"Since There Is No Escape"
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.
Words in this poem
- 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]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"Since There Is No Escape" 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, "Since There Is No Escape", in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/since-there-is-no-escape.html, id L20803.
Form and metre
"Since There Is No Escape" is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEEFGGF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABABCDCDEEFGGF endA · destroyedB · friendA · enjoyedB · meC · bearD · seaC · prayerD · moreE · shoreE · breathF · headG · deadG · deathF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Since there is no escape, since at the end | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| My body will be utterly destroyed, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| 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 | 10 | ····˘//˘·· |
| 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 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.