Places
Places I love come back to me like music,Hush me and heal me when I am very tired;I see the oak woods at Saxton's flamingIn a flare of crimson by the frost newly fired;And I am thirsty for the spring in the valleyAs for a kiss ungiven and long desired.
I know a bright world of snowy hills at Boonton,A blue and white dazzling light on everything one sees,The ice-covered branches of the hemlocks sparkleBending low and tinkling in the sharp thin breeze,And iridescent crystals fall and crackle on the snow-crustWith the winter sun drawing cold blue shadows from the trees.
Violet now, in veil on veil of eveningThe hills across from Cromwell grow dreamy and far;A wood-thrush is singing soft as a violIn the heart of the hollow where the dark pools are;The primrose has opened her pale yellow flowersAnd heaven is lighting star after star.
Places I love come back to me like music--Mid-ocean, midnight, the waves buzz drowsily;In the ship's deep churning the eerie phosphorescenceIs like the souls of people who were drowned at sea,And I can hear a man's voice, speaking, hushed, insistent,At midnight, in mid-ocean, hour on hour to me.
Words in this poem
- flare v. i.
- To burn with an unsteady or waving flame; as, the candle flares. [Cf. Norw. flara to blaze, flame, adorn with tinsel, dial. Sw. flasa upp, and E. flash, or flacker.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- drowsily adv.
- In a drowsy manner.
- churning n.
- The act of one who churns.
- eerie a.
- Serving to inspire fear, esp. a dread of seeing ghosts; wild; weird; as, eerie stories. [Scotch, fr. AS. earh timid.]
- phosphorescence n.
- The quality or state of being phosphorescent; or the act of phosphorescing. [Cf. F. phosphorescence.]
- insistent a.
- Standing or resting on something; as, an insistent wall. Sir H. [L. insistens, -entis, p. pr. of insistere.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Places 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, Places, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/places.html, id L16962.
Form and metre
Places is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.6 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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-A music · tiredA · flaming · firedA · valley · desiredA
- 2 -A-A-A boonton · seesA · sparkle · breezeA · crust · treesA
- 3 -A-A-A evening · farA · viol · areA · flowers · starA
- 4 ---A-A music · drowsily · phosphorescence · seaA · insistent · meA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Places I love come back to me like music, | 11 | /˘·······/˘ |
| Hush me and heal me when I am very tired; | 11 | ········/˘/ |
| I see the oak woods at Saxton's flaming | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| In a flare of crimson by the frost newly fired; | 12 | ····/˘···/˘/ |
| And I am thirsty for the spring in the valley | 12 | ···/˘·····/˘ |
| As for a kiss ungiven and long desired. | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| I know a bright world of snowy hills at Boonton, | 12 | ······/˘··/˘ |
| A blue and white dazzling light on everything one sees, | 13 | ····/˘··/˘··· |
| The ice-covered branches of the hemlocks sparkle | 12 | ··/˘/˘··/·/˘ |
| Bending low and tinkling in the sharp thin breeze, | 11 | /˘··/˘····· |
| And iridescent crystals fall and crackle on the snow-crust | 15 | ··˘/˘/˘··/˘···· |
| With the winter sun drawing cold blue shadows from the trees. | 14 | ··/˘·/˘··/···· |
| Violet now, in veil on veil of evening | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
| The hills across from Cromwell grow dreamy and far; | 12 | ··˘/·/˘·/˘·· |
| A wood-thrush is singing soft as a viol | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
| In the heart of the hollow where the dark pools are; | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| The primrose has opened her pale yellow flowers | 11 | ·/··/˘··/˘/ |
| And heaven is lighting star after star. | 9 | ·/·/˘···· |
| Places I love come back to me like music-- | 11 | /˘·······/˘ |
| Mid-ocean, midnight, the waves buzz drowsily; | 10 | ·//····/˘˘ |
| In the ship's deep churning the eerie phosphorescence | 13 | ····/˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Is like the souls of people who were drowned at sea, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| And I can hear a man's voice, speaking, hushed, insistent, | 13 | ·······/˘·˘/˘ |
| At midnight, in mid-ocean, hour on hour to me. | 11 | ·/···//·/·· |
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.