Selected Poems of Sara Teasdale
Date: 0101-01-01 00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Year 3; Poetry

Selected Poems
of

Sara Teasdale

1884-1933

1.
The Love That Goes A-begging

(from Sonnets to Duse, 1907)

Oh Loves there are that enter in,

And Loves there are that wait,

And Loves that sit a-weeping

Whose joy will come too late.

For some there be that ope their doors,

And some there be that close,

And Love must go a-begging,

But whither, no one knows.

2.
Wishes

(from Sonnets to Duse, 1907)

I wish for such a lot of things

That never will come true—

And yet I want them all so much

I think they might, don’t you?

I want a little kitty-cat

That’s soft and tame and sweet,

And every day I watch and hope

I’ll find one in the street.

But nursie says, “Come, walk along,

Don’t stand and stare like that”—

I’m only looking hard and hard

To try to find my cat.

And then I want a blue balloon

That tries to fly away,

I thought if I wished hard enough

That it would come some day.

One time when I was in the park

I knew that it would be

Beside the big old clock at home

A-waiting there for me—

And soon as we got home again,

I hurried thro’ the hall,

And looked beside the big old clock—

It wasn’t there at all.

I think I’ll never wish again—

But then, what shall I do?

The wishes are a lot of fun

Altho’ they don’t come true.

3.
Dusk in Autumn

(from Sonnets to Duse, 1907)

The moon is like a scimitar,

A little silver scimitar,

A-drifting down the sky.

And near beside it is a star,

A timid twinkling golden star,

That watches like an eye.

And thro’ the nursery window-pane

The witches have a fire again,

Just like the ones we make,—

And now I know they’re having tea,

I wish they’d give a cup to me,

With witches’ currant cake.

4.
Dream Song

(from Sonnets to Duse, 1907)

I plucked a snow-drop in the spring,

And in my hand too closely pressed;

The warmth had hurt the tender thing,

I grieved to see it withering.

I gave my love a poppy red,

And laid it on her snow-cold breast;

But poppies need a warmer bed,

We wept to find the flower was dead.

5.
Faults

(from Sonnets to Duse, 1907)

They came to tell your faults to me,

They named them over one by one,

I laughed aloud when they were done;

I knew them all so well before,—

Oh they were blind, too blind to see

Your faults had made me love you more.

6.
Snow Song

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

Fairy snow, fairy snow,

Blowing, blowing everywhere,

Would that I

Too, could fly

Lightly, lightly through the air.

Like a wee, crystal star

I should drift, I should blow

Near, more near,

To my dear

Where he comes through the snow.

I should fly to my love

Like a flake in the storm,

I should die,

I should die,

On his lips that are warm.

7.
November

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

The world is tired, the year is old,

The little leaves are glad to die,

The wind goes shivering with cold

Among the rushes dry.

8.
A Winter Night

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

My window-pane is starred with frost,

The world is bitter cold to-night,

The moon is cruel and the wind

Is like a two-edged sword to smite.

God pity all the homeless ones,

The beggars pacing to and fro.

God pity all the poor to-night

Who walk the lamp-lit streets of snow.

My room is like a bit of June,

Warm and close-curtained fold on fold,

But somewhere, like a homeless child,

My heart is crying in the cold.

9.
Dawn

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

The greenish sky glows up in misty reds,

The purple shadows turn to brick and stone,

The dreams wear thin, men turn upon their beds,

And hear the milk-cart jangle by alone.

10.
Dusk

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

The city’s street, a roaring blackened stream

Walled in by granite, thro’ whose thousand eyes

A thousand yellow lights begin to gleam,

And over all the pale untroubled skies.

11.
Rain at Night

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

The street-lamps shine in a yellow line

Down the splashy, gleaming street,

And the rain is heard now loud now blurred

By the tread of homing feet.

12.
A Ballad of Two Knights

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

Two knights rode forth at early dawn

A-seeking maids to wed,

Said one, “My lady must be fair,

With gold hair on her head.”

