Analysis of Lover's Gifts LXX: Take Back Your Coins
Take back your coins, King's Councillor. I am of those women you
sent to the forest shrine to decoy the young ascetic who had never
seen a women. I failed in your bidding.
Dimly day was breaking when the hermit boy came to bathe in
the stream, his tawny locks crowded on his shoulders, like a
cluster of morning clouds, and his limbs shining like a streak of
sunbeam. We laughed and sang as we rowed in our boat; we jumped
into the river in a mad frolic, and danced around him, when the sun
rose staring at us from the water's edge in a flush of divine
anger.
Like a child-god, the boy opened his eyes and watched our
movements, the wonder deepening till his eyes shone like morning
stars. He lifted his clasped hands and chanted a hymn of praise in
his bird-like young voice, thrilling every leaf of the forest.
Never such words were sung to a mortal woman before; they were like
the silent hymn to the dawn which rises from the hushed hills. THe
women hid their mouths with their hands, their bodies swaying with
laughter, and a spasm of doubt ran across his face. Quickly came
I to his side, sorely pained, and, bowing to his feet, I said,
"Lord, accept my service."
I led him to the grassy bank, wiped his body with the end of
my silken mantle, and, kneeling on the ground, I dried his feet
with my trailing hair. When I raised my face and looked into his
eyes, I thought I felt the world's first kiss to the first woman,
-Blessed am I, blessed is God, who made me a woman. I heard him say
to me, "What God unknown are you? YOur touch is the touch of the
Immortal, your eyes have the mystery of the midnight."
Ah, no, not that smile, King's Councillor, -the dust of
worldly wisdom has covered your sight, old man. But this boy's
innocence pierced the mist and saw the shining truth, the woman
divine....
The women clapped their hands, and laughed their obscene
laugh, and with veils dragged on the dust and hair hanging loose
they began to pelt him with flowers.
Alas, my spotless sun, could not my shame weave fiery mist to
cover you in its folds? I fell at his feet and cried, "Forgive me.
" I fled like a stricken deer through shade and sun, and cried as
I fled, " Forgive me. " The women's foul laughter pressed me like
a cracking fire, but the words ever rang in my ears, " What God
unknown are you?"
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIBBCDJKELMNOFPQHRESFTHIUVWAXYKZA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111111101 110101101010101110 1010110110 101110101011110 01110110111010 101101011101011 11101111010111 010100011001011101 1101110101001101 10 10110110110110 100101001111110 111011101001110 111111010011010 10110110101001101 010110111010110 10111111110101 1000101110111101 111110101011111 101110 1111010111101011 110100101011111 111011111101011 11111011110110 1111111110101111 111101111110110 0101110100101 1111111011 10101101111111 100101010101010 01 01011101101 1011110101101 101111110 0111011111110011 1010111111101011 11101011101011 11011010110111 0101010110101111 0111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 2,304 |
Words | 445 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 40 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 45 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,782 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 441 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:13 min read
- 123 Views
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"Lover's Gifts LXX: Take Back Your Coins" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29473/lover%27s-gifts-lxx%3A-take-back-your-coins>.
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