Sara Teasdale's Poetry

[Dark Muse]

I found this poem to be quite moving, there is something serenely sad within its words, and the imagery I found to be quite beautiful. It had a melonchgoly air to it, and while it seems touched with saddness, I feel something calming in it as well.

Let It Be Forgotten
By Sara Teasdale

Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten,
Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold.
Let it be forgotten forever and ever,
Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.

If anyone asks, say it was forgotten
Long and long ago,
As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall
In a long-forgotten snow.

[Currer Bell]

I cannot honestly say that I am familiar with any works by Sara Teasdale, but this poem makes me want to read more! It is sad in the sense that we know, as mortals, we shall grow old and eventually die. But there is a peace of mind and a sense that time will forgive all ills embodied in this work.

[JBI]

In my opinion, let it be forgotten.

[Equality72521]

In my opinion, let it be forgotten.

hahaha, oooh someone is punny...

[Dark Muse]

I cannot honestly say that I am familiar with any works by Sara Teasdale, but this poem makes me want to read more! It is sad in the sense that we know, as mortals, we shall grow old and eventually die. But there is a peace of mind and a sense that time will forgive all ills embodied in this work.

Yes I liked that feeling of peace that is conveyed within this one. That it is not a completely bleak view of death, but there is a touch of hope as well. I am not really familair with her and have only read a few other things by her before, but this one really struck me.

[Janine]

I found this poem to be quite moving, there is something serenely sad within its words, and the imagery I found to be quite beautiful. It had a melonchgoly air to it, and while it seems touched with saddness, I feel something calming in it as well.

Let It Be Forgotten
By Sara Teasdale

Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten,
Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold.
Let it be forgotten forever and ever,
Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.

If anyone asks, say it was forgotten
Long and long ago,
As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall
In a long-forgotten snow.

I love it and I love all the poetry of Sara Teasdale. I discovered her a number of years ago. You know recently I searched everywhere for my book and I don't think I found it yet, which makes me infinitely sad and frustrated. I used to read her poems all the time. I will have to look some up to post in here. I know some were my all-time favorities. Many are just as you described here, Dark Muse,

"It had a melonchgoly air to it, and while it seems touched with saddness, I feel something calming in it as well."

Mostly, she does write about sadness, heartbreak and yet she seemed to see the other side of grief and the hopefulness in life or the beauty in sadness. I will have to come up with some good examples for you. I know I copied some of my favorites in a handwritten blank notebook about 15 yrs ago. I know where to find this book; I keep it handy on my bookshelf. I think her poetry is something on the line of Emily Dickinson, super sensitive and very beautiful.

[downing]

Hello,Janine! Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I last posted on the forums, but this thread really caught my eye. I love Sara Teasdale's work; I discovered her last year and I read a few poems of her (they are all small lenghted, like this one) and I enjoyed very much everything I read. Oh, and here come the dreadful biographic details: did you know these things?

A common urban legend surrounds Teasdale's suicide. The legend claims that her poem "I Shall Not Care" (which features themes of abandonment, bitterness, and contemplation of death) was penned as a suicide note to a former lover. However, the poem was actually first published in her 1915 collection Rivers to the Sea, a full 18 years before her suicide.Wikipedia---Wikipedia

I Shall Not Care
When I am dead and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain-drenched hair,
Though you should lean above me broken-hearted,
I shall not care.

I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful
When rain bends down the bough;
And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted
Than you are now.
And I am posting now the first poem I have ever read written by Sara Teasdale:

Water Lilies


If you have forgotten water lilies floating
On a dark lake among mountains in the afternoon shade,
If you have forgotten their wet, sleepy fragrance,
Then you can return and not be afraid.

But if you remember, then turn away forever
To the plains and the prairies where pools are far apart,
There you will not come at dusk on closing water lilies,
And the shadow of mountains will not fall on your heart.
Don't you think it would be lovely to entitle this thread ''Sara Teasdale" and comment poems with regularity?

[Dark Muse]

I tried to change the titile but it would not let me.

