Lights
When we come home at night and close the door,Standing together in the shadowy room,Safe in our own love and the gentle gloom,Glad of familiar wall and chair and floor,
Glad to leave far below the clanging city;Looking far downward to the glaring streetGaudy with light, yet tired with many feet,In both of us wells up a wordless pity;
Men have tried hard to put away the dark;A million lighted windows brilliantlyInlay with squares of gold the winter night,But to us standing here there comes the starkSense of the lives behind each yellow light,And not one wholly joyous, proud, or free.
I am not yours, not lost in you,Not lost, although I long to beLost as a candle lit at noon,Lost as a snowflake in the sea.
You love me, and I find you stillA spirit beautiful and bright,Yet I am I, who long to beLost as a light is lost in light.
Oh plunge me deep in love--put outMy senses, leave me deaf and blind,Swept by the tempest of your love,A taper in a rushing wind.
Words in this poem
- glaring a.
- Clear; notorious; open and bold; barefaced; as, a glaring crime.
- wordless a.
- Not using words; not speaking; silent; speechless.
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- snowflake n.
- A flake, or small filmy mass, of snow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lights 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, Lights, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/lights.html, id L08092.
Form and metre
Lights is 26 lines in 6 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABBA, in 2 of the 6 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBA doorA · roomB · gloomB · floorA
- 2 ABBA cityA · streetB · feetB · pityA
- 3 A-BAB- darkA · brilliantly · nightB · starkA · lightB · free
- 4 -A-A you · beA · noon · seaA
- 5 -A-A still · brightA · be · lightA
- 6 -A-A out · blindA · love · windA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When we come home at night and close the door, | 10 | ·········· |
| Standing together in the shadowy room, | 10 | /˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| Safe in our own love and the gentle gloom, | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| Glad of familiar wall and chair and floor, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Glad to leave far below the clanging city; | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Looking far downward to the glaring street | 9 | /˘·/··/˘· |
| Gaudy with light, yet tired with many feet, | 9 | /˘···/·/· |
| In both of us wells up a wordless pity; | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Men have tried hard to put away the dark; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| A million lighted windows brilliantly | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Inlay with squares of gold the winter night, | 10 | /······/˘· |
| But to us standing here there comes the stark | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Sense of the lives behind each yellow light, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And not one wholly joyous, proud, or free. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| I am not yours, not lost in you, | 8 | ········ |
| Not lost, although I long to be | 8 | ········ |
| Lost as a candle lit at noon, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Lost as a snowflake in the sea. | 8 | ···/···· |
| You love me, and I find you still | 8 | ········ |
| A spirit beautiful and bright, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| Yet I am I, who long to be | 8 | ········ |
| Lost as a light is lost in light. | 8 | ········ |
| Oh plunge me deep in love--put out | 8 | ········ |
| My senses, leave me deaf and blind, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Swept by the tempest of your love, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A taper in a rushing wind. | 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.