Buried Love
I have come to bury LoveBeneath a tree,In the forest tall and blackWhere none can see.
I shall put no flowers at his head,Nor stone at his feet,For the mouth I loved so muchWas bittersweet.
I shall go no more to his grave,For the woods are cold.I shall gather as much of joyAs my hands can hold.
I shall stay all day in the sunWhere the wide winds blow,--But oh, I shall cry at nightWhen none will know.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Buried Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from Love Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #442; 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, Buried Love, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/buried-love.html, id L08048.
Form and metre
Buried Love is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common 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 love · treeA · black · seeA
- 2 -A-A head · feetA · much · bittersweetA
- 3 -A-A grave · coldA · joy · holdA
- 4 -A-A sun · blowA · night · knowA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I have come to bury Love | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Beneath a tree, | 4 | ···· |
| In the forest tall and black | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Where none can see. | 4 | ···· |
| I shall put no flowers at his head, | 8 | ····/··· |
| Nor stone at his feet, | 5 | ····· |
| For the mouth I loved so much | 8 | ·····˘·· |
| Was bittersweet. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| I shall go no more to his grave, | 8 | ········ |
| For the woods are cold. | 5 | ····· |
| I shall gather as much of joy | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| As my hands can hold. | 5 | ····· |
| I shall stay all day in the sun | 8 | ········ |
| Where the wide winds blow,-- | 5 | ····· |
| But oh, I shall cry at night | 7 | ······· |
| When none will know. | 4 | ···· |
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.