The Blind by Sara Teasdale
The birds are all a-building, They say the world’s a-flower, And still I linger lonely Within a barren bower. I weave a web of fancies Of tears and darkness spun. How shall I sing of sunlight Who never saw the sun? I hear the pipes a-blowing, But yet I may not dance, I know that […]
The Answer by Sara Teasdale
When I go back to earth And all my joyous body Puts off the red and white That once had been so proud, If men should pass above With false and feeble pity, My dust will find a voice To answer them aloud: “Be still, I am content, Take back your poor compassion, Joy was […]
Spring In War Time by Sara Teasdale
I feel the spring far off, far off, The faint, far scent of bud and leaf — Oh, how can spring take heart to come To a world in grief, Deep grief? The sun turns north, the days grow long, Later the evening star grows bright — How can the daylight linger on For men […]
Soul’s Birth by Sara Teasdale
When you were born, beloved, was your soul New made by God to match your body’s flower, And were they both at one same precious hour Sent forth from heaven as a perfect whole? Or had your soul since dim creation burned, A star in some still region of the sky, That leaping earthward, left […]
A Song To Eleonora Duse In “Francesca da Rimini ” by Sara Teasdale
Oh would I were the roses, that lie against her hands, The heavy burning roses she touches as she stands! Dear hands that hold the roses, where mine would love to be, Oh leave, oh leave the roses, and hold the hands of me! She draws the heart from out them, she draws away their […]
Song At Capri by Sara Teasdale
When beauty grows too great to bear How shall I ease me of its ache, For beauty more than bitterness Makes the heart break. Now while I watch the dreaming sea With isles like flowers against her breast, Only one voice in all the world Could give me rest. ————— The End And that’s the […]
Since There Is No Escape by Sara Teasdale
SINCE there is no escape, since at the end My body will be utterly destroyed, This hand I love as I have loved a friend, This body I tended, wept with and enjoyed; Since there is no escape even for me Who love life with a love too sharp to bear: The scent of orchards […]
The Return by Sara Teasdale
I turned the key and opened wide the door To enter my deserted room again, Where thro’ the long hot months the dust had lain. Was it not lonely when across the floor No step was heard, no sudden song that bore My whole heart upward with a joyous pain? Were not the pictures and […]
Pity by Sara Teasdale
They never saw my lover’s face, They only know our love was brief, Wearing awhile a windy grace And passing like an autumn leaf. They wonder why I do not weep, They think it strange that I can sing, They say, “Her love was scarcely deep Since it has left so slight a sting.” They […]
Pierrot’s Song by Sara Teasdale
Lady, light in the east hangs low, Draw your veils of dream apart, Under the casement stands Pierrot Making a song to ease his heart. (Yet do not break the song too soon- I love to sing in the paling moon.) The petals are falling, heavy with dew, The stars have fainted out of the […]
Paris In Spring by Sara Teasdale
The city’s all a-shining Beneath a fickle sun, A gay young wind’s a-blowing, The little shower is done. But the rain-drops still are clinging And falling one by one – Oh it’s Paris, it’s Paris, And spring-time has begun. I know the Bois is twinkling In a sort of hazy sheen, And down the Champs […]
Over The Roofs by Sara Teasdale
Oh chimes set high on the sunny tower Ring on, ring on unendingly, Make all the hours a single hour, For when the dusk begins to flower, The man I love will come to me! . . . But no, go slowly as you will, I should not bid you hasten so, For while I […]
Only In Sleep by Sara Teasdale
Only in sleep I see their faces, Children I played with when I was a child, Louise comes back with her brown hair braided, Annie with ringlets warm and wild. Only in sleep Time is forgotten – What may have come to them, who can know? Yet we played last night as long ago, And […]
On The Dunes by Sara Teasdale
IF there is any life when death is over, These tawny beaches will know much of me, I shall come back, as constant and as changeful As the unchanging, many-colored sea. If life was small, if it has made me scornful, Forgive me; I shall straighten like a flame In the great calm of death, […]
