Analysis of Places
Sara Teasdale 1884 (St. Louis) – 1933 (New York City)
Places I love come back to me like music,
Hush me and heal me when I am very tired;
I see the oak woods at Saxton's flaming
In a flare of crimson by the frost newly fired;
And I am thirsty for the spring in the valley
As for a kiss ungiven and long desired.
I know a bright world of snowy hills at Boonton,
A blue and white dazzling light on everything one sees,
The ice-covered branches of the hemlocks sparkle
Bending low and tinkling in the sharp thin breeze,
And iridescent crystals fall and crackle on the snow-crust
With the winter sun drawing cold blue shadows from the trees.
Violet now, in veil on veil of evening
The hills across from Cromwell grow dreamy and far;
A wood-thrush is singing soft as a viol
In the heart of the hollow where the dark pools are;
The primrose has opened her pale yellow flowers
And heaven is lighting star after star.
Places I love come back to me like music --
Mid-ocean, midnight, the waves buzz drowsily;
In the ship's deep churning the eerie phosphorescence
Is like the souls of people who were drowned at sea,
And I can hear a man's voice, speaking, hushed, insistent,
At midnight, in mid-ocean, hour on hour to me.
Scheme | Abcb dbxe xexe cfdf xfAd xdxd |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 10111111110 110111111010 110111110 0011101011010 011101010010 1101101010 110111101110 0101100111011 01101010110 101010000111 00101010101011 1010110111101 10010111110 010111011001 0111101101 001101010111 01110011010 0101101101 10111111110 11010111 001110010010 110111010111 0111011101010 1101101011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,143 |
Words | 218 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 152 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 809 Views
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"Places" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34549/places>.
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