Sara Teasdale

Two knights rode forth at early dawn A-seeking maids to wed, Said one, "My lady must be fair,

Out of the noise of tired people working, Harried with thoughts of war and lists of dead, His beauty met me like a fresh wind blowing,

Oh, there are eyes that he can see, And hands to make his hands rejoice, But to my lover I must be

Her voice is like clear water That drips upon a stone In forests far and silent

A little while when I am gone My life will live in music after me, As spun foam lifted and borne on

Oh if I were the velvet rose Upon the red rose vine, I'd climb to touch his window

Across the dimly lighted room The violin drew wefts of sound, Airily they wove and wound

There! See the line of lights, A chain of stars down either side the street, Why can't you lift the chain and give it to me,

Until I lose my soul and lie Blind to the beauty of the earth, Deaf though shouting wind goes by,

The princess has her lovers, A score of knights has she, And each can sing a madrigal,

Oh would I were the roses, that lie against her hands, The heavy burning roses she touches as she stands! Dear hands that hold the roses, where mine would love to be,

Crisply the bright snow whispered, Crunching beneath our feet; Behind us as we walked along the parkway,

My window-pane is starred with frost, The world is bitter cold to-night, The moon is cruel, and the wind

No one worth possessing Can be quite possessed; Lay that on your heart,

Now while my lips are living Their words must stay unsaid, And will my soul remember

There is no magic any more, We meet as other people do, You work no miracle for me

Oh, I have sown my love so wide That he will find it everywhere; It will awake him in the night,

I lift my heart as spring lifts up A yellow daisy to the rain; My heart will be a lovely cup

I am alone, in spite of love, In spite of all I take and give, In spite of all your tenderness,

The wide, bright temple of the world I found, And entered from the dizzy infinite That I might kneel and worship thee in it;

The roofs are shining from the rain, The sparrows twitter as they fly, And with a windy April grace

Willow, in your April gown Delicate and gleaming, Do you mind in years gone by

Arcturus brings the spring back As surely now as when He rose on eastern islands

Now at last I have come to see what life is, Nothing is ever ended, everything only begun, And the brave victories that seem so splendid

Love said, "Wake still and think of me," Sleep, "Close your eyes till break of day," But Dreams came by and smilingly

In the pull of the wind I stand, lonely, On the deck of a ship, rising, falling, Wild night around me, wild water under me,

The sun was gone, and the moon was coming Over the blue Connecticut hills; The west was rosy, the east was flushed,

Life has loveliness to sell, All beautiful and splendid things, Blue waves whitened on a cliff,

Send out the singers,let the room be still; They have not eased my pain nor brought me sleep. Close out the sun, for I would have it dark

Oh, because you never tried To bow my will or break my pride, And nothing of the cave-man made

At six o'clock of an autumn dusk With the sky in the west a rusty red, The bells of the mission down in the valley

How many million Aprils came Before I ever knew How white a cherry bough could be,

This is the quiet hour; the theaters Have gathered in their crowds, and steadily The million lights blaze on for few to see,

I have come to bury Love Beneath a tree, In the forest tall and black

The April night is still and sweet With flowers on every tree; Peace comes to them on quiet feet,

Beside an ebbing northern sea While stars awaken one by one, We walk together, I and he.

Buildings above the leafless trees Loom high as castles in a dream, While one by one the lamps come out

How many times we must have met Here on the street as strangers do, Children of chance we were, who passed

Remember me as I was then; Turn from me now, but always see The laughing shadowy girl who stood

Child, child, love while you can The voice and the eyes and the soul of a man; Never fear though it break your heart,

The kings they came from out the south, All dressed in ermine fine; They bore Him gold and chrysoprase,

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

I should be glad of loneliness And hours that go on broken wings, A thirsty body, a tired heart

Why did you bring me here? The sand is white with snow, Over the wooden domes

I wear a crown invisible and clear, And go my lifted royal way apart Since you have crowned me softly in your heart

In Warsaw in Poland Half the world away, The one I love best of all

God let me listen to your voice, And look upon you for a space, And then he took your voice away,

