The White Goddess

Graves designed the unique structure of this poem, which is inspired by traditional poetic forms. He divided the 20 lines into three stanzas. The first stanza is a sexain (has six lines), and the other stanzas are octaves (eight lines). All of the stanzas have rhyming couplets (pairs of lines that rhyme). It is written in the plural first person, or from the perspective of a group with an unspecified number of people.

The first stanza introduces two groups of people—1) those who “scorn” (Line 3) the titular “Goddess,” and 2) those who seek her. The first group contains people with restrained personalities: saints and “sober men” (Line 1). Their restraint is described with allusions to Greek myth and philosophy; Graves links them to masculine Apollo and the “golden mean” (Line 2), or a path of moderation. This group disapproves of going “sailing” (Line 3) in search of the Goddess. They are the religious oppressors of people who participate in Goddess-centered rituals, like the poetic theme that Graves presents.

Line three transitions between the two groups, switching to the people going sailing. This is the first example of a stanza changing focus midway through.