On The Death Of Swinburne by Sara Teasdale
He trod the earth but yesterday, And now he treads the stars. He left us in the April time He praised so often in his rhyme, He left the singing and the lyre and went his way. He drew new music from our tongue, A music subtly wrought, And moulded words to his desire, As […]
Oh Day Of Fire And Sun by Sara Teasdale
Oh day of fire and sun, Pure as a naked flame, Blue sea, blue sky and dun Sands where he spoke my name; Laughter and hearts so high That the spirit flew off free, Lifting into the sky Diving into the sea; Oh day of fire and sun Like a crystal burning, Slow days go […]
Night Song At Amalfi by Sara Teasdale
I asked the heaven of stars What I should give my love – It answered me with silence, Silence above. I asked the darkened sea Down where the fishers go – It answered me with silence, Silence below. Oh, I could give him weeping, Or I could give him song – But how can I […]
Night In Arizona by Sara Teasdale
The moon is a charring ember Dying into the dark; Off in the crouching mountains Coyotes bark. The stars are heavy in heaven, Too great for the sky to hold – What if they fell and shattered The earth with gold? No lights are over the mesa, The wind is hard and wild, I stand […]
New Year’s Dawn – Broadway by Sara Teasdale
When the horns wear thin And the noise, like a garment outworn, Falls from the night, The tattered and shivering night, That thinks she is gay; When the patient silence comes back, And retires, And returns, Rebuffed by a ribald song, Wounded by vehement cries, Fleeing again to the stars- Ashamed of her sister the […]
Madeira From The Sea by Sara Teasdale
Out of the delicate dream of the distance an emerald emerges Veiled in the violet folds of the air of the sea; Softly the dream grows awakening – shimmering white of a city, Splashes of crimson, the gay bougainvillea, the palms. High in the infinite blue of its heaven a quiet cloud lingers, Lost and […]
Love In Autumn by Sara Teasdale
I sought among the drifting leaves, The golden leaves that once were green, To see if Love were hiding there And peeping out between. For thro’ the silver showers of May And thro’ the summer’s heavy heat, In vain I sought his golden head And light, fast-flying feet. Perhaps when all the world is bare […]
Less Than The Cloud To The Wind by Sara Teasdale
Less than the cloud to the wind, Less than the foam to the sea, Less than the rose to the storm, Am I to thee. More than the star to the night, More than the rain to the tree, More than heaven to earth Art thou to me. ————— The End And that’s the End […]
Interlude: Songs Out Of Sorrow by Sara Teasdale
I. Spirit’s House From naked stones of agony I will build a house for me; As a mason all alone I will raise it, stone by stone, And every stone where I have bled Will show a sign of dusky red. I have not gone the way in vain, For I have good of all […]
In The Train by Sara Teasdale
Fields beneath a quilt of snow From which the rocks and stubble sleep, And in the west a shy white star That shivers as it wakes from deep. The restless rumble of the train, The drowsy people in the car, Steel blue twilight in the world, And in my heart a timid star. ————— The […]
In The Metropolitan Museum by Sara Teasdale
Inside the tiny Pantheon We stood together silently, Leaving the restless crowds awhile, As ships find shelter from the sea. The ancient centuries came back To cover us a moment’s space, And through the dome the light was glad Because it shone upon your face. Ah, not from Rome but farther still Beyond sun-smitten Salamis, […]
In The End by Sara Teasdale
All that could never be said, All that could never be done, Wait for us at last Somewhere back of the sun; All the heart broke to forego Shall be ours without pain, We shall take them as lightly as girls Pluck flowers after rain. And when they are ours in the end Perhaps after […]
Night Song At Amalfi by Sara Teasdale
I asked the heaven of stars What I should give my love – It answered me with silence, Silence above. I asked the darkened sea Down where the fishers go – It answered me with silence, Silence below. Oh, I could give him weeping, Or I could give him song – But how can I […]