What do I owe to you Who loved me deep and long? You never gave my spirit wings

So long as my spirit still Is glad of breath And lifts its plumes of pride

Deep in the night the cry of a swallow, Under the stars he flew, Keen as pain was his call to follow

I love too much; I am a river Surging with spring that seeks the sea, I am too generous a giver,

As dew leaves the cobweb lightly Threaded with stars, Scattering jewels on the fence

Did you never know, long ago, how much you loved me, That your love would never lessen and never go? You were young then, proud and fresh-hearted,

Every night I lie awake And every day I lie abed And hear the doctors, Pain and Death,

I have come the selfsame path To the selfsame door, Years have left the roses there

My soul lives in my body's house, And you have both the house and her, But sometimes she is less your own

I plucked a snow-drop in the spring, And in my hand too closely pressed; The warmth had hurt the tender thing,

I gave my life to another lover, I gave my love, and all, and all But over a dream the past will hover,

My forefathers gave me My spirit's shaken flame, The shape of hands, the beat of heart,

The moon is like a scimitar, A little silver scimitar, A-drifting down the sky.

Evening, and all the birds In a chorus of shimmering sound Are easing their hearts of joy

A half-hour more and you will lean To gather me close in the old sweet way But oh, to the woman over the sea

When I went to look at what had long been hidden, A jewel laid long ago in a secret place, I trembled, for I thought to see its dark deep fire,

When the long day goes by And I do not see your face, The old wild, restless sorrow

Infinite gentleness, infinite irony Are in this face with fast-sealed eyes, And round this mouth that learned in loneliness

Supper comes at five o'clock, At six, the evening star, My lover comes at eight o'clock

I said, "My youth is gone Like a fire beaten out by the rain, That will never sway and sing

It is enough for me by day To walk the same bright earth with him; Enough that over us by night

Serene descent, as a red leaf's descending When there is neither wind nor noise of rain, But only autum air and the unending

They sent you in to say farewell to me, No, do not shake your head; I see your eyes That shine with tears. Sappho, you saw the sun

Blue dust of evening over my city, Over the ocean of roofs and the tall towers Where the window-lights, myriads and myriads,

People that I meet and pass In the city's broken roar, Faces that I lose so soon

They came to tell your faults to me, They named them over one by one; I laughed aloud when they were done,

They came to tell your faults to me, They named them over one by one; I laughed aloud when they were done,

I am afraid, oh I am so afraid! The cold black fear is clutching me to-night As long ago when they would take the light

They spoke of him I love With cruel words and gay; My lips kept silent guard

I stood beside a hill Smooth with new-laid snow, A single star looked out

The bells ring over the Anno, Midnight, the long, long chime; Here in the quivering darkness

(February 23, 1821) At midnight when the moonlit cypress trees Have woven round his grave a magic shade,

"Four winds blowing through the sky, You have seen poor maidens die, Tell me then what I shall do

The northern woods are delicately sweet, The lake is folded softly by the shore, But I am restless for the subway's roar,

All beauty calls you to me, and you seem, Past twice a thousand miles of shifting sea, To reach me. You are as the wind I breathe

Vivid with love, eager for greater beauty Out of the night we come Into the corridor, brilliant and warm.

(To the maiden with the hidden face in Abbey's painting) The other maidens raised their eyes to him Who stumbled in before them when the fight

I gave my first love laughter, I gave my second tears, I gave my third love silence

For W. P. The little park was filled with peace, The walks were carpeted with snow,

They said he sent his love to me, They wouldn't put it in my hand, And when I asked them where it was

It was April when you came The first time to me, And my first look in your eyes

A fog drifts in, the heavy laden Cold white ghost of the sea One by one the hills go out,

I was a queen, and I have lost my crown; A wife, and I have broken all my vows; A lover, and I ruined him I loved:,

Wild flight on flight against the fading dawn The flames' red wings soar upward duskily. This is the funeral pyre and Troy is dead

