Riches
I have no riches but my thoughts,Yet these are wealth enough for me;My thoughts of you are golden coinsStamped in the mint of memory;
And I must spend them all in song,For thoughts, as well as gold, must beLeft on the hither side of deathTo gain their immortality.
Words in this poem
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Riches 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, Riches, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/riches.html, id L08087.
Form and metre
Riches is 8 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I have no riches but my thoughts, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Yet these are wealth enough for me; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| My thoughts of you are golden coins | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Stamped in the mint of memory; | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| And I must spend them all in song, | 8 | ········ |
| For thoughts, as well as gold, must be | 8 | ········ |
| Left on the hither side of death | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To gain their 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.