Lights
Sara Teasdale 1884 (St. Louis) – 1933 (New York City)
When we come home at night and close the door,
Standing together in the shadowy room,
Safe in our own love and the gentle gloom,
Glad of familiar wall and chair and floor,
Glad to leave far below the clanging city;
Looking far downward to the glaring street
Gaudy with light, yet tired with many feet,
In both of us wells up a wordless pity;
Men have tried hard to put away the dark;
A million lighted windows brilliantly
Inlay with squares of gold the winter night,
But to us standing here there comes the stark
Sense of the lives behind each yellow light,
And not one wholly joyous, proud, or free.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 533 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBA CDDC ECFEFC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 609 |
Words | 114 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 6 |
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"Lights" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/34525/lights>.
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