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.

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