This document provides background information and analysis of Amy Lowell's poem "A Lady". It discusses the purpose and scope of analyzing the poem's figurative language of simile and metaphor. The summary analyzes specific examples of similes and metaphors from the poem, such as comparing the lady to an old opera tune and describing her soul's perfume with metaphorical language. Overall, the document aims to understand the poet's feelings and intentions by closely examining the poetic devices used in the work.

1. D E L I N D A B U D I V I S C A Y A N T I
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POETRY ANALYSIS
A LADY BY AMY LOWELL

2. ABSTRACT
• In this paper, the writer tries to analyze and study
the figurative languages, especially the simile and
metaphor of Amy Lowell’s A lady. This poem
contains several figurative languages, but the writer
will only talk about the simile and metaphor, since
those two are the most used in this work of art. This
poem talks about the speaker’s adoration to the
lady the speaker loves. This poem talks much about
love, surrender and how the speaker describes the
woman the speaker loves.

3. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
• Poetry is a form of art. Poetry is an art with words,
beautifully written and connected from one to another.
To feel the meaning of the poem needs more than just
an understanding, more than just a theory.
• “Initially, poetry might be defined as a kind of language
that says more and says it more intensely than does
ordinary language” (Perrine, Sound and Sense, 1988:3).
• Through the art, we will know how the artist feels inside
his/her heart. And by analyzing this poem, we will
understand and feel what exactly the artist feel when
they write their work of art.

4. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
1. To analyze the Figurative Language used in the
poem (Simile)
2. To analyze the Figurative Language used in the
poem (Metaphor)

5. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
To narrow where this paper goes, the scope of the
study in this paper is to discuss the using of selected
figurative language mentioned above, and also the
Hyperbole and Imagery which is a part of the poet’s
style of writing but slightly used in this poem.

6. BIOGRAPHY OF THE POET
Amy Lowell is an American Poet, she was born on 9th of February on 1874, at
Sevenels, a ten-acre family estate in Brookline, Massachusetts. Her family was
Episcopalian, of old New England stock, and at the top of Boston society. Lowell was
the youngest of five children. As a young girl she was first tutored at home, then
attended private schools in Boston, during which time she made several trips to
Europe with her family. At seventeen she secluded herself in the 7,000-book library at
Sevenels to study literature. Lowell was encouraged to write from an early age.
In 1887 she, with her mother and sister, wrote Dream Drops or Stories From Fairy
Land by a Dreamer, printed privately by the Boston firm Cupples and Hurd. Her poem
“Fixed Idea” was published in 1910 by the Atlantic Monthly, after which Lowell
published individual poems in various journals. In October of 1912 Houghton Mifflin
published her first collection, A Dome of Many Colored Glass.
She acted as a publicity agent for the movement, editing and contributing to
an anthology of Imagist poets in 1915. Her enthusiastic involvement and influence
contributed to Pound’s separation from the movement. As Lowell continued to
explore the Imagist style she pioneered the use of “polyphonic prose” in English,
mixing formal verse and free forms. Lowell died on May 12, 1925. The same year she
won the Pulitzer Prize for her collection What’s A Clock (Houghton Mifflin Company,
1925).

7. THE POEM
You are beautiful and faded
Like an old opera tune
Played upon a harpsichord;
Or like the sun-flooded silks
Of an eighteenth-century boudoir.
In your eyes
Smoulder the fallen roses of out-lived minutes,
And the perfume of your soul
Is vague and suffusing,
With the pungence of sealed spice-jars.
Your half-tones delight me,
And I grow mad with gazing
At your blent colours.
My vigour is a new-minted penny,
Which I cast at your feet.
Gather it up from the dust,
That its sparkle may amuse you.

8. THE TRANSLATION
Engkau cantik dan pudar
Layaknya nada opera tua
Yang dimainkan di atas piano
Atau seperti sutera yang terpapar sinar matahari
Dari kamar mewah abad 18
Di dalam matamu
Bara yang bertahan dari mawar-mawar berjatuhan
Dan aroma jiwamu
Samar-samar dan menyebar
Gradasimu membuatku senang
Dan aku menjadi gila saat menatap
Percampuran warnamu
Hasratku seperti koin yang baru dibuat
Yang kulempar ke arah kakimu
Memungutnya dari debu-debu
Yang kilaunya dapat menghiburmu

9. LITERARY REVIEW
• FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE-SIMILE
Simile is a part of Figurative Language which is mostly
used in literary works such as poetry. The use of Simile
is for comparing thing on to another with expressional
words such as “like”, “as”, “than”, etc.
“in simile the comparison is expressed, by the use of
some word or phrase such as like, as, than, similar to,
resembles.”(Perrine: Sound and Sense, 1988:65).

10. • FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE-METAPHOR
Simile and Metaphor are similar, but there’s a little red
line that differentiate both of them.
“is a trope, or figurative expression, in which a word or
phrase is shifted from its normal uses to a context
where it evokes new meanings.”(Premiger, Wanke,
Brogan: The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry
and Poetic, 1993: 806).

11. DISCUSSION
• SIMILE
There’s Simile used in this poem, we can see it from the 1st stanza. Lowell
already used the Simile to describe her admiration to the woman she love.
“You are beautiful and faded
Like an old opera tune
Played upon a harpsichord;
Or like the sun-flooded silks
Of an eighteenth-century boudoir.”
Lowell used the “like” word as her word of expression. As you can see, the poet
said that the woman she love is might be old, the other words, the woman she admire
is a full-grown woman, you can determine it by the selection of the thing she
compare to the woman which is “an old opera tune”. Lowell also slips a little Symbol,
which is a part of Figurative Language; you can determine it by the word “faded”
which also determines that the woman she pointed to is a mature lady, we know that
an old lady may seem a little more into gracefulness, and softness the faded word
means that the lady is might be not young anymore, not as excited as she was
young, but still beautiful. The other Simile in this stanza is “Or like the sun-flooded silks”.
This means, the lady she love was a gentle, and graceful woman, as we know, the
“sun-flooded silk” means the silk is glowing, producing a soft, sheer color on the floor
of an 18th century imperial private room. That means, the woman is soft, gentle,
graceful, and also classy and elegant.

