"It Is Not a Word"
It is not a word spoken,Few words are said;Nor even a look of the eyesNor a bend of the head,But only a hush of the heartThat has too much to keep,Only memories wakingThat sleep so light a sleep.
About this text
"It Is Not a Word" 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, "It Is Not a Word", in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/it-is-not-a-word.html, id L20798.
Form and metre
"It Is Not a Word" is 8 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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-A-B-B spoken · saidA · eyes · headA · heart · keepB · waking · sleepB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It is not a word spoken, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Few words are said; | 4 | ···· |
| Nor even a look of the eyes | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Nor a bend of the head, | 6 | ······ |
| But only a hush of the heart | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That has too much to keep, | 6 | ······ |
| Only memories waking | 7 | /˘/˘˘/˘ |
| That sleep so light a sleep. | 6 | ······ |
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.