I hid the love within my heart, And lit the laughter in my eyes, That when we meet he may not know

You took my empty dreams And filled them every one With tenderness and nobleness,

I am not yours, not lost in you, Not lost, although I long to be Lost as a candle lit at noon,

I have loved hours at sea, gray cities, The fragile secret of a flower, Music, the making of a poem

I know the stars by their names, Aldebaran, Altair, And I know the path they take

When April bends above me And finds me fast asleep Dust need not keep the secret

There never was a mood of mine, Gay or heart-broken, luminous or dull, But you could ease me of its fever

When I am dead and over me bright April Shakes out her rain-drenched hair, Though you should lean above me broken-hearted,

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

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,

Perhaps if Death is kind, and there can be returning, We will come back to earth some fragrant night, And take these lanes to find the sea, and bending

If I must go to heaven's end Climbing the ages like a stair, Be near me and forever bend

So soon my body will have gone Beyond the sound and sight of men, And tho' it wakes and suffers now,

Hibiscus flowers are cups of fire, (Love me, my lover, life will not stay) The bright poinsettia shakes in the wind,

The world is resting without sound or motion, Behind the apple tree the sun goes down Painting with fire the spires and the windows

We stood in the shrill electric light, Dumb and sick in the whirling din We who had all of love to say

The darkened street was muffled with the snow, The falling flakes had made your shoulders white, And when we found a shelter from the night

After a year I came again to the place; The tireless lights and the reverberation, The angry thunder of trains that burrow the ground,

The dearest child in all the world, Should have the dearest songs, And that is why this little book

You go a long and lovely journey, For all the stars, like burning dew, Are luminous and luring footprints

I have been happy two weeks together, My love is coming home to me, Gold and silver is the weather

Mary sat in the corner dreaming, Dim was the room and low, While in the dusk, the saw went screaming

All that could never be said, All that could never be done, Wait for us at last

Within the tiny Pantheon We stood together silently, Leaving the restless crowd awhile

Fields beneath a quilt of snow From which the rocks and stubble sleep, And in the west a shy white star

Lyric night of the lingering Indian summer, Shadowy fields that are scentless but full of singing, Never a bird, but the passionless chant of insects,

I. Spirit's House From naked stones of agony I will build a house for me;

It is not a word spoken, Few words are said; Nor even a look of the eyes

It is not a word spoken, Few words are said; Nor even a look of the eyes

It will not change now After so many years; Life has not broken it

If I should see your eyes again, I know how far their look would go Back to a morning in the park

If I should see your eyes again, I know how far their look would go Back to a morning in the park

I am wild, I will sing to the trees, I will sing to the stars in the sky, I love, I am loved, he is mine,

Oh Earth, you are too dear to-night, How can I sleep while all around Floats rainy fragrance and the far

One by one, like leaves from a tree, All my faiths have forsaken me; But the stars above my head

Less than the cloud to the wind, Less than the foam to the sea, Less than the rose to the storm

Unless I learn to ask no help From any other soul but mine, To seek no strength in waving reeds

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,

When we come home at night and close the door, Standing together in the shadowy room, Safe in our own love and the gentle gloom,

Like barley bending In low fields by the sea, Singing in hard wind

I am not sorry for my soul That it must go unsatisfied, For it can live a thousand times,

Oh, I could let the world go by, Its loud new wonders and its wars, But how will I give up the sky

Shall we, too, rise forgetful from our sleep, And shall my soul that lies within your hand Remember nothing, as the blowing sand

I sought among the drifting leaves, The golden leaves that once were green, To see if Love were hiding there

Brown-thrush singing all day long In the leaves above me, Take my love this April song,

I have remembered beauty in the night, Against black silences I waked to see A shower of sunlight over Italy

I am free of love as a bird flying south in the autumn, Swift and intent, asking no joy from another, Glad to forget all of the passion of April

O lovely chance, what can I do To give my gratefulness to you? You rise between myself and me

Out of the delicate dream of the distance an emerald emerges Veiled in the violet folds of the air of the sea; Softly the dream grows awakening, shimmering white of a city,