But anyway, here is another poem of hers I came acorss. I really quite enjoyed this one, of course I am something of a sucker for allusions to old myths. So I liked the Paganess of this poem. I thought it had some lovely imagery, and enjoyed the sort of romaticisim of relfection back upon ages of long ago.

The Wanderer

I SAW the sunset-colored sands,
The Nile, like flowing fire between,
Where Ramses stares forth serene
And ammon's heavy temple stands.

I saw the rocks where long ago,
Above the sea that cries and breaks,
Bright Perseus with Medusa's snakes
Set free the maiden white like snow.

And many skies have covered me,
And many winds have blown me forth,
And I have loved the green, bright north,
And I have loved the cold, sweet sea.

But what to me are north and south,
And what the lire of many lands,
Since you have learned to catch my hands
And lay a kiss upon my mouth.

[downing]

Thank you so much Logos for changing the name of the thread into Sara Teasdale's poetry!



I Am Not Yours
by Sara Teasdale


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.

[thinkingsam]

... there is something serenely sad within its words...

Oh my... I just came across this thread by chance and now I must say I'm hooked. Serenely sad is really a great way to describe some of her writings.

Compensation
by Sara Teasdale

I should be glad of loneliness
And hours that go on broken wings,
A thirsty body, a tired heart
And the unchanging ache of things,
If I could make a single song
As lovely and as full of light,
As hushed and brief as a falling star
On a winter night.

from WikiSource (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Compensation_(Teasdale))

[thinkingsam]

Another lovely one:

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?

- Excerpt from Spring Night by Sara Teasdale (from WikiSource (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Spring_Night)

[downing]

Hello thinkingcities! Join the thread, I hope we'll have a good time :)


Advice to a Girl

No one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed;
Lay that on your heart,
My young angry dear;
This truth, this hard and precious stone,
Lay it on your hot cheek,
Let it hide your tear.
Hold it like a crystal
When you are alone
And gaze in the depths of the icy stone.
Long, look long and you will be blessed:
No one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed.


The Look

Strephon kissed me in the spring,
Robin in the fall,
But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all.

Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,
Robin's lost in play,
But the kiss in Colin's eyes
Haunts me night and day.

Sara Teasdale


I think these poems are so poignant and true. I believe that the ''worth possesing'' part is heartbreaking for anyone who experienced unrequited love.

[Janine]

Hi Downing; thanks for your PM alert. Hi everyone else! You have all posted poems that very familar to me; I have read her poems a zillion times; only a few are new to me here. I love them all, but favorites are a few Downing has posted "I Shall Not Care" and "The Look" and "I Am Not Yours"; I nearly know those by heart. I just went to my own file and those were a few I was thinking of posting myself. Here are some more of my favorites.

Debt

What do I owe to you
Who loved me deep and long?
You never gave my spirit wings
Or gave my heart a song.

But oh, to him I loved
Who loved me not at all,
I owe the little open gate
That led thru heaven's wall.

****************

But Not to Me

The April night is still and sweet
With flowers on every tree;
Peace comes to them on quiet feet,
But not to me.

My peace is hidden in his breast
Where I shall never be,
Love comes to-night to all the rest,
But not to me.

*************

Come

Come, when the pale moon like a petal
Floats in the pearly dusk of spring,
Come with outstretched arms to take me,
Come with lips pursed up to cling.

Come, for life is a frail moth flying
Caught in the web of the years that pass,
And soon we two,so warm and eager,
Will be as the gray stones in the grass.

*************

Enough

It is enough for me by day
To walk the same bright earth with him;
Enough that over us by night
The same great roof of stars is dim.

I have no care to bind the wind
Or set a fetter on the sea--
It is enough to feel his love
Blow by like music over me.

*************

Ebb Tide

When the long day goes by
And I do not see your face,
The old wild, restless sorrow
Steals from its hiding place.

My day is barren and broken,
Bereft of light and song,
A sea beach bleak and windy
That moans the whole day long.

To the empty beach at ebb tide,
Bare with its rocks and scars,
Come back like the sea with singing,
And light of a million stars.

