dim-lit square,Where dishevelled treesTustle with the wind--the wind like a scytheMowing their last leaves--Arcs shimmering through a greenish haze--Pale oval arcsLike ailing virgins,Each out of a halo circumscribed,Pallidly staring...
Figures drift upon the benchesWith no more rustle than a dropped leaf settling--Slovenly figures like untied parcels,And papers wrapped about their kneesHuddled one to the other,Cringing to the wind--The sided wind,Leaving no breach untried...
So many and all so still...The fountain slobbering its stone basinIs louder than They--Flotsam of the five oceansHere on this raft of the world.
This old man's headHas found a woman's shoulder.The wind juggles with her shawlThat flaps about them like a sail,And splashes her red faded hairOver the salt stubble of his chin.A light foam is on his lips,As though dreams surged in himBreaking and ebbing away...And the bare boughs shuffle above himAnd the twigs rattle like dice...
She--diffused like a broken beetle--Sprawls without grace,Her face gray as asphalt,Her jaws sagging as on loosened hinges...Shadows ply about her mouth--Nimble shadows out of the jigging tree,That dances above her its dance of dry bones.
Words in this poem
- crass a.
- Cross; thick; dense; coarse; not elaborated or refined. [L. crassus thick, fat, gross, prob. orig., closely woven See Crease animal fat, and cf. Crate, Hurdle.]
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- shimmering n.
- A gleam or glimmering.
- pallidly adv.
- In a pallid manner.
- rustle v. i.
- To make a quick succession of small sounds, like the rubbing or moving of silk cloth or dry leaves. [AS. hristlan to rustle; or cf. Sw. rusta to stir, make a riot, or E. rush, v.]
- settling n.
- The act of one who, or that which, settles; the act of establishing one's self, of colonizing, subsiding, adjusting, etc.
- flotsam n.
- Goods lost by shipwreck, and floating on the sea; -- in distinction from jetsam or jetson. Blackstone. [F. flotter to float. See FFlotilla, and cf. Jetsam.]
- sprawls n.
- Small branches of a tree; twigs; sprays.
- sagging n.
- A bending or sinking between the ends of a thing, in consequence of its own, or an imposed, weight; an arching downward in the middle, as of a ship after straining. Cf. Hogging.
- jigging n.
- The act or using a jig; the act of separating ore with a jigger, or wire-bottomed sieve, which is moved up and down in water.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Flotsam 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, Flotsam, in The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4332, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/ridge-ghetto/flotsam.html, id L20873.
Form and metre
Flotsam is 50 lines in 7 stanzas.
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.
- 2 A-A atA · above · catA
- 4 A--A-BB- benchesA · settling · parcels · kneesA · other · windB · windB · untried
- 6 -------A-A- head · shoulder · shawl · sail · hair · chin · lips · himA · away · himA · dice
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Crass rays streaming from the vestibules; | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| Cafes glittering like jeweled teeth; | 9 | ·//˘˘·/˘· |
| High-flung signs | 3 | ··· |
| Blinking yellow phosphorescent eyes; | 9 | /˘/˘····· |
| Girls in black | 3 | ··· |
| Circling monotonously | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| About the orange lights... | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Nothing to guess at... | 5 | /˘··· |
| Save the darkness above | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Crouching like a great cat. | 6 | /˘···· |
| In the dim-lit square, | 5 | ····· |
| Where dishevelled trees | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| Tustle with the wind--the wind like a scythe | 10 | ·········· |
| Mowing their last leaves-- | 5 | /˘··· |
| Arcs shimmering through a greenish haze-- | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| Pale oval arcs | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Like ailing virgins, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Each out of a halo circumscribed, | 9 | ····/˘·˘/ |
| Pallidly staring... | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| Figures drift upon the benches | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| With no more rustle than a dropped leaf settling-- | 12 | ···/˘····/˘˘ |
| Slovenly figures like untied parcels, | 10 | /˘˘/˘·˘//˘ |
| And papers wrapped about their knees | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Huddled one to the other, | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Cringing to the wind-- | 5 | /˘··· |
| The sided wind, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Leaving no breach untried... | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| So many and all so still... | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The fountain slobbering its stone basin | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘··/˘ |
| Is louder than They-- | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Flotsam of the five oceans | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Here on this raft of the world. | 7 | ······· |
| This old man's head | 4 | ···· |
| Has found a woman's shoulder. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| The wind juggles with her shawl | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| That flaps about them like a sail, | 8 | ········ |
| And splashes her red faded hair | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Over the salt stubble of his chin. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| A light foam is on his lips, | 7 | ······· |
| As though dreams surged in him | 6 | ······ |
| Breaking and ebbing away... | 7 | /˘·/˘˘/ |
| And the bare boughs shuffle above him | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| And the twigs rattle like dice... | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| She--diffused like a broken beetle-- | 9 | ·˘/··/˘/˘ |
| Sprawls without grace, | 4 | ···· |
| Her face gray as asphalt, | 6 | ····/· |
| Her jaws sagging as on loosened hinges... | 10 | ··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Shadows ply about her mouth-- | 7 | /······ |
| Nimble shadows out of the jigging tree, | 10 | /˘/····/˘· |
| That dances above her its dance of dry bones. | 11 | ·/˘········ |
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.