"Oh You Are Coming"
Oh you are coming, coming, coming,How will hungry Time put by the hours till then?--But why does it anger my heart to long soFor one man out of the world of men?
Oh I would live in myself onlyAnd build my life lightly and still as a dream--Are not my thoughts clearer than your thoughtsAnd colored like stones in a running stream?
Now the slow moon brightens in heaven,The stars are ready, the night is here--Oh why must I lose myself to love you,My dear?
Words in this poem
- clearer n.
- One who, or that which, clears.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"Oh You Are Coming" 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, "Oh You Are Coming", in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/oh-you-are-coming.html, id L20794.
Form and metre
"Oh You Are Coming" is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 coming · thenA · so · menA
- 2 -A-A only · dreamA · thoughts · streamA
- 3 -A-A heaven · hereA · you · dearA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh you are coming, coming, coming, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| How will hungry Time put by the hours till then?-- | 11 | ··/˘····/·· |
| But why does it anger my heart to long so | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| For one man out of the world of men? | 9 | ········· |
| Oh I would live in myself only | 9 | ······//˘ |
| And build my life lightly and still as a dream-- | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Are not my thoughts clearer than your thoughts | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| And colored like stones in a running stream? | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Now the slow moon brightens in heaven, | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| The stars are ready, the night is here-- | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Oh why must I lose myself to love you, | 10 | ······/··· |
| My dear? | 2 | ·· |
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.