************

Jewels

If I should see your eyes again,
I know how far their look would go --
Back to a morning in the park
With sapphire shadows on the snow.

Or back to oak trees in the spring
When you unloosed my hair and kissed
The head that lay against your knees
In the leaf shadow's amethyst.

And still another shining place
We would remember -- how the dun
Wild mountain held us on its crest
One diamond morning white with sun.

But I will turn my eyes from you
As women turn to put away
The jewels they have worn at night
And cannot wear in sober day.

[Dark Muse]

I really liked Ebb Tide. She has such wonderful feeling and imagery conveyed within her work. I like the sense of movement in that one. Though I have to say bleak windy days are my favorite time to go to the beach.

I was first drawn to the titile of this one.

Alchemy

I lift my heart as spring lifts up
A yellow daisy to the rain;
My heart will be a lovely cup
Altho' it holds but pain.

For I shall learn from flower and leaf
That color every drop they hold,
To change the lifeless wine of grief
To living gold.

[thinkingsam]

Hello downing and thanks for the welcome! I had my username changed to this one :) To everyone:

Brainyquote (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/sara_teasdale.html) lists this quote by Sara Teasdale: "I found more joy in sorrow than you could find in joy". Anyone know if this is from a poem she wrote? I think it's a beautiful quotation that's sometimes very true.

[Dark Muse]

Desert Pools

I love too much; I am a river
Surging with spring that seeks the sea,
I am too generous a giver,
Love will not stoop to drink of me.

His feet will turn to desert places
Shadowless, reft of rain and dew,
Where stars stare down with sharpened faces
From heavens pitilessly blue.

And there at midnight sick with faring,
He will stoop down in his desire
To slake the thirst grown past all bearing
In stagnant water keen as fire.

[Janine]

Dark Muse, you have found some I have never read before and I just love them. I agree about your assessment of Teasdales imagery and movement and mood.


I really liked Ebb Tide. She has such wonderful feeling and imagery conveyed within her work. I like the sense of movement in that one. Though I have to say bleak windy days are my favorite time to go to the beach.

I also love "Ebb Tide" and enjoy the beach on windy 'out-of-season' days...my favorite time, too, when the beach is mostly desserted.

thingingsam, I have heard that quote about sorrow before. I will check to see if it comes from a poem; I too think it is lovely and sometimes so true. I wonder if by looking into the face of sorrow we see such truth that is more desirable than happiness. I am fascinated myself with tragedies and sorrow, although I am just the opposite - I am definitely an optimist. I think Sara Teasdales work seems to turn from sorrow or sadness suddenly to a note of optimism. I think this is what draws me to her poetry so much. It is so beautiful the way she views sorrow and sadness. Her poems are not without hope either. She is similar in that way to Emily Dickinson.

[Dark Muse]

I think Sara Teasdales work seems to turn from sorrow or sadness suddenly to a note of optimism. I think this is what draws me to her poetry so much. It is so beautiful the way she views sorrow and sadness. Her poems are not without hope either.

Yes that is quite true about her work, though I am fairly new to her and have only read a few things by her, it does seem a lot of her work has the same basic theme about sorrow and hope. There is a bittersweetness to her poems. It seems she embraces the sadness within her own way.

[Dark Muse]

