Dew
As dew leaves the cobweb lightlyThreaded with stars,Scattering jewels on the fenceAnd the pasture bars;As dawn leaves the dry grass brightAnd the tangled weedsBearing a rainbow gemOn each of their seeds;So has your love, my lover,Fresh as the dawn,Made me a shining roadTo travel on,Set every common sightOf tree or stoneDelicately alightFor me alone.
Words in this poem
- cobweb n.
- The network spread by a spider to catch its prey. [Cob a spider + web.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dew 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, Dew, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/dew.html, id L08074.
Form and metre
Dew is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, 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 5.6 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 56% 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-ABC-C-D-DBEBE lightly · starsA · fence · barsA · brightB · weedsC · gem · seedsC · lover · dawnD · road · onD · sightB · stoneE · alightB · aloneE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As dew leaves the cobweb lightly | 8 | ····/·/˘ |
| Threaded with stars, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Scattering jewels on the fence | 8 | /˘˘/˘··· |
| And the pasture bars; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| As dawn leaves the dry grass bright | 7 | ······· |
| And the tangled weeds | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Bearing a rainbow gem | 6 | /˘·/·· |
| On each of their seeds; | 5 | ····· |
| So has your love, my lover, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Fresh as the dawn, | 4 | ···· |
| Made me a shining road | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To travel on, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Set every common sight | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| Of tree or stone | 4 | ···· |
| Delicately alight | 6 | /˘˘˘˘/ |
| For me alone. | 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.