The Fiddler
In a little Hungarian cafeMen and women are drinkingYellow wine in tall goblets.
Through the milky haze of the smoke,The fiddler, under-sized, blond,Leans to his violinAs to the breast of a woman.Red hair kindles to fireOn the black of his coat-sleeve,Where his white thin handTrembles and dives,Like a sliver of moonlight,When wind has broken the water.
Words in this poem
- cafe n.
- A coffeehouse; a restaurant; also, a room in a hotel or restaurant where coffee and liquors are served. [F. See Coffee.]
- fiddler n.
- One who plays on a fiddle or violin. [AS. fi.]
- dives n.
- The name popularly given to the rich man in our Lord's parable of the [L., rich.]
- sliver v. t.
- To cut or divide into long, thin pieces, or into very small pieces; to cut or rend lengthwise; to slit; as, to sliver wood. [See Slive, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Fiddler 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, The Fiddler, in The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4332, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/ridge-ghetto/the-fiddler.html, id L20898.
Form and metre
The Fiddler is 13 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%).
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.
- 2 --AA------ smoke · blond · violinA · womanA · fire · sleeve · hand · dives · moonlight · water
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In a little Hungarian cafe | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Men and women are drinking | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Yellow wine in tall goblets. | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Through the milky haze of the smoke, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| The fiddler, under-sized, blond, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Leans to his violin | 6 | ···˘˘/ |
| As to the breast of a woman. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Red hair kindles to fire | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| On the black of his coat-sleeve, | 7 | ······· |
| Where his white thin hand | 5 | ····· |
| Trembles and dives, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Like a sliver of moonlight, | 7 | ··/˘·/· |
| When wind has broken the water. | 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.