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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


DOLORES by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: LITHE-ARMED, AND WITH SATIN
Last Line: YOU WEAR LIKE A GYVE ROUND YOUR NECK.
Subject(s): BEAUTY; DRINKS & DRINKING; LOVE; WINE;

LITHE-ARMED, and with satin-soft shoulders
As white as the cream-crested wave;
With a gaze dazing every beholder's,
She holds every gazer a slave:
Her hair, a fair haze, is outfloated
And flared in the air like a flame;
Bare-breasted, bare-browed and bare-throated --
Too smooth for the soothliest name.

She wiles you with wine, and wrings for you
Ripe juices of citron and grape;
She lifts up her lute and sings for you
Till the soul of you seeks no escape;
And you revel and reel with mad laughter,
And fall at her feet, at her beck,
And the scar of her sandal thereafter
You wear like a gyve round your neck.



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