Love Songs (1917) – Sara Teasdale
Part 1: Love Songs (1917) – Sara Teasdale
I. TO E.
(a) I have remembered beauty in the night; Against black silences I waked to see A shower of sunlight over Italy And green Ravello dreaming on her height; I have remembered music in the dark, The clean swift brightness of a fugue of Bach's, And resuming water slipping on the rocks When once in English woods I heard a lark.
(b) But all remembered beauty is no more Than a vague prelude to the thought of you— You are the rarest soul I ever knew, Lover of beauty, knightliest and best; My thoughts seek you as waves that seek the shore, And when I think of you, I am at rest.
1. BARTER
(a) 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.
(b) 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.
(c) 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.
2. CHILD, CHILD
(a) Child, child, love while you can The voice and the eyes and the soul of a man; Never fear though it break your heart— Out of the wreckage rise and start; Only love proudly and gladly and well, Though love be heaven or love be hell.
(b) Child, child, love while you may, For life is short as a happy day; Never fear the deadly sins are seven, Only by love is life made real; Love, for the deadly sins are seven, Only through love will you enter heaven.
3. THE FOUNTAIN
(a) All through the deep blue night The fountain sang alone, It sang to the drowsy heart Of the satyr carved in stone.
(b) The fountain sang and sang, But the satyr never stirred— Only the great white moon In the empty heaven heard.
(c) The fountain sang and sang While on the marble rim The white breasted birds slept And their dreams were strange and dim.
(d) Bright dew was on the grass, And on the ivory, dew, The dreamy milk-white birds Were all a-glisten, too.
(e) The fountain sang and sang, The things one cannot tell; The dreaming peaks stirred And the gleaming dew-drops fell.
4. TIDES
(a) Love in my heart was a fresh tide flowing Where the starlike sea gulls soar; The sun was keen and the foam was blowing High on the rocky shore.
(b) But now in the dusk the tide is tripping, Lower the sea gulls soar, And the waves that rose in resistless yearning Are broken forevermore.
5. THE LOOK
(a) Strephon kissed me in the spring, Robin in the fall, But Colin only looked at me And never kissed at all.
(b) Strephon's kiss was lost in jest, Robin's lost in play, But the kiss in Colin's eyes Haunts me night and day.
6. THE KISS
(a) Before you kissed me only winds of heaven Had kissed me, and the tenderness of rain— Now you have come, how can I care for kisses Like theirs again?
(b) I sought the sea, she sent her winds to meet me, They surged about me singing of the south— I turned my head away to keep still holy Your kiss upon my mouth.
(c) And swift sweet rains of shining April weather Found not my lips where living kisses are; I bowed my head lest they put out my glory As rain puts out a star.
(d) I am my love's and he is mine forever, Sealed with a seal and safe forevermore— Think you that I could let a beggar enter Where a king stood before?
7. SWANS
(a) Night is over the park, and a few brave stars Look on the lights that link it with chains of gold, The lake bears up their reflection in broken bars That seem too heavy for tremulous water to hold.
(b) We watch the stars that step in a shadowy place, And now and again one wakes and up-lifts its head; How still you are—your gaze is on my face— We watch the swans and never a word is said.
Part 2: Rivers to the Sea (1915) – Sara Teasdale
1. SPRING NIGHT
(a) 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.
(b) Gold and gleaming the empty streets, Gold and gleaming the misty lake, The mirrored lights like sunken swords, Glimmer and shake.
(c) 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. O, 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 dusky hair with light,— I, for whom all beauty burns Like incense in a million urns? O beauty, are you not enough? Why am I crying after love?
2. THE FLIGHT
(a) Look back with longing eyes and know that I will follow, Lift me up in your love as a light wind lifts a swallow, Let our flight be far in sun or flowing rain— But what if I heard my first love calling me again?
(b) Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam, Take me far away to the hills that hide your home; Peace shall thatch the roof and love shall latch the door— But what if I heard my first love calling me once more?
3. NEW LOVE AND OLD
(a) In my heart the old love Struggled with the new; It was ghostly waking All night through.
(b) Dear things, kind things, That my old love said, Ranged themselves reproachfully Round my bed.
(c) But I could not heed them, For I seemed to see The eyes of my new love Fixed on me.
