Indifference
I said,--for Love was laggard, O, Love was slow to come,--"I'll hear his step and know his step when I am warm in bed;But I'll never leave my pillow, though there be someAs would let him in--and take him in with tears!" I said.I lay,--for Love was laggard, O, he came not until dawn,--I lay and listened for his step and could not get to sleep;And he found me at my window with my big cloak on,All sorry with the tears some folks might weep!
Words in this poem
- laggard a.
- Slow; sluggish; backward. [Lag + -ard.]
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Indifference is in the public domain. This text is taken from Renascence, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #109; 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, Indifference, in Renascence and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #109, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-renascence/indifference.html, id L07736.
Form and metre
Indifference is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.8 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 ABABCDCD comeA · bedB · someA · saidB · dawnC · sleepD · onC · weepD
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I said,--for Love was laggard, O, Love was slow to come,-- | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| "I'll hear his step and know his step when I am warm in bed; | 14 | ·············· |
| But I'll never leave my pillow, though there be some | 11 | ··/··/˘···· |
| As would let him in--and take him in with tears!" I said. | 13 | ············· |
| I lay,--for Love was laggard, O, he came not until dawn,-- | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| I lay and listened for his step and could not get to sleep; | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| And he found me at my window with my big cloak on, | 13 | ······/˘····· |
| All sorry with the tears some folks might weep! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
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.