Lost Things
Oh, I could let the world go by,Its loud new wonders and its wars,But how will I give up the skyWhen winter dusk is set with stars?
And I could let the cities go,Their changing customs and their creeds,--But oh, the summer rains that blowIn silver on the jewel-weeds!
About this text
Lost Things 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, Lost Things, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/lost-things.html, id L16978.
Form and metre
Lost Things is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 25% 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-A- byA · wars · skyA · stars
- 2 ABAB goA · creedsB · blowA · weedsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, I could let the world go by, | 8 | ········ |
| Its loud new wonders and its wars, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But how will I give up the sky | 8 | ········ |
| When winter dusk is set with stars? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And I could let the cities go, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Their changing customs and their creeds,-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| But oh, the summer rains that blow | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In silver on the jewel-weeds! | 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.