May Day
A delicate fabric of bird songFloats in the air,The smell of wet wild earthIs everywhere.
Red small leaves of the mapleAre clenched like a hand,Like girls at their first communionThe pear trees stand.
Oh I must pass nothing byWithout loving it much,The raindrop try with my lips,The grass with my touch;
For how can I be sureI shall see againThe world on the first of MayShining after the rain?
Since there is no escape, since at the endMy body will be utterly destroyed,This hand I love as I have loved a friend,This body I tended, wept with and enjoyed;Since there is no escape even for meWho love life with a love too sharp to bear:The scent of orchards in the rain, the seaAnd hours alone too still and sure for prayer--Since darkness waits for me, then all the moreLet me go down as waves sweep to the shoreIn pride; and let me sing with my last breath;In these few hours of light I lift my head;Life is my lover--I shall leave the deadIf there is any way to baffle death.
The dreams of my heart and my mind pass,Nothing stays with me long,But I have had from a childThe deep solace of song;
If that should ever leave me,Let me find death and stayWith things whose tunes are played out and forgottenLike the rain of yesterday.
A little while when I am goneMy life will live in music after me,As spun foam lifted and borne onAfter the wave is lost in the full sea.
A while these nights and days will burnIn song with the bright frailty of foam,Living in light before they turnBack to the nothingness that is their home.
Words in this poem
- raindrop n.
- A drop of rain.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- baffle v. i.
- To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. [Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. bagr uneasy, poor, or bagr, n., struggle, bægja to push, treat harshl]
- solace n.
- Comfort in grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety; also, that which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; relief. [OF. solas, ssoulaz, L. solacium, solatium, fr. solari to comfort, console. Cf. Console, v. t.]
- frailty n.
- The condition quality of being frail, physically, mentally, or morally, frailness; infirmity; weakness of resolution; liableness to be deceived or seduced. [OE. frelete, freilte, OF. fraileté, fr. L. fragilitas. See Frail, a., and cf. Fragility.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
May Day 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, May Day, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/may-day.html, id L16987.
Form and metre
May Day is 46 lines in 9 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 46% 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 song · airA · earth · everywhereA
- 2 -A-A maple · handA · communion · standA
- 3 -A-A by · muchA · lips · touchA
- 4 -A-A sure · againA · may · rainA
- 5 ABABCDCDEEFGGF endA · destroyedB · friendA · enjoyedB · meC · bearD · seaC · prayerD · moreE · shoreE · breathF · headG · deadG · deathF
- 6 -A-A pass · longA · child · songA
- 7 -A-A me · stayA · forgotten · yesterdayA
- 8 ABAB goneA · meB · onA · seaB
- 9 ABAB burnA · foamB · turnA · homeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A delicate fabric of bird song | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Floats in the air, | 4 | ···· |
| The smell of wet wild earth | 6 | ······ |
| Is everywhere. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Red small leaves of the maple | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Are clenched like a hand, | 5 | ····· |
| Like girls at their first communion | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| The pear trees stand. | 4 | ···· |
| Oh I must pass nothing by | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Without loving it much, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| The raindrop try with my lips, | 7 | ·/····· |
| The grass with my touch; | 5 | ····· |
| For how can I be sure | 6 | ······ |
| I shall see again | 5 | ···˘/ |
| The world on the first of May | 7 | ······· |
| Shining after the rain? | 6 | /˘···· |
| Since there is no escape, since at the end | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| My body will be utterly destroyed, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘/ |
| This hand I love as I have loved a friend, | 10 | ·········· |
| This body I tended, wept with and enjoyed; | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···˘/ |
| Since there is no escape even for me | 9 | ····˘//·· |
| Who love life with a love too sharp to bear: | 10 | ·········· |
| The scent of orchards in the rain, the sea | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And hours alone too still and sure for prayer-- | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| Since darkness waits for me, then all the more | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Let me go down as waves sweep to the shore | 10 | ·········· |
| In pride; and let me sing with my last breath; | 10 | ·········· |
| In these few hours of light I lift my head; | 10 | ···/······ |
| Life is my lover--I shall leave the dead | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| If there is any way to baffle death. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The dreams of my heart and my mind pass, | 9 | ········· |
| Nothing stays with me long, | 6 | /˘···· |
| But I have had from a child | 7 | ······· |
| The deep solace of song; | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| If that should ever leave me, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Let me find death and stay | 6 | ······ |
| With things whose tunes are played out and forgotten | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Like the rain of yesterday. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| A little while when I am gone | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| My life will live in music after me, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As spun foam lifted and borne on | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| After the wave is lost in the full sea. | 10 | ·········· |
| A while these nights and days will burn | 8 | ········ |
| In song with the bright frailty of foam, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Living in light before they turn | 8 | /˘······ |
| Back to the nothingness that is their home. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
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.