Then spake the other knight-at-arms:

“I care not for her face,

But she I love must be a dove

For purity and grace.”

And each knight blew upon his horn

And went his separate way,

And each knight found a lady-love

Before the fall of day.

But she was brown who should have had

The shining yellow hair—

I ween the knights forgot their words

Or else they ceased to care.

For he who wanted purity

Brought home a wanton wild,

And when each saw the other knight

I ween that each knight smiled.

13.
The Faery Forest

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

The faery forest glimmered

Beneath an ivory moon,

The silver grasses shimmered

Against a faery tune.

Beneath the silken silence

The crystal branches slept,

And dreaming thro’ the dew-fall

The cold white blossoms wept.

14.
A Minuet of Mozart’s

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

Across the dimly lighted room

The violin drew wefts of sound,

Airily they wove and wound

And glimmered gold against the gloom.

I watched the music turn to light,

But at the pausing of the bow,

The web was broken and the glow

Was drowned within the wave of night.

15.
Twilight

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

Dreamily over the roofs

The cold spring rain is falling,

Out in the lonely tree

A bird is calling, calling.

Slowly over the earth

The wings of night are falling;

My heart like the bird in the tree

Is calling, calling, calling.

16.
Grandfather’s Love

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

They said he sent his love to me,

They wouldn’t put it in my hand,

And when I asked them where it was

They said I couldn’t understand.

I thought they must have hidden it,

I hunted for it all the day,

And when I told them so at night

They smiled and turned their heads away.

They say that love is something kind,

That I can never see or touch.

I wish he’d sent me something else,

I like his cough-drops twice as much.

17.
The Kind Moon

(from Helen of Troy And Other Poems, 1911)

I think the moon is very kind

To take such trouble just for me.

He came along with me from home

To keep me company.

He went as fast as I could run;

I wonder how he crossed the sky?

I’m sure he hasn’t legs and feet

Or any wings to fly.

Yet here he is above their roof;

Perhaps he thinks it isn’t right

For me to go so far alone,

Tho’ mother said I might.

18.
Spring Night

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

The park is filled with night and fog,

The veils are drawn about the world,

The drowsy lights along the paths

Are dim and pearled.

Gold and gleaming the empty streets,

Gold and gleaming the misty lake,

The mirrored lights like sunken swords,

Glimmer and shake.

Oh, is it not enough to be

Here with this beauty over me?

My throat should ache with praise, and I

Should kneel in joy beneath the sky.

Oh, beauty are you not enough?

Why am I crying after love

With youth, a singing voice and eyes

To take earth’s wonder with surprise?

Why have I put off my pride,

Why am I unsatisfied,

I for whom the pensive night

Binds her cloudy hair with light,

I for whom all beauty burns

Like incense in a million urns?

Oh, beauty, are you not enough?

Why am I crying after love?

19.
April

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

The roofs are shining from the rain,

The sparrows twitter as they fly,

And with a windy April grace

The little clouds go by.

Yet the back yards are bare and brown

With only one unchanging tree-

I could not be so sure of Spring

Save that it sings in me.

20.
A Winter Blue Jay

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

Crisply the bright snow whispered,

Crunching beneath our feet;

Behind us as we walked along the parkway,

Our shadows danced,

Fantastic shapes in vivid blue.

Across the lake the skaters

Flew to and fro,

With sharp turns weaving

A frail invisible net.

In ecstasy the earth

Drank the silver sunlight;

In ecstasy the skaters

Drank the wine of speed;

In ecstasy we laughed

Drinking the wine of love.

Had not the music of our joy

Sounded its highest note?

But no,

For suddenly, with lifted eyes you said,

“Oh look!”

There, on the black bough of a snow flecked maple,

Fearless and gay as our love,

A bluejay cocked his crest!

Oh who can tell the range of joy

Or set the bounds of beauty?

21.
In the Train

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

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.

