“Stars” Introduction

• "Stars" was written by the American poet Sara Teasdale and published in her 1926 collection Flame and Shadow. The poem's speaker, alone on a hill, gazes at the night sky and admires the beauty and timelessness of the stars. In simple, yet lyrical language, the poem celebrates nature's majesty and its ability to put human lives and cares into perspective.

• Read the full text of “Stars”

“Stars” Summary

• I'm by myself at night on a shadowy slope, surrounded by coniferous trees, tangy and motionless.

  Above me is a sky loaded with stars, which are white and pale blue and hazy red in color.

  These countless stars have pulsing, fiery hearts that no amount of time could make irritable or weary.

  Across the vaulted roof of the cosmos like a huge mound, I see them proceeding, dignified and calm.

  And I'm aware that I'm so lucky to get to observe such magnificence.

“Stars” Themes

• 

  The Grandeur of Nature

  “Stars” praises the staggering majesty of the natural world. The speaker, sitting alone on a hill at night, is mesmerized by the countless stars in the sky above. The speaker is struck not only by the beauty of these celestial bodies, but also by their constancy—the way that their “Hearts of fire” never stop “beating.” The peaceful steadiness of these magnificent stars fills the speaker with gratitude; they consider themselves lucky to simply bear “witness” to nature’s grandeur.

  The natural world of the poem is one filled with sensuous beauty. The speaker calls the surrounding pine trees “spicy” (a reference to their sharp scent), for example, and deems the night sky “a heaven full of stars.” The stars themselves are “White and topaz / And misty red,” a description that evokes a dark sky dotted with vivid colors and gems. That this immense sky hangs “over [the speaker’s] head,” meanwhile, adds to the poem’s sense of awe and wonder; there’s an entire whole world of color, beauty, and fire far above the earth and human beings, with which the speaker is utterly enthralled.

  To the speaker, the stars aren’t simply beautiful: they’re also a reminder of the enduring nature of the cosmos. The speaker says that “aeons” (that is, countless years) “Cannot vex” (annoy) “or tire” these stars. In other words, nothing can stop the stars from shining in the sky; their “Hearts of fire” will beat forever. The observation that the stars cannot be annoyed or made weary might also suggest what drove the speaker to this “dark hill” in the middle of night to begin with. The speaker, perhaps, needed to be reminded of something bigger and more abiding than themselves—and found that reminder in the stars’ tranquility. That these stars are “marching” further suggests a sense of order and steadiness that the speaker finds comforting. Maybe part of the reason the stars are so comforting to the speaker, then, is because they put the small, fleeting nature of human troubles into perspective.

  In any case, the speaker feels “honored to be / Witness / Of so much majesty.” The speaker realizes how lucky they are just to get to sit there and perceive the splendor of the night sky. Ending on this note suggests that the speaker feels entirely at peace at this moment, surrounded by the tranquil magnificence of nature.

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Stars”

• Lines 1-4

  Alone in the night
  On a dark hill
  With pines around me
  Spicy and still,

  The poem opens with clear and simple imagery: the speaker is "Alone in the night / On a dark hill." Already, the spareness of the language leaves a lot to the reader's imagination. The speaker doesn't explain why they're alone outside at night—whether they're lonely, sad, lost, scared, or simply reveling in the quiet.

  At the same time, smooth /n/ and /l/ consonance ("Alone," "in," "night," "On," "hill") infuses the opening lines with a feeling of calm and contemplation. Lines 3 and 4 offer more details about the poem's setting:

  With pines around me
  Spicy and still,

  Describing the pines, the speaker doesn't sound scared or lost; for instance, these pines aren't "looming." In fact, the /s/ alliteration ("Spicy," "still") sounds playful, and "Spicy" suggests an appreciation of the pine's strong fragrance, which the speaker can almost taste. In other words, the speaker seems to be enjoying the "still[ness]" of the natural world, or at least admiring it.

• Lines 5-8

  And a heaven full of stars
  Over my head,
  White and topaz
  And misty red;

  

  

• Lines 9-12

  Myriads with beating
  Hearts of fire
  That aeons
  Cannot vex or tire;

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  Up the dome of heaven
  Like a great hill,
  I watch them marching
  Stately and still,

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  And I know that I
  Am honored to be
  Witness
  Of so much majesty.

