Refuge
From my spirit's gray defeat,From my pulse's flagging beat,From my hopes that turned to sandSifting through my close-clenched hand,From my own fault's slavery,If I can sing, I still am free.
For with my singing I can makeA refuge for my spirit's sake,A house of shining words, to beMy fragile immortality.
Words in this poem
- defeat v. t.
- To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
- flagging n.
- A pavement or sidewalk of flagstones; flagstones, collectively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Refuge 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, Refuge, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/refuge.html, id L08072.
Form and metre
Refuge is 10 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABB-- defeatA · beatA · sandB · handB · slavery · free
- 2 AA-- makeA · sakeA · be · immortality
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From my spirit's gray defeat, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| From my pulse's flagging beat, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| From my hopes that turned to sand | 8 | ·····˘·· |
| Sifting through my close-clenched hand, | 8 | /˘····˘· |
| From my own fault's slavery, | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| If I can sing, I still am free. | 8 | ········ |
| For with my singing I can make | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A refuge for my spirit's sake, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A house of shining words, to be | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My fragile immortality. | 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.