Change
Remember me as I was then;Turn from me now, but always seeThe laughing shadowy girl who stoodAt midnight by the flowering tree,With eyes that love had made as brightAs the trembling stars of the summer night.
Turn from me now, but always hearThe muted laughter in the dewOf that one year of youth we had,The only youth we ever knew--Turn from me now, or you will seeWhat other years have done to me.
About this text
Change is in the public domain. This text is taken from Flame and Shadow, Project Gutenberg ebook #591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sara Teasdale, Change, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/change.html, id L17020.
Form and metre
Change is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-ABB then · seeA · stood · treeA · brightB · nightB
- 2 -A-ABB hear · dewA · had · knewA · seeB · meB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Remember me as I was then; | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Turn from me now, but always see | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The laughing shadowy girl who stood | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| At midnight by the flowering tree, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| With eyes that love had made as bright | 8 | ········ |
| As the trembling stars of the summer night. | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Turn from me now, but always hear | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The muted laughter in the dew | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Of that one year of youth we had, | 8 | ········ |
| The only youth we ever knew-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Turn from me now, or you will see | 8 | ········ |
| What other years have done to me. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.