(d) Old love, old love, How can I be true? Shall I be faithless to myself Or to you?
10. PEACE
(a) Peace flows into me As the tide to the pool by the shore; It is mine forevermore, It ebbs not back like the sea.
(b) I am the pool of blue That watches the vivid sky; My hopes were heaven-high, They are all fulfilled in you.
(c) I am the pool of gold When sunset burns and dies,— You are my deepening skies, Give me your stars to hold.
11. APRIL
(a) The roofs are shining from the rain, The sparrows twitter as they fly, And with a windy April grace The little clouds go by.
(b) Yet the back-yards are bare and brown With only one unchanging tree— I could not be sure of Spring Save that it sings in me.
12. COME
(a) Come, when the pale moon like a petal Floats in the pearly dusk of spring, Come with arms outstretched to take me, Come with lips pursed up to cling.
(b) 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.
13. MOODS
(a) I am the still rain falling, Too tired for singing mirth— Oh, be the green fields calling, Oh, be for me the earth!
(b) I am the brown bird pining To leave the nest and fly— Oh, be the fresh clouds shining, Oh, be for me the sky!
7. THE OLD MAID
(a) I saw her in a Broadway car, The woman I might grow to be; I felt my lower look at her And then turn suddenly to me.
(b) Her hair was dull and drew no light And yet its color was as mine; Her eyes were strangely like my eyes Tho' love had never made them shine.
(c) Her body was a thing grown thin, Hungry for love that never came; Her soul was frozen in the dark Unwarmed forever by love's flame.
8. AT NIGHT
(a) We are apart; the city grows quiet between us, She hushes herself, for midnight makes heavy her eyes, The tangle of traffic is ended, the cars are empty, Five streets divide us, and on them the moonlight lies.
(b) Oh are you asleep, or lying awake, my lover, Open your dreams to my love and your heart to my words, I send you my thoughts—the air between us is laden, My thoughts fly in at your window, a flock of wild birds.
9. THE YEARS
(a) To-night I close my eyes and see A strange procession passing me— The years before I saw your face Go by me with a wistful grace; They pass, the sensitive, shy years, As one who strives to dance, half blind with tears.
(b) The years went by and never knew That each one brought me nearer you; Their path was narrow and a part And yet it led me to your heart— Oh, sensitive, shy years, oh, lonely, That strove to sing with voices drowned in tears.
Part 3: The Lost Son – Theodore Roethke
2. THE LONG ALLEY
(1) (a) A river glides out of the grass. A river or a serpent. A fish floats belly upward, Sliding through the white current, Slowly turning, Slowly.
(b) The dark flows on itself. A dead mouth sings under an old tree. The ear hears only in low places. Remember an old sound. Remember.
(c) This slag runs slow. What bleeds when metal breaks? Flesh, you offered this metal. How long need the bones endure? Are those horns on top of the hill? Yesterday has a long look.
(d) Loo, loo, said the sulphurous water, There's no filth on the plateau of cinders. This smoke's from the glory of God.
(e) Can you name it? I can't name it. Let's not hurry. The dead don't hurry. Who else breathes here? What does the grave say? My gates are all caves.
(2) (a) The field's far away. Lord, what do you require? The soul resides in the horse barn. Believe me, there's no one else, kitten-limp sister.
3. THE CYCLE
(a) Dark water, dark water, the sea-gull’s cry,
The wind’s low moan, the dark, low sky;
The salt spray on the window-pane,
The long, slow wash of the falling rain.
(b) The dark, low sky, the sea-gull’s cry,
The wind’s low moan, the dark water,
The long, slow wash of the falling rain,
The salt spray on the window-pane.
4. A LIGHT IN THE AIR
(a) The sun is a light in the air,
The moon is a light in the air,
The stars are lights in the air,
And you are a light in the air.
(b) The sun is a light in the air,
The moon is a light in the air,
The stars are lights in the air,
And we are lights in the air.
(c) The sun is a light in the air,
The moon is a light in the air,
The stars are lights in the air,
And all are lights in the air.
5. THE LOST SON
(1) (a) At the edge of the field,
A small bird sang,
A small bird sang
At the edge of the field.
(b) At the edge of the field,
The grass was green,
The grass was green
At the edge of the field.
(c) At the edge of the field,
The sun was bright,
The sun was bright
At the edge of the field.
