Analysis of J--K. Huysmans

Amy Lowell 1874 (Brookline) – 1925 (Brookline)



A flickering glimmer through a window-pane,
A dim red glare through mud bespattered glass,
Cleaving a path between blown walls of sleet
Across uneven pavements sunk in slime
To scatter and then quench itself in mist.
And struggling, slipping, often rudely hurled
Against the jutting angle of a wall,
And cursed, and reeled against, and flung aside
By drunken brawlers as they shuffled past,
A man was groping to what seemed a light.
His eyelids burnt and quivered with the strain
Of looking, and against his temples beat
The all enshrouding, suffocating dark.
He stumbled, lurched, and struck against a door
That opened, and a howl of obscene mirth
Grated his senses, wallowing on the floor
Lay men, and dogs and women in the dirt.
He sickened, loathing it, and as he gazed
The candle guttered, flared, and then went out.

Through travail of ignoble midnight streets
He came at last to shelter in a porch
Where gothic saints and warriors made a shield
To cover him, and tortured gargoyles spat
One long continuous stream of silver rain
That clattered down from myriad roofs and spires
Into a darkness, loud with rushing sound
Of water falling, gurgling as it fell,
But always thickly dark. Then as he leaned
Unconscious where, the great oak door blew back
And cast him, bruised and dripping, in the church.
His eyes from long sojourning in the night
Were blinded now as by some glorious sun;
He slowly crawled toward the altar steps.
He could not think, for heavy in his ears
An organ boomed majestic harmonies;
He only knew that what he saw was light!
He bowed himself before a cross of flame
And shut his eyes in fear lest it should fade.


Scheme AXBXXXXXXCABXDXDXXX XXXXAXXXXXXCXXXXCXX
Poetic Form
Metre 01001010101 01111111 101011111 0101010101 1100110101 01001010101 0101010101 0101010101 110111101 0111011101 11101101 1100011101 0111001 1101010101 1100011011 10110100101 1101010001 1101010111 0101010111 101101011 1111110001 11010100101 110101011 11010011101 1111100101 0101011101 11010100111 111011111 101011111 0111010001 1111100001 01011111001 1101010101 1111110011 1101010100 1101111111 1101010111 0111011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,647
Words 291
Sentences 11
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 19, 19
Lines Amount 38
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 656
Words per stanza (avg) 145
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 03, 2023

1:27 min read
264

Amy Lowell

Amy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. more…

All Amy Lowell poems | Amy Lowell Books

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