The Telephone
"When I was just as far as I could walkFrom here to-day,There was an hourAll stillWhen leaning with my head against a flowerI heard you talk.Don't say I didn't, for I heard you say--You spoke from that flower on the window sill--Do you remember what it was you said?""First tell me what it was you thought you heard."
"Having found the flower and driven a bee away,I leaned my head,And holding by the stalk,I listened and I thought I caught the word--What was it? Did you call me by my name?Or did you say--Someone said 'Come'--I heard it as I bowed."
"I may have thought as much, but not aloud."
"Well, so I came."
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Telephone is in the public domain. This text is taken from Mountain Interval, Project Gutenberg ebook #29345; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Frost, The Telephone, in Mountain Interval (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29345, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-mountain-interval/the-telephone.html, id L02643.
Form and metre
The Telephone is 19 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABCDCABDEF walkA · dayB · hourC · stillD · flowerC · talkA · sayB · sillD · saidE · heardF
- 2 BE-FGBH awayB · headE · stalk · wordF · nameG · sayB · bowedH
- 3 H aloudH
- 4 G cameG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "When I was just as far as I could walk | 10 | ·········· |
| From here to-day, | 4 | ···· |
| There was an hour | 5 | ···/˘ |
| All still | 2 | ·· |
| When leaning with my head against a flower | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| I heard you talk. | 4 | ···· |
| Don't say I didn't, for I heard you say-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| You spoke from that flower on the window sill-- | 10 | ····/··/˘· |
| Do you remember what it was you said?" | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| "First tell me what it was you thought you heard." | 10 | ·········· |
| "Having found the flower and driven a bee away, | 11 | /˘··/·/··˘/ |
| I leaned my head, | 4 | ···· |
| And holding by the stalk, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I listened and I thought I caught the word-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| What was it? Did you call me by my name? | 10 | ·········· |
| Or did you say-- | 4 | ···· |
| Someone said 'Come'--I heard it as I bowed." | 10 | /········· |
| "I may have thought as much, but not aloud." | 10 | ········˘/ |
| "Well, so I came." | 4 | ···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.