Of course I could not resist this one

Sappho

The twilight's inner flame grows blue and deep,
And in my Lesbos, over leagues of sea,
The temples glimmer moonwise in the trees.
Twilight has veiled the little flower face
Here on my heart, but still the night is kind
And leaves her warm sweet weight against my breast.
Am I that Sappho who would run at dusk
Along the surges creeping up the shore
When tides came in to ease the hungry beach,
And running, running, till the night was black,
Would fall forespent upon the chilly sand
And quiver with the winds from off the sea?
Ah, quietly the shingle waits the tides
Whose waves are stinging kisses, but to me
Love brought no peace, nor darkness any rest.
I crept and touched the foam with fevered hands
And cried to Love, from whom the sea is sweet,
From whom the sea is bitterer than death.
Ah, Aphrodite, if I sing no more
To thee, God's daughter, powerful as God,
It is that thou hast made my life too sweet
To hold the added sweetness of a song.
There is a quiet at the heart of love,
And I have pierced the pain and come to peace.
I hold my peace, my Cleis, on my heart;
And softer than a little wild bird's wing
Are kisses that she pours upon my mouth.
Ah, never any more when spring like fire
Will flicker in the newly opened leaves,
Shall I steal forth to seek for solitude
Beyond the lure of light Alcaeus' lyre,
Beyond the sob that stilled Erinna's voice.
Ah, never with a throat that aches with song,
Beneath the white uncaring sky of spring,
Shall I go forth to hide awhile from Love
The quiver and the crying of my heart.
Still I remember how I strove to flee
The love-note of the birds, and bowed my head
To hurry faster, but upon the ground
I saw two winged shadows side by side,
And all the world's spring passion stifled me.
Ah, Love, there is no fleeing from thy might,
No lonely place where thou hast never trod,
No desert thou hast left uncarpeted
With flowers that spring beneath thy perfect feet.
In many guises didst thou come to me;
I saw thee by the maidens while they danced,
Phaon allured me with a look of thine,
In Anactoria I knew thy grace,
I looked at Cercolas and saw thine eyes;
But never wholly, soul and body mine,
Didst thou bid any love me as I loved.
Now I have found the peace that fled from me;
Close, close, against my heart I hold my world.
Ah, Love that made my life a lyric cry,
Ah, Love that tuned my lips to lyres of thine,
I taught the world thy music, now alone
I sing for one who falls asleep to hear.

[Dark Muse]

I thought that this was just lovely

Stars

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;

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.

[Dark Muse]

"I Thought of You"

I thought of you and how you love this beauty,
And walking up the long beach all alone
I heard the waves breaking in measured thunder
As you and I once heard their monotone.

Around me were the echoing dunes, beyond me
The cold and sparkling silver of the sea --
We two will pass through death and ages lengthen
Before you hear that sound again with me.

[Dark Muse]

I Would Live in Your Love

I would live in your love as the sea-grasses live in the sea,
Borne up by each wave as it passes, drawn down by each wave that recedes;
I would empty my soul of the dreams that have gathered in me,
I would beat with your heart as it beats, I would follow your soul
as it leads.

[Dark Muse]

My Heart Is Heavy

My heart is heavy with many a song
Like ripe fruit bearing down the tree,
But I can never give you one --
My songs do not belong to me.

Yet in the evening, in the dusk
When moths go to and fro,
In the gray hour if the fruit has fallen,
Take it, no one will know.

[Dark Muse]

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.

[Janine]

Glad you have posted these, Dark Muse. Thanks. I am so miffed as to what has become of my Sara Teasdale book of poems. Glad one can find some online. I have heard and love the "I Would Live in Your Love" and the last one.

[Dark Muse]

I belong to a couple of online poetry newsletters where I get poems e-mailed to me daily, and now and then her work will pop up as one of the poems that are sent to me and before that I had not acutally heard of her, but I have grown to rather enjoy her work.

[Dark Muse]

Let It Be Forgotten

Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten,
Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold.
Let it be forgotten forever and ever,
Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.

If anyone asks, say it was forgotten
Long and long ago,
As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall
In a long-forgotten snow.

[Dark Muse]

Stars

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;

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

[Dark Muse]

I could not resist this one, and content wise (as I do not think it is necessarily the most well written of her poems I have read) but in the sentiment she expresses, it is a personal favorite, because it reflects my own thoughts and feelings upon the subject.

There Will Come a Soft Rain

There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

[YesNo]

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

I enjoyed reading this thread of Sara Teasdale's poems. I'm going to have to look for more of her writing. The poem you most recently posted, Dark Muse, is very nice.

I am also surprised to realize that "dawn" and "gone" actually rhyme, but they do, at least the way I pronounce them.

[jmalmin]

I rushed to post a reply. Excited even, to say this...

This poem is a test. And to pass the test you should feel at the end of reading it...the feeling of...


comfort.

[Dark Muse]

As a lover of the night sky, I particularly enjoyed this poem:

Stars

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;

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.