Manhattan
Out of the night you burn, Manhattan,In a vesture of gold--Span of innumerable arcs,Flaring and multiplying--Gold at the uttermost circles fadingInto the tenderest hint of jade,Or fusing in tremulous twilight blues,Robing the far-flung offices,Scintillant-storied, forking flame,Or soaring to luminous amethystOver the steeples aureoled--
Diaphanous gold,Veiling the Woolworth, argentlyRising slender and starkMellifluous-shrill as a vender's cry,And towers squatting graven and coldOn the velvet bales of the dark,And the Singer's appraisingIndolent idol's eye,And night like a purple cloth unrolled--
Nebulous goldThrowing an ephemeral glory about life's vanishing points,Wherein you burn...You of unknown voltageWhirling on your axis...Scrawling vermillion signaturesOver the night's velvet hoarding...Insolent, towering sphericalTo apices ever shifting.
Words in this poem
- uttermost a.
- Extreme; utmost; being; in the farthest, greatest, or highest degree; as, the uttermost extent or end. [From Utter, a.; cf. Utmost, and Outermost.]
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
- robing n.
- The act of putting on a robe. Robing room, a room where official robes are put on, as by judges, etc.
- scintillant a.
- Emitting sparks, or fine igneous particles; sparkling. M. [L. scintillans, p.pr. of scintillare to sparkle. See Scintillate.]
- amethyst
- A variety of crystallized quartz, of a purple or bluish violet color, of different shades. It is much used as a jeweler's stone. [F. ametiste, amatiste, F. améthyste, L. amethystus, fr. Gr. Mead.]
- diaphanous a.
- Allowing light to pass through, as porcelain; translucent or transparent; pellucid; clear. [Gr. diaphane. See Phantom, and cf. Diaphane, Diaphanic.]
- veiling n.
- A veil; a thin covering; also, material for making veils.
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- graven p. p.
- Carved. Graven image, an idol; an object of worship carved from wood, stone, etc.
- 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.]
- voltage n.
- Electric potential or potential difference, expressed in volts.
- hoarding n.
- A screen of boards inclosing a house and materials while builders are at work. [Eng.] [From OF. hourd, hourt, barrier, palisade, of German or Dutch origin; cf. D. horde hurdle, fence, G. horde, hürde; akin to E. hurdle. sq. root16. See Hurdle.]
- towering a.
- Very high; elevated; rising aloft; as, a towering height.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Manhattan 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, Manhattan, in The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4332, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/ridge-ghetto/manhattan.html, id L20871.
Form and metre
Manhattan is 29 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ------AA--- manhattan · gold · arcs · multiplying · fading · jade · bluesA · officesA · flame · amethyst · aureoled
- 2 A-BCAB-CA goldA · argently · starkB · cryC · coldA · darkB · appraising · eyeC · unrolledA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Out of the night you burn, Manhattan, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| In a vesture of gold-- | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Span of innumerable arcs, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘˘· |
| Flaring and multiplying-- | 7 | /˘·/˘·˘ |
| Gold at the uttermost circles fading | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| Into the tenderest hint of jade, | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Or fusing in tremulous twilight blues, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘˘/·· |
| Robing the far-flung offices, | 8 | /˘···/˘˘ |
| Scintillant-storied, forking flame, | 8 | /˘˘/˘/˘· |
| Or soaring to luminous amethyst | 10 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Over the steeples aureoled-- | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Diaphanous gold, | 5 | ˘/˘˘· |
| Veiling the Woolworth, argently | 8 | /˘·/···· |
| Rising slender and stark | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Mellifluous-shrill as a vender's cry, | 10 | ˘/˘˘······ |
| And towers squatting graven and cold | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘·· |
| On the velvet bales of the dark, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And the Singer's appraising | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| Indolent idol's eye, | 6 | /˘˘/˘· |
| And night like a purple cloth unrolled-- | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Nebulous gold | 4 | /˘˘· |
| Throwing an ephemeral glory about life's vanishing points, | 16 | /˘·˘/˘˘/˘···/˘˘· |
| Wherein you burn... | 4 | ···· |
| You of unknown voltage | 6 | ··˘//˘ |
| Whirling on your axis... | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Scrawling vermillion signatures | 8 | /˘˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Over the night's velvet hoarding... | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Insolent, towering spherical | 9 | /˘˘/˘˘/˘˘ |
| To apices ever shifting. | 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.