  

  

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“Stars” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Imagery

  The poem is filled with simple yet evocative imagery. In the first stanza, for instance, the speaker paints a very clear picture of themselves:

  Alone in the night
  On a dark hill
  With pines around me
  Spicy and still,

  There is no unnecessary information here; the scene is distilled to its most essential parts. And yet, despite the simplicity of the description, it is still surprising. The word "spicy," for instance, stands out; it's a fairly ordinary word, yet a unique way to describe the scent of pine trees. This one word gives the poem an added feeling of intimacy and relevance: the poem feels modern because the language is at once direct and whimsical.

  In the second stanza, the speaker describes "a heaven full of stars" that are "White and topaz / And misty red." Once again, the imagery is clear and simple: the speaker is just describing colors. Yet the poet keeps things interesting by being inventive in the way colors are described. So rather than "white, blue, and red," the poem uses the word "topaz," which is suggestive of the glittering surface of a precious stone, and "misty" red, which adds a layer of specificity.

  The speaker describes the stars again in stanza 4, saying:

  Up the dome of heaven
  Like a great hill,
  I watch them marching
  Stately and still,

  The imagery in this stanza mirrors the imagery in the first stanza; where the speaker was the one situated on a "dark hill" at the beginning of the poem, they are now imagining that the sky is a "great hill" on which the stars are "marching." The syntax (or word order) in the last two lines of the stanza also obscures what or who "Stately and still" is describing: the stars or the speaker. This allows the phrase to be applicable to both subjects, so that it once again seems as if the speaker is mirroring the heavens, instilled with the dignity and calmness of distant stars.

  At first glance, the words "marching" and "still" also seem to contradict each other—are the stars marching across the sky, or are they staying in place? The word "still," though, may, in this case, be understood to refer to more of an emotional stillness or tranquility.

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• Metaphor

  

  
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• Consonance

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

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"Stars" Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Topaz
• Myriads
• Aeons
• Vex
• Dome
• Stately

• A gemstone, often of a yellowish or pale blue color.

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Stars”

• Form

  The poem is made up of five short quatrains, or four-line stanzas. The lines are only about as long as the quatrains are tall, an effect that emphasizes the poem's white space (the vacant area around the poem's text). The smallness of the text against the white space helps evoke stars sprinkled against the emptiness of the night sky. It also might suggest the speaker's own smallness compared to the surrounding pines and the "dome" of stars above. The brevity of the poem emphasizes the idea that in the grand scheme of things, the speaker's problems and cares are unimportant; nature's grandeur puts the speaker's brief life into perspective.

• Meter

  "Stars" is written in a loose accentual meter. Accentual meter is defined by the number of stressed beats per line, regardless of syllable count. Here, most lines contain two strong beats Look at the first two stanzas, for example:

  Alone in the night
  On a dark hill
  With pines around me
  Spicy and still,

  And a heaven full of stars
  Over my head,
  White and topaz
  And misty red;

  The lines range from four to seven syllables, but most contain two strong beats. The exception is line 5, which, along with lines 11-12, and lines 19-20, break the pattern. Lines 11 and 19 contain one strong beat apiece ("That aeons"; "Witness"). This draws extra attention to the words "aeons" and "Witness" ("Witness" even gets its own line!). Stressing "aeons" suggests how long and dramatic these time periods are. Stressing "Witness" underscores what the speaker thinks they're here on earth to do: bear "witness" to beauty.

  Lines 5, 12, and 20, meanwhile, contain three or four apiece ("And a heaven full of stars"; "Cannot vex or tire"; "Of so much majesty"). These disruptions add sonic interest to the poem.

  Accentual meter is often found in folk verse and children's poetry, and Teasdale may be using it to invoke that tradition. There's a lullaby-like or nursery-rhyme quality to "Stars," though the poem is written for adults. The short, restrained lines reflect the speaker's quiet contemplation and sense of smallness compared to the night sky.

• Rhyme Scheme

  The rhyme scheme for each stanza is ABCB. In other words, even lines rhyme and odd lines don't. This scheme is a little more relaxed than an ABAB structure, while still being highly musical.

  Though all the end rhymes associated with the rhyme scheme are perfect (meaning that they rhyme exactly—"hill"/"still," "head"/"red," etc.), the poem also contains an extra imperfect rhyme across lines 5 and 7. The similar vowel sounds and /z/ consonance in "stars" and "topaz" makes these words loosely rhyme, so that the stanza seems to have two end rhymes instead of one. The extra musicality helps evoke the speaker's enchantment with the sparkling night sky.

“Stars” Speaker

• The speaker of "Stars" is sitting "Alone in the night / On a dark hill." They are appreciating the "still[ness]" and "Spicy" smell of the pine trees around them, while gazing up into "a heaven full of stars." These stars captivate the speaker with their glittering beauty, their "Hearts of fire" that never "vex" (get upset) or "tire" out.