(d) At the edge of the field,
The world was wide,
The world was wide
At the edge of the field.
Part I: Selected Poems
1. OPEN HOUSE
(a) My secrets cry aloud. I have need for tongue. My heart keeps open house, My doors are widely swung. An epic of the eyes My love, with no disguise.
(b) My truths are all foreknown, This anguish self-revealed. I'm naked to the bone, With nakedness my shield. Myself is what I wear: I keep the spirit spare.
(c) The anger will endure, The deed will speak the truth In language strict and pure. I stop the lying mouth: Rage warps my clearest cry To witless agony.
2. FEUD
(a) Corruption reaps the young; you dread The menace of ancestral eyes; Recoiling from the serpent head Of fate, you blubber in surprise.
(b) Exhausted fathers thinned the blood, You curse the legacy of pain; Darling of an infected brood, You feel disaster climb the vein.
(c) There’s canker at the root, your seed Denies the blessing of the sun, The light essential to your need. Your hopes are murdered and undone.
(d) The death leap at the throat, destroy The meaning of the day; dark forms Have scaled your walls, and spies betray Old secrets to amorphous swarms.
(e) You meditate upon the nerves, Inflame with hate. This ancient feud Is seldom won. The spirit starves Until the dead have been subdued.
3. DEATH PIECE
(a) Invention sleeps within a skull No longer quick with light, The hive that hummed in every cell Is now sealed honey-tight.
(b) His thought is tied, the curving brow Of motion moored to rock; And minutes burst upon a brow Insentient to shock.
4. PROGNOSIS
(a) Diffuse the outpourings of the spiritual coward, The rambling lies invented for the sick. O see the fate of him whose guard was lowered— A single misstep and we leave the quick.
(b) Flesh behind steel and glass is unprotected From enemies that whisper to the blood; The scratch forgotten is the scratch infected; The ruminant, reason, chews a poisoned cud.
(c) Platitudes garnished beyond a fool's gainsaying; The scheme without purpose; pride in a furnished room; The mediocre busy at betraying Themselves, their parlors musty as a funeral home.
(d) Though the devouring mother cry, "Escape me? Never—" And the honeymoon be spoiled by a father's ghost, Chill depths of the spirit are flushed to a fever, The nightmare silence is broken. We are not lost.
5. TO MY SISTER
(a) O my sister remember the stars the tears the trains The woods in spring the leaves the scented lanes Recall the gradual dark the snow’s unmeasured fall The naked fields the cloud’s immaculate folds Recount each childhood pleasure: the skies of azure The pageantry of wings the eye’s bright treasure.
(b) Keep faith with present joys refuse to choose Defer the vice of flesh the irrevocable choice Cherish the eyes the proud incredible poise
(Note: Page continues with fragments) (e) He who himself begins to loathe Grows sick in flesh and spirit both. (f) Dissection is a virtue when It operates on other men.
Part II: "The Kitty-Cat Bird" & Other Nonsense Verse
1. THE KITTY-CAT BIRD
(a) The Kitty-Cat Bird, he sat on a fence. Said the Wren, "Your song isn't worth 10¢. You're a fake, you're a fraud, you're a horrid pretense!" —Said the Wren to the Kitty-Cat Bird.
(b) "You've too many tunes, and none of them good: I wish you would act like a bird really should, Or stay by yourself down deep in the wood," —Said the Wren to the Kitty-Cat Bird.
(c) "You mew like a cat, you grate like a jay: You squeak like a mouse that's lost in the hay, I wouldn't be you for even a day," —Said the Wren to the Kitty-Cat Bird.
(d) The Kitty-Cat Bird, he moped and cried. Then a real cat came with a mouth so wide, That the Kitty-Cat Bird just hopped inside. "At last I'm myself!" —and he up and died. —Did the Kitty-the Kitty-Cat Bird.
(e) You'd better not laugh; and don't say, "Pooh!" Until you have thought this sad tale through: Be sure that whatever you are is you— Or you'll end like the Kitty-Cat Bird.
2. THE WHALE
(a) There was a Monstrous Whale: He had no skin, he had no tail. When he tried to spout, that great big luffer, The best he could do was jiggle his blubber.
3. THE YAK
(a) There was a most odious Yak Who took only toads on his back: If you asked for a ride, He would act very snide, And go humping off, yickety-yak.
