Thoughts
When I am all aloneEnvy me most,Then my thoughts flutter round meIn a glimmering host;
Some dressed in silver,Some dressed in white,Each like a taperBlossoming light;
Most of them merry,Some of them grave,Each of them litheAs willows that wave;
Some bearing violets,Some bearing bay,One with a burning roseHidden away--
When I am all aloneEnvy me then,For I have better friendsThan women and men.
Words in this poem
- lithe v. i.
- To listen or listen to; to hearken to. P. Plowman. [Icel Listen.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Thoughts 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, Thoughts, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/thoughts.html, id L17009.
Form and metre
Thoughts is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 35% 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 alone · mostA · me · hostA
- 2 -A-A silver · whiteA · taper · lightA
- 3 -A-A merry · graveA · lithe · waveA
- 4 -A-A violets · bayA · rose · awayA
- 5 -A-A alone · thenA · friends · menA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I am all alone | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Envy me most, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Then my thoughts flutter round me | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| In a glimmering host; | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| Some dressed in silver, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Some dressed in white, | 4 | ···· |
| Each like a taper | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Blossoming light; | 4 | /˘˘· |
| Most of them merry, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Some of them grave, | 4 | ···· |
| Each of them lithe | 4 | ···· |
| As willows that wave; | 5 | ·/··· |
| Some bearing violets, | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| Some bearing bay, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| One with a burning rose | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Hidden away-- | 4 | /˘˘/ |
| When I am all alone | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Envy me then, | 4 | /˘·· |
| For I have better friends | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Than women and men. | 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.