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Sara Teasdale (1884 – 1933)


American poet.
Sara Teasdale
Sun-swept beaches with a light wind blowing
From the immense blue circle of the sea,
And the soft thunder where long waves whiten —
These were the same for Sappho as for me.
Teasdale quotes
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.
Teasdale
Oh, beauty, are you not enough?
Why am I crying after love?




Teasdale Sara quotes
And as I played, a child came thro' the gate,
A boy who looked at me without a word,
As tho' he saw stretch far behind my head
Long lines of radiant angels, row on row.
That day we spoke a little, timidly,
And after that I never heard the voice
That sang so many songs for love of me.
Teasdale Sara
I have grown weary of the winds of heaven.
I will not be a reed to hold the sound
Of whatsoever breath the gods may blow,
Turning my torment into music for them.
They gave me life; the gift was bountiful,
I lived with the swift singing strength of fire,
Seeking for beauty as a flame for fuel —
Beauty in all things and in every hour.
The gods have given life — I gave them song;
The debt is paid and now I turn to go.
Sara Teasdale quotes
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.
Sara Teasdale
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?
Teasdale Sara quotes
Perhaps when all the world is bare
      And cruel winter holds the land,
The Love that finds no place to hide
      Will run and catch my hand.
Teasdale
I may not speak till Eros' torch is dim,
The god is bitter and will have it so.
Teasdale Sara
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.
Sara Teasdale
This is the funeral pyre and Troy is dead
That sparkled so the day I saw it first,
And darkened slowly after. I am she
Who loves all beauty — yet I wither it.




Sara Teasdale quotes
There is no sign of leaf or bud,
      A hush is over everything —
Silent as women wait for love,
      The world is waiting for the spring.
Sara Teasdale
Make songs for Death as you would sing to Love —
But you will not assuage him. He alone
Of all the gods will take no gifts from men.
Teasdale quotes
With the man I love who loves me not
      I walked in the street-lamps' flare —
But oh, the girls who can ask for love
      In the lights of Union Square.
Teasdale Sara
When I am dead and over me bright April
      Shakes out her rain-drenched hair,
Tho' you should lean above me broken-hearted,
      I shall not care.
Teasdale Sara quotes
My dreams are over, I have ceased to cry
Against the fate that made men love my mouth
And left their spirits all too deaf to hear
The little songs that echoed through my soul.
I have no anger now. The dreams are done;
Yet since the Greeks and Trojans would not see
Aught but my body's fairness, till the end,
In all the islands set in all the seas,
And all the lands that lie beneath the sun,
Till light turn darkness, and till time shall sleep,
Men's lives shall waste with longing after me,
For I shall be the sum of their desire,
The whole of beauty, never seen again.
Sara Teasdale
All this grows bitter that was once so sweet,
And many mouths must drain the dregs of it.
But none will pity me, nor pity him
Whom Love so lashed, and with such cruel thongs.
Sara Teasdale quotes
If I can find out God, then I shall find Him,
If none can find Him, then I shall sleep soundly,
Knowing how well on earth your love sufficed me,
          A lamp in darkness.
Sara Teasdale
It will not hurt me when I am old,
      A running tide where moonlight burned
           Will not sting me like silver snakes;
The years will make me sad and cold,
      It is the happy heart that breaks.
Teasdale Sara
Oh Earth, you gave me all I have,
      I love you, I love you, — oh what have I
That I can give you in return —
      Except my body after I die?


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