Poems by Sara Teasdale
also known as: Sarah Trevor Teasdale
Sarah Teasdale
Sorted by title, showing title and first line
Two knights rode forth at early dawn
Out of the noise of tired people working,
Oh, there are eyes that he can see,
Her voice is like clear water
A little while when I am gone
Oh if I were the velvet rose
Across the dimly lighted room
There! See the line of lights,
Until I lose my soul and lie
The princess has her lovers,
Oh would I were the roses, that lie against her hands,
Crisply the bright snow whispered,
My window-pane is starred with frost,
No one worth possessing
Now while my lips are living
There is no magic any more,
Oh, I have sown my love so wide
I lift my heart as spring lifts up
I am alone, in spite of love,
The wide, bright temple of the world I found,
The roofs are shining from the rain,
Willow, in your April gown
Arcturus brings the spring back
Now at last I have come to see what life is,
Love said, "Wake still and think of me,"
In the pull of the wind I stand, lonely,
The sun was gone, and the moon was coming
Life has loveliness to sell,
Send out the singers,let the room be still;
Oh, because you never tried
At six o’clock of an autumn dusk
How many million Aprils came
This is the quiet hour; the theaters
I have come to bury Love
The April night is still and sweet
Beside an ebbing northern sea
Buildings above the leafless trees
How many times we must have met
Remember me as I was then;
Child, child, love while you can
The kings they came from out the south,
Come, when the pale moon like a petal
I should be glad of loneliness
Why did you bring me here?
I wear a crown invisible and clear,
In Warsaw in Poland
God let me listen to your voice,
What do I owe to you
So long as my spirit still
Deep in the night the cry of a swallow,
I love too much; I am a river
As dew leaves the cobweb lightly
Did you never know, long ago, how much you loved me,
Every night I lie awake
I have come the selfsame path
My soul lives in my body's house,
I plucked a snow-drop in the spring,
I gave my life to another lover,
My forefathers gave me
The moon is like a scimitar,
Evening, and all the birds
A half-hour more and you will lean
When I went to look at what had long been hidden,
When the long day goes by
Infinite gentleness, infinite irony
Supper comes at five o’clock,
I said, "My youth is gone
It is enough for me by day
Serene descent, as a red leaf's descending
They sent you in to say farewell to me,
Blue dust of evening over my city,
People that I meet and pass
They came to tell your faults to me,
They came to tell your faults to me,
I am afraid, oh I am so afraid!
They spoke of him I love
I stood beside a hill
The bells ring over the Anno,
(February 23, 1821)
"Four winds blowing through the sky,
The northern woods are delicately sweet,
All beauty calls you to me, and you seem,
Vivid with love, eager for greater beauty
(To the maiden with the hidden face in Abbey’s painting)
I gave my first love laughter,
For W. P.
They said he sent his love to me,
It was April when you came
A fog drifts in, the heavy laden
I was a queen, and I have lost my crown;
Wild flight on flight against the fading dawn
I hid the love within my heart,
You took my empty dreams
I am not yours, not lost in you,
I have loved hours at sea, gray cities,
I know the stars by their names,
When April bends above me
There never was a mood of mine,
When I am dead and over me bright April
I thought of you and how you love this beauty,
I would live in your love as the sea-grasses live in the sea,
Perhaps if Death is kind, and there can be returning,
If I must go to heaven's end
So soon my body will have gone
Hibiscus flowers are cups of fire,
The world is resting without sound or motion,
We stood in the shrill electric light,
The darkened street was muffled with the snow,
After a year I came again to the place;
The dearest child in all the world,
You go a long and lovely journey,
I have been happy two weeks together,
Mary sat in the corner dreaming,
All that could never be said,
Within the tiny Pantheon
Fields beneath a quilt of snow
Lyric night of the lingering Indian summer,
I. Spirit's House
It is not a word spoken,
It is not a word spoken,
It will not change now
If I should see your eyes again,
If I should see your eyes again,
I am wild, I will sing to the trees,
Oh Earth, you are too dear to-night,
One by one, like leaves from a tree,
Less than the cloud to the wind,
Unless I learn to ask no help
Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten,
When we come home at night and close the door,
Like barley bending
I am not sorry for my soul
Oh, I could let the world go by,
Shall we, too, rise forgetful from our sleep,
I sought among the drifting leaves,
Brown-thrush singing all day long
I have remembered beauty in the night,
I am free of love as a bird flying south in the autumn,
O lovely chance, what can I do
Out of the delicate dream of the distance an emerald emerges
The sparrows wake beneath the convent eaves;
The wind is tossing the lilacs,
A delicate fabric of bird song
The spring is fresh and fearless
I said, "I have shut my heart
In the silver light after a storm,
I heard a cry in the night,
I am the still rain falling,
It will not hurt me when I am old,
I went out on an April morning
A diamond of a morning
My heart is heavy with many a song
Bowed as an elm under the weight of its beauty,
In my heart the old love
When the horns wear thin
The moon is a charring ember
I asked the heaven of stars
We will never walk again
The world is tired, the year is old,
Oh day of fire and sun,
Oh you are coming, coming, coming,
As the waves of perfume, heliotrope, rose,
Here in the teeth of this triumphant wind
He trod the earth but yesterday,
If there is any life when death is over,
(A play in one act.)
