Understanding
I understood the rest too well,And all their thoughts have come to beClear as grey sea-weed in the swellOf a sunny shallow sea.
But you I never understood,Your spirit's secret hides like goldSunk in a Spanish galleonAges ago in waters cold.
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- galleon n.
- A sailing vessel of the 15th and following centuries, often having three or four decks, and used for war or commerce. The term is often rather indiscriminately applied to any large sailing vessel. [Sp. galeon, cf. F. galion; fr. LL. galeo, galio. See Galley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Understanding 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, Understanding, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/understanding.html, id L16984.
Form and metre
Understanding is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 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 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 ABAB wellA · beB · swellA · seaB
- 2 -A-A understood · goldA · galleon · coldA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I understood the rest too well, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And all their thoughts have come to be | 8 | ········ |
| Clear as grey sea-weed in the swell | 8 | ········ |
| Of a sunny shallow sea. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| But you I never understood, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Your spirit's secret hides like gold | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Sunk in a Spanish galleon | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Ages ago in waters cold. | 8 | /˘˘/·/˘· |
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.