Wood Song
I heard a wood thrush in the duskTwirl three notes and make a star--My heart that walked with bitternessCame back from very far.
Three shining notes were all he had,And yet they made a starry call--I caught life back against my breastAnd kissed it, scars and all.
Words in this poem
- twirl v. t.
- To move or turn round rapidly; to whirl round; to move and turn rapidly with the fingers. [Cf. AS. þwiril a churn staff, a stirrer, flail, þweran, aþweran, to agitate, twirl, G. zwirlen, quirlen, to twirl, to turn round or about, quirl a twirling stic]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wood Song 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, Wood Song, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/wood-song.html, id L08071.
Form and metre
Wood Song is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 1 line ends 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.
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 dusk · starA · bitterness · farA
- 2 -A-A had · callA · breast · allA
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 heard a wood thrush in the dusk | 8 | ········ |
| Twirl three notes and make a star-- | 7 | ······· |
| My heart that walked with bitterness | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Came back from very far. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Three shining notes were all he had, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And yet they made a starry call-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I caught life back against my breast | 8 | ········ |
| And kissed it, scars and all. | 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.