In the Carpenter’s Shop by Sara Teasdale
Mary sat in the corner dreaming, Dim was the room and low, While in the dusk, the saw went screaming To and fro. Jesus and Joseph toiled together, Mary was watching them, Thinking of kings in the wintry weather At Bethlehem. Mary sat in the corner thinking, Jesus had grown a man; One by one […]
Night In Arizona by Sara Teasdale
The moon is a charring ember Dying into the dark; Off in the crouching mountains Coyotes bark. The stars are heavy in heaven, Too great for the sky to hold – What if they fell and shattered The earth with gold? No lights are over the mesa, The wind is hard and wild, I stand […]
In Spring, Santa Barbara by Sara Teasdale
I HAVE been happy two weeks together, My love is coming home to me, Gold and silver is the weather And smooth as lapis is the sea. The earth has turned its brown to green After three nights of humming rain, And in the valleys peck and preen Linnets with a scarlet stain. High in […]
New Year’s Dawn – Broadway by Sara Teasdale
When the horns wear thin And the noise, like a garment outworn, Falls from the night, The tattered and shivering night, That thinks she is gay; When the patient silence comes back, And retires, And returns, Rebuffed by a ribald song, Wounded by vehement cries, Fleeing again to the stars- Ashamed of her sister the […]
In Memoriam F.O.S. by Sara Teasdale
You go a long and lovely journey, For all the stars, like burning dew, Are luminous and luring footprints Of souls adventurous as you. Oh, if you lived on earth elated, How is it now that you can run Free of the weight of flesh and faring Far past the birthplace of the sun? ————— […]
Madeira From The Sea by Sara Teasdale
Out of the delicate dream of the distance an emerald emerges Veiled in the violet folds of the air of the sea; Softly the dream grows awakening – shimmering white of a city, Splashes of crimson, the gay bougainvillea, the palms. High in the infinite blue of its heaven a quiet cloud lingers, Lost and […]
In David’s “Child’s Garden Of Verses” by Sara Teasdale
The dearest child in all the world, Should have the dearest songs, And that is why this little book To David-Boy belongs. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — the multilingual library […]
Love In Autumn by Sara Teasdale
I sought among the drifting leaves, The golden leaves that once were green, To see if Love were hiding there And peeping out between. For thro’ the silver showers of May And thro’ the summer’s heavy heat, In vain I sought his golden head And light, fast-flying feet. Perhaps when all the world is bare […]
In a Subway Station by Sara Teasdale
After a year I came again to the place; The tireless lights and the reverberation, The angry thunder of trains that burrow the ground, The hunted, hurrying people were still the same- But oh, another man beside me and not you! Another voice and other eyes in mine! And suddenly I turned and saw again […]
Less Than The Cloud To The Wind by Sara Teasdale
Less than the cloud to the wind, Less than the foam to the sea, Less than the rose to the storm, Am I to thee. More than the star to the night, More than the rain to the tree, More than heaven to earth Art thou to me. ————— The End And that’s the End […]
In A Restaurant by Sara Teasdale
The darkened street was muffled with the snow, The falling flakes had made your shoulders white, And when we found a shelter from the night Its glamor fell upon us like a blow. The clash of dishes and the viol and bow Mingled beneath the fever of the light. The heat was full of savors, […]
Interlude: Songs Out Of Sorrow by Sara Teasdale
I. Spirit’s House From naked stones of agony I will build a house for me; As a mason all alone I will raise it, stone by stone, And every stone where I have bled Will show a sign of dusky red. I have not gone the way in vain, For I have good of all […]
In A Railroad Station by Sara Teasdale
We stood in the shrill electric light, Dumb and sick in the whirling din We who had all of love to say And a single second to say it in. “Good-by!” “Good-by!”-you turned to go, I felt the train’s slow heavy start, You thought to see me cry, but oh My tears were hidden in […]