Old Tunes
As the waves of perfume, heliotrope, rose,Float in the garden when no wind blows,Come to us, go from us, whence no one knows;
So the old tunes float in my mind,And go from me leaving no trace behind,Like fragrance borne on the hush of the wind.
But in the instant the airs remainI know the laughter and the painOf times that will not come again.
I try to catch at many a tuneLike petals of light fallen from the moon,Broken and bright on a dark lagoon,
But they float away--for who can holdYouth, or perfume or the moon's gold?
Words in this poem
- lagoon n.
- A shallow sound, channel, pond, or lake, especially one into which the sea flows; as, the lagoons of Venice. [It. or Sp. laguna, L. lacuna ditch, pool, pond,lacus lake. See Lake, and cf. Lacuna.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Old Tunes 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, Old Tunes, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/old-tunes.html, id L20791.
Form and metre
Old Tunes is 14 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AAA roseA · blowsA · knowsA
- 2 AAA mindA · behindA · windA
- 3 AAA remainA · painA · againA
- 4 AAA tuneA · moonA · lagoonA
- 5 AA holdA · goldA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As the waves of perfume, heliotrope, rose, | 10 | ····˘//˘·· |
| Float in the garden when no wind blows, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Come to us, go from us, whence no one knows; | 10 | ·········· |
| So the old tunes float in my mind, | 8 | ········ |
| And go from me leaving no trace behind, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Like fragrance borne on the hush of the wind. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But in the instant the airs remain | 9 | ···/˘··˘/ |
| I know the laughter and the pain | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of times that will not come again. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| I try to catch at many a tune | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Like petals of light fallen from the moon, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Broken and bright on a dark lagoon, | 9 | /˘·····˘/ |
| But they float away--for who can hold | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| Youth, or perfume or the moon's gold? | 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.