Only in sleep I see their faces,
Out of the window a sea of green trees
When I talk with other men
I
Waves are the sea’s white daughters,
The city’s all a-shining
Peace flows into me
Pierrot stands in the garden
Lady, light in the east hangs low,
They never saw my lover’s face,
Places I love come back to me like music,
As kings who see their little life-day pass,
In the last year I have learned,
Redbirds, redbirds,
From my spirit’s gray defeat,
I have no riches but my thoughts,
Was that his step that sounded on the stair?
But what of her whose heart is troubled by it,
Bring me the roses white and red,
If he could know my songs are all for him,
Midnight, and in the darkness not a sound,
Oh Litis, little slave, why will you sleep?
The twilight's inner flame grows blue and deep,
Across the dimly lighted room
A thousand miles beyond this sun-steeped wall
Lyric night of the lingering Indian Summer,
(To Eleonora Duse)
Since there is no escape, since at the end
If I could have your arms tonight,
Fairy snow, fairy snow,
"She can't be unhappy," you said,
When beauty grows too great to bear
You bound strong sandals on my feet,
Like some rare queen of old romance
Let it be forgotten as a flower is forgotten,
My heart cried like a beaten child
I saw a ship sail forth at evening time;
When you were born, beloved, was your soul
I knew you thought of me all night,
I feel the spring far off, far off,
The park is filled with night and fog,
I thought I had forgotten,
Will it always be like this until I am dead,
Alone in the night
In the wild soft summer darkness
The panther wind
Hushed in the smoky haze of summer sunset,
I love my hour of wind and light,
Night is over the park, and a few brave stars
I said, “I will take my life
When I go back to earth
The birds are all a-building,
My soul is a dark ploughed field
The summer dawn came over-soon,
I am a cloud in the heaven’s height,
Into my heart’s treasury
I shall gather myself into my self again,
The dreams of my heart and my mind pass,
The faery forest glimmered
All through the deep blue night
Oh in the deep blue night
My heart is a garden tired with autumn,
I went back to the clanging city,
What can I give you, my lord, my lover,
You bound strong sandals on my feet,
My heart is but a little house
I built a little House of Dreams,
Here in the velvet stillness
I came to the crowded Inn of Earth,
I think the moon is very kind
I hoped that he would love me,
If I can bear your love like a lamp before me,
He said:
The lightning spun your garment for the night
I must have passed the crest a while ago
Strephon kissed me in the spring,
Oh Loves there are that enter in,
I'm happy, I'm happy,
We walked together in the dusk
She is too kind, I think, for mortal things,
Your eyes drink of me,
I made you many and many a song,
Day, you have bruised and beaten me,
The days remember and the nights remember
I saw her in a Broadway car,
Hope went by and Peace went by
My answered prayer came up to me,
The Princess sings:
He has come, he is here,
I came from the sunny valleys
Beneath my chamber window
If I were a bee and you were a rose,
If I could keep my innermost Me
I am a pool in a peaceful place,
There is no lord within my heart,
(In Memory of J. W. T. Jr.)
My heart has grown rich with the passing of years,
I sang a song at dusking time
I made a hundred little songs
A white star born in the evening glow
I thought of you when I was wakened
When they see my songs
Oh to be free of myself,
I sang my songs for the rest,
Sun-swept beaches with a light wind blowing
Death went up the hall
Atoms as old as stars,
I saw the sunset-colored sands,
Love entered in my heart one day,
A wind is blowing over my soul,
Steely stars and moon of brass,
I cannot die, who drank delight
To-night I close my eyes and see
There will come soft rains and the
When I am all alone
Love in my heart was a fresh tide flowing
We held the book together timidly,
Was ever any face like this before,
Oh flower-sweet face and bended flower-like head!
Carved in the silence by the hand of Pain,
Francesca's life that was a limpid flame
The winds have grown articulate in thee,
(The daughter of Sappho)
Tho' I am very old and wise,
I have remembered beauty in the night,
Oh beauty that is filled so full of tears,
Your beauty lives in mystic melodies,
Were you a Greek when all the world was young,
Was Time not harsh to you, or was he kind,
Lo, I am happy, for my eyes have seen
When first I saw you, felt you take my hand,
I heard a cry in the night,
Rose, when I remember you,
Impassioned singer of the happy time.
Your lines that linger for us down the years,
To-night I close my eyes and see
The moon is a curving flower of gold,
Before a lonely shrine
Dreamily over the roofs
Your mind and mine are such great lovers they
I understood the rest too well,
With the man I love who loves me not,
I. Off Gilbatrar
The fountain shivers lightly in the rain,
The beast to the beast is calling,
If you have forgotten water lilies floating
What do I care, in the dreams and the languor of spring,
I
When Love was born I think he lay
Wind and hail and veering rain,
Heaven-invading hills are drowned
In the spring I asked the daisies
I watch the great clear twilight
I went out at night alone;
When I have ceased to break my wings
I wish for such a lot of things
I
Gray pilgrim, you have journeyed far,