The Analysis of I Am Not Yours

THE POETRY ANALYSIS OF I AM NOT
YOURS BY SARA TEASDALE
PAPER
Submitted as:
Midterm Exam of Poetry Analysis
Compiled by:
Verencia Mercy
20170600011
ENGLISH LITERATURE
FACULTY OF SOCIAL AND HUMANIORA
BUDDHI DARMA UNIVERSITY
2020
I Am Not Yours
I am not yours, not lost in you,
Not lost, although I long to be
Lost as a candle lit at noon,
Lost as a snowflake in the sea.
You love me, and I find you still
A spirit beautiful and bright,
Yet I am I, who long to be
Lost as a light is lost in light.
Oh plunge me deep in love—put out
My senses, leave me deaf and blind,
Swept by the tempest of your love,
A taper in a rushing wind.

A. Introduction
Sara Teasdale was an American poet. She was born Sara Trevor
Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri in August 8, 1884. She used the name Sara
Teasdale Filsinger after her marriage in 1914. From 1904 to 1907,
Teasdale was a member of The Potters, led by Lillie Rose Ernst, a group
of female artists in their late teens and early twenties who published, from
1904 to 1907, The Potter's Wheel, a monthly artistic and literary magazine
in St. Louis.Teasdale's first poem was published in William Marion
Reedy's Reedy's Mirror, a local newspaper, in 1907. Her first collection of
poems, Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems, was published that same year.
‘I Am Not Yours’ was one of a famous love poem by Sara Teasdale

where she exposes her feelings for her lover. In this poem, she writes
about her complains to her lover for not loving her as much as she wants,
and also expresses her longing to get more love and care from him. So, the
poem is about longing for a passionate love which will make someone
‘deaf and blind’.
B. Body
‘I Am Not Yours’ by Sara Teasdale is a three stanzas poem which is
separated into sets of four lines with a continous form. The stanzas of this
part are also similar because each of it is made of one long sentence. The
only end mark come after the last word of stanzas. Additionally, the poet
has constructed each stanzas so the lines are all close to the same length.
This allows the text to maintain a sense of auditory unity.
This poem also use a romantic words, because we all know that
this poem also one of a famous love poem and it will certainly use a
romantic words. She also use a conotation diction because she was
describes her feelings or emotionals through the words that she has
written. She also included figurative language into her poem.
In the first stanza, ‘I am not yours’ which is also being the title of
the poem tells us that she has not given herself to him. For the next phrases
she wants this person to know that she is ‘not lost in’ them. But at the
second lines, it expresses her true feelings to give herself to him,
‘althought I long to be’. Further, she says that she longs ‘to be as a candle
lit at noon’ and ‘as a snowflake in the sea’. These two phrases are simile
that used to describes her definition of love. In the fist simile, she takes
herself as ‘a candle’ and her man as ‘a noon’ because she wants him to be
neither morning nor evening, she rather ‘noon’ because she can vanish
herself as a flame of the candle to the bright day. Similarly, in the second
simile, she compares herself with ‘a snowflake’ and her man with ‘the
sea’. She rather sea which can have the power to hide both river and
stream. In both simile, she longs not to see any distance between her man
and herself. These similes expresses her longing to be lost in love of her
man.
In the second stanza, she wants to make sure that her man
understand what she has to say. She begins to make sure her
listener/reader knows that she understand his feelings. They love each
other but that fact does not make her emotions irrelevant. She needs more
than love. But, she does want them to know that she still sees him as ‘a
beautiful spirit and bright’. Nothing can changed her view to him. He is
still the person she has a relationship with. The next two phrases are
something that she clearly states that she is who she is. There is nothing
can change her feelings. In this situation, she is looking for a situation
which would allow her to be ‘lost as light is lost in light’. The following
additional simile is help to define her desires. She needs to be part of
something which ropes her, but also allows her to feel free.
In the last stanza, she ask her man to ‘plung me deep in love’. This
prhase support the previous supposition that she desires, a love which both
ropes her but also makes her feel as if she unlimited. She ask her man to
ropes her completely so her senses are ‘put out’ that makes her ‘deaf and
blind’ by her man. She will be carried away by her lover. ‘Swept by the
tempest of your love’ he will sweep her away like ‘a taper in rushing
wind’. There will be no way for her to control her own feelings. These
phrses are related back to the tiltle of this poem as it is the way of living
that she choose. She is not being told to become someone who she is not.
Her life is her own to do based on what she wants and her choice is to give
hers up to a ‘deep love’ which she is unsure the listener/reader can
provide.
C. Conclusion
‘I Am Not Yours’ by Sara Teasdale describes her emotions who is
looking for a love which does not tried to ropes her. The poem begins with
she is stating that she is looking for a relationship which allows her to
become lost in love. This does not seem to be the situations she is
currently in as she states that she is ‘not yours’. She does not feels what
she wants that what she wants is to lost in love. In the next phrase, she
describes what relationship that she wants to be, which allows her to
become a ‘candle lit at noon’. She wants to be flame of the candle to the
bright day. The next phrase is to remind the listener that she does not care
about what him. He is still ‘beautiful and bright’ to her. The poem
conclude that she will gives herself to a ‘deep love’ that takes over her
feelings and sweep it like a ‘taper in rushing wind’.
Sara Teasdale also included elements in her poem such as:
i. a continous form of stanzas,

ii. a romantic words for vocabulary,
iii. a conotation diction,
iv. a simile of figurative language.

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THE POETRY ANALYSIS OF I AM NOT

YOURS BY SARA TEASDALE

Midterm Exam of Poetry Analysis

Not lost, although I long to be

Lost as a candle lit at noon,

Lost as a snowflake in the sea.

You love me, and I find you still

A spirit beautiful and bright,

Yet I am I, who long to be

Lost as a light is lost in light.

Oh plunge me deep in love—put out

My senses, leave me deaf and blind,

Swept by the tempest of your love,

A taper in a rushing wind.

‘I Am Not Yours’ was one of a famous love poem by Sara Teasdale

Sara Teasdale also included elements in her poem such as:

i. a continous form of stanzas,

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