The sparrows wake beneath the convent eaves; I think I have not slept the whole night through. But I am old; the aged scarcely know

The wind is tossing the lilacs, The new leaves laugh in the sun, And the petals fall on the orchard wall,

A delicate fabric of bird song Floats in the air, The smell of wet wild earth

The spring is fresh and fearless And every leaf is new, The world is brimmed with moonlight,

I said, "I have shut my heart As one shuts an open door, That Love may starve therein

In the silver light after a storm, Under dripping boughs of bright new green, I take the low path to hear the meadowlarks

I heard a cry in the night, A thousand miles it came, Sharp as a flash of light,

I am the still rain falling, Too tired for singing mirth, Oh, be the green fields calling,

It will not hurt me when I am old, A running tide where moonlight burned Will not sting me like silver snakes;

I went out on an April morning All alone, for my heart was high, I was a child of the shining meadow,

A diamond of a morning Waked me an hour too soon; Dawn had taken in the stars

My heart is heavy with many a song Like ripe fruit bearing down the tree, But I can never give you one,

Bowed as an elm under the weight of its beauty, So earth is bowed, under her weight of splendor, Molten sea, richness of leaves and the burnished

In my heart the old love Struggled with the new; It was ghostly waking

When the horns wear thin And the noise, like a garment outworn, Falls from the night,

The moon is a charring ember Dying into the dark; Off in the crouching mountains

I asked the heaven of stars What I should give my love, It answered me with silence,

We will never walk again As we used to walk at night, Watching our shadows lengthen

The world is tired, the year is old, The fading leaves are glad to die, The wind goes shivering with cold

Oh day of fire and sun, Pure as a naked flame, Blue sea, blue sky and dun

Oh you are coming, coming, coming, How will hungry Time put by the hours till then?, But why does it anger my heart to long so

As the waves of perfume, heliotrope, rose, Float in the garden when no wind blows, Come to us, go from us, whence no one knows;

Here in the teeth of this triumphant wind That shakes the naked shadows on the ground, Making a key-board of the earth to strike

He trod the earth but yesterday, And now he treads the stars. He left us in the April time

If there is any life when death is over, These tawny beaches will know much of me, I shall come back, as constant and as changeful

(A play in one act.) The Knight. The Lady.

Only in sleep I see their faces, Children I played with when I was a child, Louise comes back with her brown hair braided,

Out of the window a sea of green trees Lift their soft boughs like the arms of a dancer, They beckon and call me, "Come out in the sun!"

When I talk with other men I always think of you Your words are keener than their words,

I Oh chimes set high on the sunny tower Ring on, ring on unendingly,

Waves are the sea's white daughters, And raindrops the children of rain, But why for my shimmering body

The city's all a-shining Beneath a fickle sun, A gay young wind's a-blowing,

Peace flows into me As the tide to the pool by the shore; It is mine forevermore,

Pierrot stands in the garden Beneath a waning moon, And on his lute he fashions

Lady, light in the east hangs low, Draw your veils of dream apart, Under the casement stands Pierrot

They never saw my lover's face, They only know our love was brief, Wearing awhile a windy grace

Places I love come back to me like music, Hush me and heal me when I am very tired; I see the oak woods at Saxton's flaming

As kings who see their little life-day pass, Take off the heavy ermine and the crown, So had the trees that autumn-time laid down

In the last year I have learned, How few men are worth my trust; I have seen the friend I loved

Redbirds, redbirds, Long and long ago, What a honey-call you had

From my spirit's gray defeat, From my pulse's flagging beat, From my hopes that turned to sand

I have no riches but my thoughts, Yet these are wealth enough for me; My thoughts of you are golden coins

Was that his step that sounded on the stair? Was that his knock I heard upon the door? I grow so tired I almost cease to care,

But what of her whose heart is troubled by it, The mother who would soothe and set him free, Fearing the song's storm-shaken ecstasy

Bring me the roses white and red, And take the laurel leaves away; Yea, wreathe the roses round my head

If he could know my songs are all for him, At silver dawn or in the evening glow, Would he not smile and think it but a whim,

Midnight, and in the darkness not a sound, So, with hushed breathing, sleeps the autumn night; Only the white immortal stars shall know,

Oh Litis, little slave, why will you sleep? These long Egyptian noons bend down your head Bowed like the yarrow with a yellow bee.

