Analysis of Now Bare To The Beholder's Eye
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
NOW bare to the beholder's eye
Your late denuded bindings lie,
Subsiding slowly where they fell,
A disinvested citadel;
The obdurate corset, Cupid's foe,
The Dutchman's breeches frilled below.
Those that the lover notes to note,
And white and crackling petticoat.
From these, that on the ground repose,
Their lady lately re-arose;
And laying by the lady's name,
A living woman re-became.
Of her, that from the public eye
They do enclose and fortify,
Now, lying scattered as they fell,
An indiscreeter tale they tell:
Of that more soft and secret her
Whose daylong fortresses they were,
By fading warmth, by lingering print,
These now discarded scabbards hint.
A twofold change the ladies know:
First, in the morn the bugles blow,
And they, with floral hues and scents,
Man their beribboned battlements.
But let the stars appear, and they
Shed inhumanities away;
And from the changeling fashion see,
Through comic and through sweet degree,
In nature's toilet unsurpassed,
Forth leaps the laughing girl at last.
Scheme | AABBCCDD EEFFAABBGGHH CCXXIIJJKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (27%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 111011 1101011 01010111 0110 01001011 011101 11010111 0101010 11110101 11010101 01010101 01010101 10110101 1101010 11010111 11111 11110100 1110010 110111001 1101011 01110101 10010101 01110101 111100 11010101 1101 0101101 11001101 0101001 11010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 988 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 12, 10 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 268 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 55 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 94 Views
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"Now Bare To The Beholder's Eye" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31652/now-bare-to-the-beholder%27s-eye>.
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