{
 "id": "mina-loy/sketch-of-a-man-on-a-platform",
 "title": "Sketch of a Man on a Platform",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Mina Loy",
 "poet_slug": "mina-loy",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1915,
  "venue": "Rogue, vol. I no. 2 (1 April 1915), p. 12",
  "note": "Read on the page image of the Beinecke copy: the issue’s imprint line reads “Volume I, No. 2, April 1, 1915”, its contents leaf lists “SKETCH OF A MAN ON A PLATFORM … Mina Loy … Page 12”, and the poem stands on that page under its title over the byline “By MINA LOY”. The text held here follows the 1923 Lunar Baedecker printing, not this one.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/17374476"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/mina-loy_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x002129491?urlappend=%3Bseq=396",
   "https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/17374476",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_others-a-magazine-of-the-new-verse_1916-07_3_1/page/27",
   "https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/17390662",
   "https://archive.org/details/othersanantholo01kreygoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cu31924022030351",
   "https://archive.org/details/littlereview07mcke/page/n199",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_others-a-magazine-of-the-new-verse_1917-04_3_6",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_dial_1921-06_70/page/672",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_dial_1921-08_71/page/n15",
   "https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.32106010168349",
   "https://archive.org/details/contact-collection-of-contemporary-writers/page/137",
   "https://personal.colby.edu/~isadoff/map/loy.doc",
   "https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/digital_objects/211477",
   "https://digitalcommons.whitworth.edu/transatlantic/1/"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 49,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 55,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Man of absolute physical equilibrium",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You stand so straight on your legs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Every plank or clod you plant your feet on",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Becomes roots for those limbs",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Among the men you accrete to yourself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You are more heavy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And more light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Force being most equitably disposed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is easiest to lift from the ground",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So at the same time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your movements",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unassailable",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Savor of the airy-fairy of the ballet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The essence of a Mademoiselle Genée",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Winks in the to-and-fro of your cuff-links",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Your projectile nose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has meddled in the more serious business",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the battle-field",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the same incautious aloofness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of intense occupation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That it snuffles the trail of the female",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the comfortable",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Passing odors of love",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Your genius",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So much less in your brain",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Than in your body",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reinforcing the hitherto negligible",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Qualities",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deals so exclusively with",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The vital",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That it is equally happy expressing itself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the activity of pushing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the opposite direction",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To that which they are lethargically willing to go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As in the amative language",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the eyes",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fundamentally unreliable",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You leave others their initial strength",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Concentrating",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On stretching the theoretic elastic of your conceptions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the extent is adequate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the hooking on",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of any⁠—or all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forms of creative idiosyncrasy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the occasional snap",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of actual production",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stings the face of the public.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}