The twilight's inner flame grows blue and deep, And in my Lesbos, over leagues of sea, The temples glimmer moon-wise in the trees.

Across the dimly lighted room The violin drew wefts of sound, Airily they wove and wound

A thousand miles beyond this sun-steeped wall Somewhere the waves creep cool along the sand, The ebbing tide forsakes the listless land

Lyric night of the lingering Indian Summer, Shadowy fields that are scentless but full of singing, Never a bird, but the passionless chant of insects,

(To Eleonora Duse) We are anhungered after solitude, Deep stillness pure of any speech or sound,

Since there is no escape, since at the end My body will be utterly destroyed, This hand I love as I have loved a friend,

If I could have your arms tonight, But half the world and the broken sea Lie between you and me.

Fairy snow, fairy snow, Blowing, blowing everywhere, Would that I

"She can't be unhappy," you said, "The smiles are like stars in her eyes, And her laugh is thistledown

When beauty grows too great to bear How shall I ease me of its ache, For beauty more than bitterness

You bound strong sandals on my feet, You gave me bread and wine, And sent me under sun and stars,

Like some rare queen of old romance Who loved the gleam of helm and lance Is she.

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,

My heart cried like a beaten child Ceaselessly all night long; I had to take my own cries

I saw a ship sail forth at evening time; Her prow was gilded by the western fire, And all her rigging one vast golden lyre,

When you were born, beloved, was your soul New made by God to match your body's flower, And were they both at one same precious hour

I knew you thought of me all night, I knew, though you were far away; I felt your love blow over me

I feel the spring far off, far off, The faint, far scent of bud and leaf, Oh, how can spring take heart to come

The park is filled with night and fog, The veils are drawn about the world, The drowsy lights along the paths

I thought I had forgotten, But it all came back again To-night with the first spring thunder

Will it always be like this until I am dead, Every spring must I bear it all again With the first red haze of the budding maple boughs,

Alone in the night On a dark hill With pines around me

In the wild soft summer darkness How many and many a night we two together Sat in the park and watched the Hudson

The panther wind Leaps out of the night, The snake of lightning

Hushed in the smoky haze of summer sunset, When I came home again from far-off places, How many times I saw my western city

I love my hour of wind and light, I love men's faces and their eyes, I love my spirit's veering flight

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

I said, 'I will take my life And throw it away; I who was fire and song

When I go back to earth And all my joyous body Puts off the red and white

The birds are all a-building, They say the world's a-flower, And still I linger lonely

My soul is a dark ploughed field In the cold rain; My soul is a broken field

The summer dawn came over-soon, The earth was like hot iron at noon In Nazareth;

I am a cloud in the heaven's height, The stars are lit for my delight, Tireless and changeful, swift and free,

Into my heart's treasury I slipped a coin That time cannot take

I shall gather myself into my self again, I shall take my scattered selves and make them one. I shall fuse them into a polished crystal ball

The dreams of my heart and my mind pass, Nothing stays with me long, But I have had from a child

The faery forest glimmered Beneath an ivory moon, The silver grasses shimmered

All through the deep blue night The fountain sang alone; It sang to the drowsy heart

Oh in the deep blue night The fountain sang alone; It sang to the drowsy heart

My heart is a garden tired with autumn, Heaped with bending asters and dahlias heavy and dark, In the hazy sunshine, the garden remembers April,

I went back to the clanging city, I went back where my old loves stayed, But my heart was full of my new love's glory,

What can I give you, my lord, my lover, You who have given the world to me, Showed me the light and the joy that cover

You bound strong sandals on my feet, You gave me bread and wine, And sent me under sun and stars,

My heart is but a little house With room for only three or four, And it was filled before you knocked

I built a little House of Dreams, And fenced it all about, But still I heard the Wind of Truth

Here in the velvet stillness The wide sown fields fall to the faint horizon, Sleeping in starlight....

