The Storm
I thought of you when I was wakenedBy a wind that made me glad and afraidOf the rushing, pouring sound of the seaThat the great trees made.
One thought in my mind went over and overWhile the darkness shook and the leaves were thinned--I thought it was you who had come to find me,You were the wind.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Storm 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 Storm, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/the-storm.html, id L17023.
Form and metre
The Storm is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A wakened · afraidA · sea · madeA
- 2 -A-A over · thinnedA · me · windA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I thought of you when I was wakened | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| By a wind that made me glad and afraid | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Of the rushing, pouring sound of the sea | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| That the great trees made. | 5 | ····· |
| One thought in my mind went over and over | 9 | ········· |
| While the darkness shook and the leaves were thinned-- | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| I thought it was you who had come to find me, | 11 | ··········· |
| You were the wind. | 4 | ···· |
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.