Thursday
And if I loved you Wednesday,Well, what is that to you?I do not love you Thursday--So much is true.
And why you come complainingIs more than I can see.I loved you Wednesday,--yes--but whatIs that to me?
About this text
Thursday is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59167; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Thursday, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59167, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-poems/thursday.html, id L24347.
Form and metre
Thursday is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABAB wednesdayA · youB · thursdayA · trueB
- 2 -A-A complaining · seeA · what · meA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| And if I loved you Wednesday, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Well, what is that to you? | 6 | ······ |
| I do not love you Thursday-- | 7 | ·····/· |
| So much is true. | 4 | ···· |
| And why you come complaining | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Is more than I can see. | 6 | ······ |
| I loved you Wednesday,--yes--but what | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Is that to me? | 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.