The Return
He has come, he is here,My love has come home,The minutes are lighterThan flying foam,The hours are like dancersOn gold-slippered feet,The days are young runnersNaked and fleet--For my love has returned,He is home, he is here,In the whole world no otherIs dear as my dear!
About this text
The Return 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 Return, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/the-return.html, id L16971.
Form and metre
The Return is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.7 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic dimeter.
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 AB-B-C-C-A-A hereA · homeB · lighter · foamB · dancers · feetC · runners · fleetC · returned · hereA · other · dearA
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 anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| He has come, he is here, | 6 | ······ |
| My love has come home, | 5 | ····· |
| The minutes are lighter | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Than flying foam, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The hours are like dancers | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| On gold-slippered feet, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| The days are young runners | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Naked and fleet-- | 4 | /˘·· |
| For my love has returned, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| He is home, he is here, | 6 | ······ |
| In the whole world no other | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Is dear as my dear! | 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.