Analysis of Old Tunes
Sara Teasdale 1884 (St. Louis) – 1933 (New York City)
As the waves of perfume, heliotrope, rose,
Float in the garden when no wind blows,
Come to us, go from us, whence no one knows;
So the old tunes float in my mind,
And go from me leaving no trace behind,
Like fragrance borne on the hush of the wind.
But in the instant the airs remain
I know the laughter and the pain
Of times that will not come again.
I try to catch at many a tune
Like petals of light fallen from the moon,
Broken and bright on a dark lagoon,
But they float away -- for who can hold
Youth, or perfume or the moon's gold?
Scheme | AAA BBB CCX DDD EE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011011001 100101111 1111111111 10111011 0111101101 1101101101 100100101 11010001 11111101 111111001 1101110101 100110101 111011111 11011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 533 |
Words | 112 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 2 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 82 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 393 Views
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"Old Tunes" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34541/old-tunes>.
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