Sign Inventory, Amy Pence's "Age Defying, 1976"

• Every four lines are staggered; the last line is indented to the same amount as every fourth line
• The poem references France repeatedly: "Lido de Paris," "Marie Antoinette beehives," "a set-up of Versailles," "Lido" again, and "a languorous etude" (2, 3, 4, 13, 14)
• Pence uses imitation and reflection throughout the poem--"faces mirrored: duplicating, re-duplicating," "a set-up of Versailles" (Versailles is known as the Hall of Mirrors), "fluorescent jail scene," and the ironic naming of "the girls" (1, 4, 5, 11).
• "Girl" is used three times: "showgirls" in line 1, "the young girl" in line 7, and "the girls" in line 11.
• The poem uses luminescent imagery particularly heavily in its first half. This includes a "mass fluorescent jail scene" and "incremental diamonds" (5, 6)
• Synecdoche is employed twice--"Marie Antoinette beehives / frolicking" and "their mouths laughed, clutching cigarettes" (3, 10).
• The poem is split into two rough halves, changing with the word "Backstage" in line 8. The first half focuses on the stage performance and its flashiness. In the second half, the showgirls are shown up close, revealing "their eyes wedged / open by giant hideous lashes" and "moles and snagged body stockings" (8-9, 9). By the end, the girls are "Archival & quaint" and "so sexless"
• Body parts are mentioned throughout the poem: faces, vulva, eyes, moles, mouths, breasts, and "the roof of my mouth" in line 18.