The Flight
Look back with longing eyes and know that I will follow,Lift me up in your love as a light wind lifts a swallow,Let our flight be far in sun or blowing rain--But what if I heard my first love calling me again?
Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam,Take me far away to the hills that hide your home;Peace shall thatch the roof and love shall latch the door--But what if I heard my first love calling me once more?
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- latch v. t.
- To smear; to anoint. [Cf. F. lécher to lick (of German origin). Cf. Lick.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Flight 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, The Flight, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/the-flight.html, id L08073.
Form and metre
The Flight is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 followA · swallowA · rainB · againB
- 2 AABB foamA · homeA · doorB · moreB
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Look back with longing eyes and know that I will follow, | 13 | ···/˘······/˘ |
| Lift me up in your love as a light wind lifts a swallow, | 14 | ············/˘ |
| Let our flight be far in sun or blowing rain-- | 11 | ·/······/˘· |
| But what if I heard my first love calling me again? | 13 | ········/˘·˘/ |
| Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam, | 12 | ············ |
| Take me far away to the hills that hide your home; | 12 | ···˘/······· |
| Peace shall thatch the roof and love shall latch the door-- | 11 | ··········· |
| But what if I heard my first love calling me once more? | 13 | ········/˘··· |
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.