Teestay
Of tropic sensations, the worstIs, sin duda, the tropical thirst.
When it starts in your throat and constantly grows,Till you feel that it reaches down to your toes,When your mouth tastes like furAnd your tongue turns to dust,There's but one thing to do,And do it you must,Drink teestay.
Teestay, a drink with a history,A delicious, delectable mystery,"Cinco centavos el vaso, senor,"If you take one, you will surely want more.
Teestay, teestay,The national drink on a feast day;How it coolingly tickles,As downward it trickles,Teestay, teestay.
And you wish, as you take it down at a quaff,That your neck was constructed a la giraffe.Teestay, teestay.
Words in this poem
- delectable a.
- Highly pleasing; delightful. [OF. delitable, OF. delitable, F. délectable, fr. L. delectabilis, fr. delectare to delight. See Delight.]
- quaff v. t.
- To drink with relish; to drink copiously of; to swallow in large draughts. [For quach, fr. Gael. & Ir. cuach a drinking cup; cf. L. caucus a drinking vessel. Cf. Quaigh.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Teestay is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, Teestay, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/teestay.html, id L08309.
Form and metre
Teestay is 21 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines. 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AA worstA · thirstA
- 2 AA-B-B- growsA · toesA · fur · dustB · do · mustB · teestay
- 3 AABB historyA · mysteryA · senorB · moreB
- 4 AABBA teestayA · dayA · ticklesB · tricklesB · teestayA
- 5 AA- quaffA · giraffeA · teestay
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Of tropic sensations, the worst | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘·· |
| Is, sin duda, the tropical thirst. | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| When it starts in your throat and constantly grows, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Till you feel that it reaches down to your toes, | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| When your mouth tastes like fur | 6 | ······ |
| And your tongue turns to dust, | 6 | ······ |
| There's but one thing to do, | 6 | ······ |
| And do it you must, | 5 | ····· |
| Drink teestay. | 3 | ··· |
| Teestay, a drink with a history, | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| A delicious, delectable mystery, | 9 | ·˘/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| "Cinco centavos el vaso, senor," | 10 | /˘˘/·····/ |
| If you take one, you will surely want more. | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Teestay, teestay, | 4 | ···· |
| The national drink on a feast day; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| How it coolingly tickles, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| As downward it trickles, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Teestay, teestay. | 4 | ···· |
| And you wish, as you take it down at a quaff, | 11 | ··········· |
| That your neck was constructed a la giraffe. | 11 | ····˘/˘··˘/ |
| Teestay, teestay. | 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.