The Coin
Into my heart's treasuryI slipped a coinThat time cannot takeNor a thief purloin,--Oh better than the mintingOf a gold-crowned kingIs the safe-kept memoryOf a lovely thing.
Words in this poem
- purloin v. t.
- To take or carry away for one's self; hence, to steal; to take by theft; to filch. [OF. purloignier, porloignier, to retard, delay; pur, por, pour, for (L. pro) + loin far, far off (L. longe). See Prolong, and cf. Eloign.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Coin 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, The Coin, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/the-coin.html, id L16966.
Form and metre
The Coin is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 75% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-ABB-B treasury · coinA · take · purloinA · mintingB · kingB · memory · thingB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Into my heart's treasury | 6 | ····/˘ |
| I slipped a coin | 4 | ···· |
| That time cannot take | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Nor a thief purloin,-- | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Oh better than the minting | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Of a gold-crowned king | 5 | ····· |
| Is the safe-kept memory | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Of a lovely thing. | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.