The Woman in the Moon

John Lawrence Darretta 1948 (New York)

Blank verse

The Woman in the Moon

Once, I was Gibson's girl
round cheeked and rosy
placed in high altitude
as a lover's ecstasy.

At times blushing or laughing
I primped in the screened solitude
of an old-world charm.

I was the brilliant star
before new-world know-how
exposed me in penny dreadfuls
as a fading light.

Now, I hide behind my screen
fearing stargazers
who come to gape at a former beauty
cratered with a curious stain.

About this poem

The woman in the moon was once seen as a beautiful, romantic image. Contemporary science sees it as a planetary item.

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Written on April 15, 2023

Submitted by giandarr55 on September 10, 2023

: 26 sec read
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Quick analysis:

Scheme	X XABA XBX XXAX XXAX
Closest metre	Iambic trimeter
Characters	429
Words	85
Stanzas	5
Stanza Lengths	1, 4, 3, 4, 4

Full analysis for The Woman in the Moon »

John Lawrence Darretta

A former metropolitan New York college professor, John Lawrence Darretta holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from Fordham University. As Fulbright Professor to Italy, he taught at universities in Milan and Turin. He studied at Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin and The American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He has written articles on American literature and Italian cinema and is author of Vittorio DeSica (G. K. Hall) and Before the Sun Has Set: Retribution in the Fiction of Flannery O’Connor (Peter Lang Publishing). His poetry has appeared in America Magazine, Penwood Review, Journal of Pastoral Counseling, Haiku Journal, First Literary Review-East, The Avalon Literary Review and other venues. Nature’s Wheel, a book of his poetry, was published by Kelsay Books. more…

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Vixility
What a damn good poem! Rereading it and re-absorbing its depth has me reeling in literary marvel. Below in quotes are the notes I took on it as I read through the September poems:

“Wow! I wasn’t expecting all that in such a short poem. Beauty, Time, Aging, Technology, Objectification: this poem goes back to those ‘good old days’ when Beauty was a thing to be revered in itself, and then spirals down into the present when she is made the Object of mute and irreverent eyes. The imagery and story are both quite persuading and almost makes me want to go out into the night and apologize to that beautiful Sphere—if not to the next Woman passerby.”

The transformation and decline of our dear lady’s public image reminded me of a Yiddish poem/song sung by Chava Alberstein titled: “Mirele”. Beautiful song, but its tragedy, unlike the one in your poem, was brought on by the girl herself.

Inasmuch as the scientific apathy with regard to the moon’s beauty goes, I instantly thought of Walt Whitman’s poem,”The Astronomer”. Given your poem’s subject, I highly recommend you checking it out, if you haven’t already. more »
LikeReply6 months ago
CellarDoor
really really beautiful and such an interesting concept!
LikeReply 16 months ago

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"The Woman in the Moon" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/170909/the-woman-in-the-moon>.

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