Spray
I knew you thought of me all night,I knew, though you were far away;I felt your love blow over meAs if a dark wind-riven seaDrenched me with quivering spray.
There are so many ways to loveAnd each way has its own delight--Then be content to come to meOnly as spray the beating seaDrives inland through the night.
About this text
Spray 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, Spray, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/spray.html, id L17007.
Form and metre
Spray is 10 lines in 2 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 50% 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 -ABBA night · awayA · meB · seaB · sprayA
- 2 -ABBA love · delightA · meB · seaB · nightA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I knew you thought of me all night, | 8 | ········ |
| I knew, though you were far away; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| I felt your love blow over me | 8 | ········ |
| As if a dark wind-riven sea | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Drenched me with quivering spray. | 8 | ·˘··/˘˘· |
| There are so many ways to love | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And each way has its own delight-- | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Then be content to come to me | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Only as spray the beating sea | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Drives inland through the night. | 6 | ·/···· |
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.