4. THE DONKEY
(a) I had a Donkey, that was all right, But he always wanted to fly my kite; Every time I let him, the string would bust. Your Donkey is better behaved, I trust.
5. THE CEILING
(a) Suppose the ceiling went outside And then caught cold and up and died? The only thing we'd have for proof That he was gone, would be the roof; I think it would be most revealing To find out how the ceiling's feeling.
6. THE CHAIR
(a) A funny thing about a chair: You hardly ever think it's there. To know a chair is really it, You sometimes have to go and sit.
7. MYRTLE
(a) There once was a girl named Myrtle Who, strangely enough, was a turtle: She was mad as a hare, She could growl like a bear,— O nobody understood Myrtle!
(b) She would sit with a book on her knees,— My poetry-book, if you please,— She'd rant and she'd roar: "This stuff is a bore! Why I could do better With only ONE letter,— These poets, they write like I sneeze!"
8. MYRTLE'S COUSIN
(a) And then there was Myrtle's cousin, Who always did things by the dozen; She would eat at one glup Boiled eggs from a cup,— Oh that cousin! Her manners! At lunches!
(b) She'd dunk and she'd gobble: She was so much trouble; And then without even a spoon, She'd muddle the whole afternoon What her friends couldn't eat at those lunches!
9. GOO-GIRL
(a) Poor Myrtle would sigh, "Sweet my coz, The things you do, nobody does: Putting egg in your shoe And then making goo, Which, with slobbers and snorts, You drink up in quarts; And that gravy and fat All over your hat,— How did you do that? When you slurp and go, Poof! The cat runs for a roof Clear under the chair; And your friends—how they stare! The mere mention of soups Makes them huddle in groups— And they'll soon stay away in great bunches!"
10. THE GNU
(a) There's this to remember about the Gnu: He closely resembles—but I can't tell you!
11. THE MONOTONY SONG
(a) A donkey's tail is very nice You mustn't pull it more than twice, Now that is a piece of good advice— Heigh-ho, meet Hugh and Harry!
(b) One day Hugh walked up to a bear And said, "Old Boy, you're shedding hair, And shedding more than here and there," —Heigh-ho, we're Hugh and Harry!
(c) The bear said, "Sir, you go too far, I wonder who you think you are To make remarks about my —grrr!" —And there was only Harry!
(d) This Harry ran straight up a wall, But found he wasn't there at all, And so he had a horrid fall. —Alas, alack for Harry!
(e) My sweetheart is a ugly witch, And you should see her nose twitch,— But goodness me, her father's rich! —And I'm not Hugh nor Harry!
(f) This is, you see, a silly song And you can sing it all day long— You'll find I'm either right or wrong— Heigh-ho, Hugh and Harry!
(g) The moral is, I guess you keep Yourself awake until you sleep, And sometimes look before you leap— Unless you're Hugh or Harry!
12. PHILANDER
(a) A man named Philander S. Goo Said, "I know my legs add up to two! But I count up to one, And think I am done!—"
13. THE HIPPO
(a) Head or tail—which does he lack? I think his forward is coming back! He lives on carrots, leeks and hay; He starts to yawn—it takes all day— (b) Sometimes I think I'll live that way.
14. THE BOY AND THE BUSH
(a) A boy who had gumption and push Would frequently talk to a bush, And the bush would say, "Mac, I'd like to talk back, If I thought you could hear in a hush!"
(b) Now nobody sniggered and mocked As those two quietly talked, Because nobody heard, Not a beast, not a bird,— So they talked and they talked and they talked.
15. THE LAMB
(a) The Lamb just says, I AM! He frisks and whisks, he can. He jumps all over. Who Are you? You're jumping too!
16. THE LIZARD
(a) The time to tickle a lizard, Is before, or right after, a blizzard. Now the place to begin Is just under his chin,— And here's more advice: Don't poke more than twice At an intimate place like his gizzard.
17. THE WAGTAIL
(For J.S., his son) (a) Who knows how the wag-tail woos? Is it a case of just pick and choose? Has he grubbed for his fare?— Does he poise in the air, Like a humming-bird, O I've heard!— From a crazy old jack-daw bird He comes calling without wiping his shoes!
Comments
Post a Comment