I came to the crowded Inn of Earth, And called for a cup of wine, But the Host went by with averted eye

I think the moon is very kind To take such trouble just for me. He came along with me from home

I hoped that he would love me, And he has kissed my mouth, But I am like a stricken bird

If I can bear your love like a lamp before me, When I go down the long steep Road of Darkness, I shall not fear the everlasting shadows,

He said: "In the winter dusk When the pavements were gleaming with rain,

The lightning spun your garment for the night Of silver filaments with fire shot thru, A broidery of lamps that lit for you

I must have passed the crest a while ago And now I am going down, Strange to have crossed the crest and not to know,

Strephon kissed me in the spring, Robin in the fall, But Colin only looked at me

Oh Loves there are that enter in, And Loves there are that wait, And Loves that sit a-weeping

I'm happy, I'm happy, I saw my love to-day. He came along the crowded street,

We walked together in the dusk To watch the tower grow dimly white, And saw it lift against the sky

She is too kind, I think, for mortal things, Too gentle for the gusty ways of earth; God gave to her a shy and silver mirth,

Your eyes drink of me, Love makes them shine, Your eyes that lean

I made you many and many a song, Yet never one told all you are, It was as though a net of words

Day, you have bruised and beaten me, As rain beats down the bright, proud sea, Beaten my body, bruised my soul,

The days remember and the nights remember The kingly hours that once you made so great, Deep in my heart they lie, hidden in their splendor,

I saw her in a Broadway car, The woman I might grow to be; I felt my lover look at her

Hope went by and Peace went by And would not enter in; Youth went by and Health went by

My answered prayer came up to me, And in the silence thus spake he: "O you who prayed for me to come,

The Princess sings: I am the princess up in the tower And I dream the whole day thro'

He has come, he is here, My love has come home, The minutes are lighter

I came from the sunny valleys And sought for the open sea, For I thought in its gray expanses

Beneath my chamber window Pierrot was singing, singing; I heard his lute the whole night thru

If I were a bee and you were a rose, Would you let me in when the gray wind blows? Would you hold your petals wide apart,

If I could keep my innermost Me Fearless, aloof and free Of the least breath of love or hate,

I am a pool in a peaceful place, I greet the great sky face to face, I know the stars and the stately moon

There is no lord within my heart, Left silent as an empty shrine Where rose and myrtle intertwine,

(In Memory of J. W. T. Jr.) He was a soldier in that fight Where there is neither flag nor drum,

My heart has grown rich with the passing of years, I have less need now than when I was young To share myself with every comer

I sang a song at dusking time Beneath the evening star, And Terence left his latest rhyme

I made a hundred little songs That told the joy and pain of love, And sang them blithely, tho' I knew

A white star born in the evening glow Looked to the round green world below, And saw a pool in a wooded place

I thought of you when I was wakened By a wind that made me glad and afraid Of the rushing, pouring sound of the sea

When they see my songs They will sigh and say, "Poor soul, wistful soul,

Oh to be free of myself, With nothing left to remember, To have my heart as bare

I sang my songs for the rest, For you I am still; The tree of my song is bare

Sun-swept beaches with a light wind blowing From the immense blue circle of the sea, And the soft thunder where long waves whiten,

Death went up the hall Unseen by every one, Trailing twilight robes

Atoms as old as stars, Mutation on mutation, Millions and millions of cells

I saw the sunset-colored sands, The Nile like flowing fire between, Where Rameses stares forth serene,

Love entered in my heart one day, A sad, unwelcome guest; But when he begged that he might stay,

A wind is blowing over my soul, I hear it cry the whole night through, Is there no peace for me on earth

Steely stars and moon of brass, How mockingly you watch me pass! You know as well as I how soon

I cannot die, who drank delight From the cup of the crescent moon, And hungrily as men eat bread,

To-night I close my eyes and see A strange procession passing me, The years before I saw your face

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

When I am all alone Envy me most, Then my thoughts flutter round me

Love in my heart was a fresh tide flowing Where the star-like sea gulls soar; The sun was keen and the foam was blowing

We held the book together timidly, Whose antique music in an alien tongue Once rose among the dew-drenched vines that hung

Was ever any face like this before, So light a veiling for the soul within, So pure and yet so pitiful for sin?

