The Tree
Oh to be free of myself,With nothing left to remember,To have my heart as bareAs a tree in December;
Resting, as a tree restsAfter its leaves are gone,Waiting no more for a rain at nightNor for the red at dawn;
But still, oh so stillWhile the winds come and go,With no more fear of the hard frostOr the bright burden of snow;
And heedless, heedlessIf anyone pass and seeOn the white page of the skyIts thin black tracery.
Words in this poem
- anyone n.
- One taken at random rather than by selection; anybody.
- tracery n.
- Ornamental work with rambled lines. Especially: -- (a) The decorative head of a Gothic window.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Tree 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 Tree, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/the-tree.html, id L17024.
Form and metre
The Tree is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in short measure.
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 myself · rememberA · bare · decemberA
- 2 -A-A rests · goneA · night · dawnA
- 3 -A-A still · goA · frost · snowA
- 4 -AA- heedless · seeA · skyA · tracery
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh to be free of myself, | 7 | ······/ |
| With nothing left to remember, | 8 | ·/˘··˘/˘ |
| To have my heart as bare | 6 | ······ |
| As a tree in December; | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Resting, as a tree rests | 6 | /˘···· |
| After its leaves are gone, | 6 | ······ |
| Waiting no more for a rain at night | 9 | /˘······· |
| Nor for the red at dawn; | 6 | ······ |
| But still, oh so still | 5 | ····· |
| While the winds come and go, | 6 | ······ |
| With no more fear of the hard frost | 8 | ········ |
| Or the bright burden of snow; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| And heedless, heedless | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| If anyone pass and see | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| On the white page of the sky | 7 | ······· |
| Its thin black tracery. | 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.