12. METAPHORE
Lowell used a lot of Metaphor in this poem, we can
see it from stanza to stanza, but first, we are going to
discuss the first stanza
“Or like the sun-flooded silks
Of an eighteenth-century boudoir.”
As we know, a boudoir is a private chamber of a lady,
and often be used as a room for the queens of princesses
because of its decoration and expensive furniture. Lowell
used the “eighteenth-century boudoir” is for the classiness
of the lady, and also the elegance of her. The
“eighteenth-century” means that she’s not young
anymore. Considering by the time Lowell wrote this poem,
the age of eighteenth-century is far behind her.

13. CONTINUE...
Another Metaphor in this poem is in the other line, but still in the 1st stanza, which is:
“In your eyes
Smoulder the fallen roses of out-lived minutes”
The poet used the word “fallen roses” as the time that just passed. We can determine it by the
following phrase afterward. Lowell used “out-lived minutes”. Outlived is a phrase where something
is live longer. That means, Lowell tried to tell us that in that lady eyes or we can say the soul or life is
so full of experience and history, considering that the lady is long-lived.
The other Metaphor is in this following line:
“And the perfume of your soul
Is vague and suffusing,
With the pungence of sealed spice-jars.”
Lowell used “perfume” as something connected to her soul. I believe it’s her personality. Perfume is
considered as a fragrant, which means, it supposed to smells good. But, in this line, Lowell told us
that the ‘fragrant’ of the lady is not really good. “vague” and “suffusing”. The “vague” word may
also express that the perfume already used for hours so it only remains the last notes and “suffusing”
means it’s everywhere. So maybe, the woman doesn’t have a good personality and it’s already
spread to everywhere. The “pungence of sealed spice-jars” is maybe the literal meaning of her
body scent. Pungence is a very thick smell of something that affect the smell or sight sense. Lowell,
also used Imagery to describe the smell of the sealed spice-jars with the word “pungence”.

14. CONTINUE...
The other Metaphor is in the same stanza, but in different line. You can see it in the
following quote:
“Your half-tones delight me,
And I grow mad with gazing
At your blent colours.”
Halftone is a process in painting. Half-tones means when something or a color (in
painting) is in between, it’s not too dark, it’s not too bright. It leaves a comfy note of
color to see. That means, the lady described by the poet, is once again, gentle and
soft. It’s beautiful and pretty because she’s in the middle, that makes the poet
“mad”. Lowell used another figurative language which is Hyperbole in this line. She
said that by only “gaze” at her drives her crazy, when she is not actually crazy.
Imagery also used in this line with the word “gazing”. The “blent colours” means the
mix of colours. Once again, the poet tried to tell us that the lady she described here is
not only black or white, but it’s the mix of them. The lady could be mysterious and
comfortable to look at the same time. “The blent of colours” is a Metaphor of the
lady’s personality or maybe just the beauty of the lady physically. In this line we can
say that the lady described and loved by Amy Lowell is a beautiful and pretty lady
and interesting to get to know to because of her physical appearance that is
mysterious and not decide to just stay in black or white, but the mix of them.

15. CONTINUE...
Another Metaphor is in the last stanza, which also is the second
stanza of the poem; we can see it in the following line:
“My vigour is a new-minted penny,
Which I cast at your feet”
In this line, the poet completely used the Metaphor. A new minted
penny means a fresh coin that just produced from the bank. In
here, Lowell is trying to say that her strength, her desire, her passion
is new, is fresh, is young and strong just like a new minted penny
that is bold with new color. And finally, the last line says:
“Gather it up from the dust,
That its sparkle may amuse you.”
The poet is trying to say that she’s offering herself, “gather it up from
the dust” may also be mean as from the negative sides of the poet,
Lowell hope that there’s a little “sparks” in her that could be seen
by the lady she admire, and she hope that her “sparks” may amuse
that lady, because Lowell is certainly is, amused by that lady.

16. CONCLUSION
This poem is beautiful in meaning and words. Amy Lowell
used Metaphor and some Imagery, Hyperbole and of course,
Simile to make it more beautiful. This poem is about someone
with young age is amazed by the beauty of someone with older
age. But, this poem also says that age doesn’t define beauty. In
here, the poet said that she’s still going mad because of that
older lady’s beauty. Not only her physical beauty, but also the
gracefulness and the gentleness of a mature lady as described.
In this poem, Amy Lowell is trying to let the lady know that
she wants her to be recognized by that lady, because she’s
young and full of passion. Lowell is really describe her true
feeling about the personality and he beauty of the lady she
admire in this poem, with her signature style. Amy Lowell is an
imagist and in this poem, we can see it clearly, with a little notch
of Hyperbole, this piece of art is sure is a good reading.

17. REFERENCES
Perrine, Laurence. Literature, Structure, Sound and Sense. Florida:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988.
Hornby, AS. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English.
Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1987. Print
Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2011. Print.
Preminger, Alex, Brogan, T. V. F. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry
and Poetics.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
http://www.ereadingworksheets.com/figurative-language-
worksheets/figurative-language-poem-7-a-lady-by-amy-lowell-answers.html
http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-figurative-language-
symbolism-imagery-amy-246191
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/amy-lowell