Moods
I am the still rain falling,Too tired for singing mirth--Oh, be the green fields calling,Oh, be for me the earth!
I am the brown bird piningTo leave the nest and fly--Oh, be the fresh cloud shining,Oh, be for me the sky!
About this text
Moods 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, Moods, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/moods.html, id L08090.
Form and metre
Moods is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 falling · mirthA · calling · earthA
- 2 ABAB piningA · flyB · shiningA · skyB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I am the still rain falling, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Too tired for singing mirth-- | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Oh, be the green fields calling, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Oh, be for me the earth! | 6 | ······ |
| I am the brown bird pining | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To leave the nest and fly-- | 6 | ······ |
| Oh, be the fresh cloud shining, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Oh, be for me the sky! | 6 | ······ |
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.