The Voice
Atoms as old as stars,Mutation on mutation,Millions and millions of cellsDividing yet still the same,From air and changing earth,From ancient Eastern rivers,From turquoise tropic seas,Unto myself I came.
My spirit like my fleshSprang from a thousand sources,From cave-man, hunter and shepherd,From Karnak, Cyprus, Rome;The living thoughts in meSpring from dead men and women,Forgotten time out of mindAnd many as bubbles of foam.
Here for a moment's spaceInto the light out of darkness,I come and they come with meFinding words with my breath;From the wisdom of many life-timesI hear them cry: "ForeverSeek for Beauty, she onlyFights with man against Death!"
Words in this poem
- cyprus n.
- A thin, transparent stuff, the same as, or corresponding to, crape. It was either white or black, the latter being most common, and used for mourning. [OE. cipres, cypirs; perh. so named as being first manufactured in Cyprus. Cf. Cipers.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Voice 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 Voice, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/the-voice.html, id L16967.
Form and metre
The Voice is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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-BBA stars · mutation · cells · sameA · earth · riversB · seasB · cameA
- 2 ---A---A flesh · sources · shepherd · romeA · me · women · mind · foamA
- 3 AA-B---B spaceA · darknessA · me · breathB · times · forever · only · deathB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Atoms as old as stars, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Mutation on mutation, | 7 | ˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Millions and millions of cells | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| Dividing yet still the same, | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| From air and changing earth, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| From ancient Eastern rivers, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| From turquoise tropic seas, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Unto myself I came. | 6 | ···/·· |
| My spirit like my flesh | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Sprang from a thousand sources, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| From cave-man, hunter and shepherd, | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| From Karnak, Cyprus, Rome; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The living thoughts in me | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Spring from dead men and women, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Forgotten time out of mind | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| And many as bubbles of foam. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| Here for a moment's space | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Into the light out of darkness, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| I come and they come with me | 7 | ······· |
| Finding words with my breath; | 6 | /˘···· |
| From the wisdom of many life-times | 8 | ··/˘·/·· |
| I hear them cry: "Forever | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Seek for Beauty, she only | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Fights with man against Death!" | 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.