22.
Morning

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

I went out on an April morning

All alone, for my heart was high,

I was a child of the shining meadow,

I was a sister of the sky.

There in the windy flood of morning

Longing lifted its weight from me,

Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering,

Swept as a sea-bird out to sea.

23.
May Night

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

The spring is fresh and fearless

And every leaf is new,

The world is brimmed with moonlight,

The lilac brimmed with dew.

Here in the moving shadows

I catch my breath and sing

My heart is fresh and fearless

And over-brimmed with spring.

24.
Dusk in June

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

Evening, and all the birds

In a chorus of shimmering sound

Are easing their hearts of joy

For miles around.

The air is blue and sweet,

The few first stars are white,—

Oh let me like the birds

Sing before night.

25.
The Sea Wind

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

I am a pool in a peaceful place,

I greet the great sky face to face,

I know the stars and the stately moon

And the wind that runs with rippling shoon—

But why does it always bring to me

The far-off, beautiful sound of the sea?

The marsh-grass weaves me a wall of green,

But the wind comes whispering in between,

In the dead of night when the sky is deep

The wind comes waking me out of sleep—

Why does it always bring to me

The far-off, terrible call of the sea?

26.
The Cloud

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

I am a cloud in the heaven’s height,

The stars are lit for my delight,

Tireless and changeful, swift and free,

I cast my shadow on hill and sea

But why do the pines on the mountain’s crest

Call to me always, “Rest, rest”?

I throw my mantle over the moon

And I blind the sun on his throne at noon,

Nothing can tame me, nothing can bind,

I am a child of the heartless wind

But oh the pines on the mountain’s crest

Whispering always, “Rest, rest.”

27.
The Star

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

A white star born in the evening glow

Looked to the round green world below,

And saw a pool in a wooded place

That held like a jewel her mirrored face.

She said to the pool: “Oh, wondrous deep,

I love you, I give you my light to keep.

Oh, more profound than the moving sea

That never has shown myself to me!

Oh, fathomless as the sky is far,

Hold forever your tremulous star!”

But out of the woods as night grew cool

A brown pig came to the little pool;

It grunted and splashed and waded in

And the deepest place but reached its chin.

The water gurgled with tender glee

And the mud churned up in it turbidly.

The star grew pale and hid her face

In a bit of floating cloud like lace.

28.
In the Carpenter’s Shop

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

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 her hopes were sinking

As the years ran.

Jesus and Joseph toiled together,

Mary’s thoughts were far

Angels sang in the wintry weather

Under a star.

Mary sat in the corner weeping,

Bitter and hot her tears

Little faith were the angels keeping

All the years.

29.
Swallow Flight

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

I love my hour of wind and light,

I love men’s faces and their eyes,

I love my spirit’s veering flight

Like swallows under evening skies.

30.
Thoughts

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

When I can make my thoughts come forth

To walk like ladies up and down,

Each one puts on before the glass

Her most becoming hat and gown.

But oh, the shy and eager thoughts

That hide and will not get them dressed,

Why is it that they always seem

So much more lovely than the rest?

31.
To Dick on His Sixth Birthday

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

Tho’ I am very old and wise,

And you are neither wise nor old,

When I look far into your eyes,

I know things I was never told:

I know how flame must strain and fret

Prisoned in a mortal net;

How joy with over-eager wings,

Bruises the small heart where he sings;

How too much life, like too much gold,

Is sometimes very hard to hold ....

All that is talking—I know

This much is true, six years ago

An angel living near the moon

Walked thru the sky and sang a tune

Plucking stars to make his crown—

And suddenly two stars fell down,

Two falling arrows made of light.

Six years ago this very night

I saw them fall and wondered why

The angel dropped them from the sky—

But when I saw your eyes I knew

The angel sent the stars to you.

32.
To Rose

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

Rose, when I remember you,

Little lady, scarcely two,

I am suddenly aware

Of the angels in the air.