  By sitting outside in nature, the speaker may hope to gain some perspective on their own, much shorter life, which is fueled by a human heart that does get upset and tired. Perhaps the speaker felt irritable and weary before coming out here and comparing themselves to the stars. Gazing up at "heaven," however, they are drawn to the stars' "Stately" presence and feel lucky even to "Witness" such splendor. Overall, then, the speaker's tone is reverent and thankful.

“Stars” Setting

• The poem takes place outside at night. The speaker is situated "On a dark hill," surrounded by the tangy fragrance of "pine" trees. The night is quiet and still, and the sky is lit by countless "White," "topaz" (jewel-like, probably bluish), and "misty red" stars. These stars seem to be "marching," like a vast and "Stately" army, across the "dome" (or half-sphere) "of heaven."

  The poem reveals no other details of the speaker's surroundings. Rather, it focuses purely on the magnificent view above—allowing the reader to feel swept up, alongside the speaker, in the "majesty" of the night sky.

Literary and Historical Context of “Stars”

• Literary Context

  Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was a popular and celebrated lyric poet of the early 20th century. Her 1917 collection, Love Songs, won the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and throughout her career she was celebrated for the songlike quality of her poems as well as their specifically feminine perspective.

  Her work is now often overlooked in discussions of important 20th-century poetry, partly because it lacks the formal experimentation associated with Modernism. But her distinctive lyrics—with their distilled imagery and emotional potency—have appealed to, and influenced, many later writers, including Amy Lowell, Elinor Wylie, Louise Bogan, John Berryman, and Sylvia Plath. With its focus on intimate feelings about beauty, romance, loneliness, and death, her work is often considered a precursor of Confessionalism.

  Teasdale herself was influenced by the classic Greek poets—particularly Sappho. Like Sappho, Teasdale was uninterested in the longer forms taken up by the great male poets of her time. Her poems are terse, with lines often consisting of only a few stresses. She was also influenced by other prominent women poets, such as Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti, but her poetry was more limited in scope. Although one of her best-remembered poems is an anti-war poem (“There Will Come Soft Rains"), most of her work adhered to subjects that women were expected to write about: love and its attendant emotions.

  “Stars” was published in Teasdale’s 1926 collection, Flame and Shadow. The collection deals primarily with the passions of romantic love (the stars’ “Hearts of fire” in this poem seem to correspond to the “Flame” in the book’s title), as well as love’s “Shadow”: loneliness, sadness, and despair. While this poem doesn’t explicitly address love or its absence, the speaker’s contemplation of the timeless cosmos while sitting alone at night is suggestive of the book’s broader themes.

  Historical Context

  Teasdale spent her formative years in poor physical health and was raised by her affluent family to see herself as helpless and delicate. She never outgrew this belief, and her adult years were punctuated by mental and physical illness. While many women of the "Roaring Twenties" were joining the workforce and expanding their independence, Teasdale remained entrenched in the fear that she was too fragile to live on her own.

  She didn’t gain independence from her family until she married, by which time she was 30 years old and deeply lacking in self-esteem. Though many of her poems, like "Stars," praise the splendor of the natural world and celebrate the speaker’s place in it, she herself was unable to hold onto these feelings for very long, even at the height of her career.

  Flame and Shadow was published three years before Teasdale’s divorce from her husband, Ernst Filsinger. While her literary career was reaching its peak—with many critics lauding her artistic and intellectual development in her later books—her personal life was falling apart. The years leading up to her divorce were painful ones for Teasdale, as she dealt with mental illness and Filsinger’s frequent work-related absences. Her intense loneliness, coupled with her continued health issues, culminated in her death by suicide in 1933.

  While this poem doesn’t overtly refer to historical or personal events in Teasdale’s life, it’s not a stretch to imagine that this lonely speaker—who temporarily finds a sense of peace and perspective while gazing at the stars—could have been Teasdale herself.

More “Stars” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Lyric Poem — An introduction to lyric poetry from the Academy of American Poets.

  • A Reading of the Poem — Hear the poem read aloud. 

  • More on the Author — Another summary of Teasdale's life and works, via Britannica.

  • Nature Poetry — The Academy of American Poets discusses the tradition of poets writing about nature.

  • Biography and Poems — A biography and additional Sara Teasdale poems from the Poetry Foundation.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Sara Teasdale

  • There Will Come Soft Rains