The Unseen
Death went up the hallUnseen by every one,Trailing twilight robesPast the nurse and the nun.
He paused at every doorAnd listened to the breathOf those who did not knowHow near they were to Death.
Death went up the hallUnseen by nurse and nun;He passed by many a door--But he entered one.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Unseen 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 Unseen, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/the-unseen.html, id L16981.
Form and metre
The Unseen is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.2 syllables. 50% 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-A hall · oneA · robes · nunA
- 2 -A-A door · breathA · know · deathA
- 3 -A-A hall · nunA · door · oneA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Death went up the hall | 5 | ····· |
| Unseen by every one, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Trailing twilight robes | 5 | /˘/·· |
| Past the nurse and the nun. | 6 | ······ |
| He paused at every door | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And listened to the breath | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Of those who did not know | 6 | ······ |
| How near they were to Death. | 6 | ······ |
| Death went up the hall | 5 | ····· |
| Unseen by nurse and nun; | 6 | ˘/···· |
| He passed by many a door-- | 6 | ···/·· |
| But he entered one. | 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.