All your softly gracious ways

Make an island in my days

Where my thoughts fly back to be

Sheltered from too strong a sea.

All your luminous delight

Shines before me in the night

When I grope for sleep and find

Only shadows in my mind.

Rose, when I remember you,

White and glowing, pink and new,

With so swift a sense of fun

Altho’ life has just begun;

With so sure a pride of place

In your very infant face,

I should like to make a prayer

To the angels in the air:

“If an angel ever brings

Me a baby in her wings,

Please be certain that it grows

Very, very much like Rose.”

33.
Night in Arizona

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

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 at the darkened window

And cry like a child.

34.
Vignettes Overseas: Stresa

(from Rivers to the Sea, 1915)

The moon grows out of the hills

A yellow flower,

The lake is a dreamy bride

Who waits her hour.

Beauty has filled my heart,

It can hold no more,

It is full, as the lake is full,

From shore to shore.

35.
Barter

(from Love Songs, 1917)

Life has loveliness to sell

All beautiful and splendid things,

Blue waves whitened on a cliff,

Soaring fire that sways and sings,

And children’s faces looking up

Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,

Music like a curve of gold,

Scent of pine trees in the rain,

Eyes that love you, arms that hold,

And for your spirit’s still delight,

Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,

Buy it and never count the cost;

For one white singing hour of peace

Count many a year of strife well lost,

And for a breath of ecstasy

Give all you have been, or could be.

36.
Stars

(from Flame and Shadow, 1920)

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 a misty red;

Myriads with beating

Hearts of fire

That aeons

Cannot vex or tire;

Up the dome of heaven

Like a great hill,

I watch them marching

Stately and still,

And I know that I

Am honored to be

Witness

Of so much majesty.

37.
The Coin

(from Flame and Shadow, 1920)

Into my heart’s treasury

I slipped a coin

That time cannot take

Nor a thief purloin,—

Oh, better than the minting

Of a gold-crowned king

Is the safe-kept memory

Of a lovely thing.

38.
May Day

(from Flame and Shadow, 1920)

A delicate fabric of bird song

Floats in the air,

The smell of wet wild earth

Is everywhere.

Red small leaves of the maple

Are clenched like a hand,

Like girls at their first communion

The pear trees stand.

Oh I must pass nothing by

Without loving it much,

The raindrop try with my lips,

The grass with my touch;

For how can I be sure

I shall see again

The world on the first of May

Shining after the rain?

39.
Thoughts

(from Flame and Shadow, 1920)

When I am all alone

Envy me most,

Then my thoughts flutter round me

In a glimmering host;

Some dressed in silver,

Some dressed in white,

Each like a taper

Blossoming light;

Most of them merry,

Some of them grave,

Each of them lithe

As willows that wave;

Some bearing violets,

Some bearing bay,

One with a burning rose

Hidden away—

When I am all alone

Envy me then,

For I have better friends

Than women and men.

Table of Contents

- 1. The Love That Goes A-begging
- 2. Wishes
- 3. Dusk in Autumn
- 4. Dream Song
- 5. Faults
- 6. Snow Song
- 7. November
- 8. A Winter Night
- 9. Dawn
- 10. Dusk
- 11. Rain at Night
- 12. A Ballad of Two Knights
- 13. The Faery Forest
- 14. A Minuet of Mozart’s
- 15. Twilight
- 16. Grandfather’s Love
- 17. The Kind Moon
- 18. Spring Night
- 19. April
- 20. A Winter Blue Jay
- 21. In the Train
- 22. Morning
- 23. May Night
- 24. Dusk in June
- 25. The Sea Wind
- 26. The Cloud
- 27. The Star
- 28. In the Carpenter’s Shop
- 29. Swallow Flight
- 30. Thoughts
- 31. To Dick on His Sixth Birthday
- 32. To Rose
- 33. Night in Arizona
- 34. Vignettes Overseas: Stresa
- 35. Barter
- 36. Stars
- 37. The Coin
- 38. May Day
- 39. Thoughts