Analysis of The Butterfly Dance

Bess Terrell 1949 (Alabama)



The Butterfly Dance

Clad in a virginal white negligee
With feathers on my slippers
And butterflies in my stomach
Not knowing what to expect
I step into the room

Strange, my new husband has gone to bed
As I shyly approach, he turns back the covers
And, with a gasp, I glimpse a bare, naked leg
Of all things
The butterflies flutter as I slide next to him

He hands me Jack Daniels “champagne”
With one touch to my lips, I know
I do not like amber “champagne”
And the butterflies cascade
In a dance of their own design

I cling tightly to my modesty
In billowing layers of white chiffon
Fully unprepared to be in bed
With dancing butterflies
And a new naked husband

With a promise found only in the heart
He embraces me in his arms
And with gentle kisses, assures me
I will love you for always and forever
And “the two become one” Gen 2:24


Scheme X XAXXX BAXXX CXCXX DXBXX XXDXX
Poetic Form
Metre 0101 10010011 1101110 0100110 1101101 110101 111101111 111001111010 01011101101 111 01010111111 11111001 11111111 11111001 001001 00111101 111011100 0100101101 10011101 11010 0011010 1010110001 10101011 011010011 1111110010 0010111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 856
Words 169
Sentences 1
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 1, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 110
Words per stanza (avg) 27

About this poem

A young woman experiences the first night of her marriage

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Written on July 21, 2021

Submitted by sharonp.57636 on January 11, 2023

Modified on March 14, 2023

50 sec read
49

Bess Terrell

Bess Terrell is guided by her faith in her writing. After the untimely death of John, her husband, she wrote almost exclusively about grief recovery using her stories and poetry to help others on their path to a new normal. Bess has enjoyed writing and painting all her life entertaining everyone with her stories and illustrations. With a fellow widow, Bess published Finding Your Second Wind, a well-received book of grief recovery poetry. She has published numerous short stories and poems both online and in magazines. Bess and Andy, her Yorkie, reside close to her three grandjoys. more…

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