Oh flower-sweet face and bended flower-like head! Oh violet whose purple cannot pale, Or forest fragrance ever faint or fail,

Carved in the silence by the hand of Pain, And made more perfect by the gift of Peace, Than if Delight had bid your sorrow cease,

Francesca's life that was a limpid flame Agleam against the shimmer of a sword, Which falling, quenched the flame in blood outpoured

The winds have grown articulate in thee, And voiced again the wail of ancient woe That smote upon the winds of long ago:

(The daughter of Sappho) When the dusk was wet with dew, Cle's, did the muses nine

Tho' I am very old and wise, And you are neither wise nor old, When I look far into your eyes,

I have remembered beauty in the night, Against black silences I waked to see A shower of sunlight over Italy

Oh beauty that is filled so full of tears, Where every passing anguish left its trace, I pray you grant to me this depth of grace:

Your beauty lives in mystic melodies, And all the light about you breathes a song. Your voice awakes the dreaming airs that throng

Were you a Greek when all the world was young, Before the weary years that pass and pass, Had scattered all the temples on the grass,

Was Time not harsh to you, or was he kind, O pale Erinna of the perfect lyre, That he has left no word of singing fire

Lo, I am happy, for my eyes have seen Joy glowing here before me, face to face; His wings were arched above me for a space,

When first I saw you, felt you take my hand, I could not speak for happiness to find How more than all they said your heart was kind,

I heard a cry in the night, A thousand miles it came, Sharp as a flash of light,

Rose, when I remember you, Little lady, scarcely two, I am suddenly aware

Impassioned singer of the happy time. When all the world was waking into morn, And dew still glistened on the tangled thorn,

Your lines that linger for us down the years, Like sparks that tell the glory of a flame, Still keep alight the splendor of your name,

To-night I close my eyes and see A strange procession passing me The years before I saw your face

The moon is a curving flower of gold, The sky is still and blue; The moon was made for the sky to hold,

Before a lonely shrine Of foam-born Aphrodite, Ungarlanded of vine,

Dreamily over the roofs The cold spring rain is falling; Out in the lonely tree

Your mind and mine are such great lovers they Have freed themselves from cautious human clay, And on wild clouds of thought, naked together

I understood the rest too well, And all their thoughts have come to be Clear as grey sea-weed in the swell

With the man I love who loves me not, I walked in the street-lamps' flare; We watched the world go home that night

I. Off Gilbatrar Beyond the sleepy hills of Spain, The sun goes down in yellow mist,

The fountain shivers lightly in the rain, The laurels drip, the fading roses fall, The marble satyr plays a mournful strain

The beast to the beast is calling, And the soul bends down to wait; Like the stealthy lord of the jungle,

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,

What do I care, in the dreams and the languor of spring, That my songs do not show me at all? For they are a fragrance, and I am a flint and a fire,

I O mother, I am sick of love, I cannot laugh nor lift my head,

When Love was born I think he lay Right warm on Venus' breast, And whiles he smiled and whiles would play

Wind and hail and veering rain, Driven mist that veils the day, Soul's distress and body's pain,

Heaven-invading hills are drowned In wide moving waves of mist, Phlox before my door are wound

In the spring I asked the daisies If his words were true, And the clever, clear-eyed daisies

I watch the great clear twilight Veiling the ice-bowed trees; Their branches tinkle faintly

I went out at night alone; The young blood flowing beyond the sea Seemed to have drenched my spirit's wings,

When I have ceased to break my wings Against the faultiness of things, And learned that compromises wait

I wish for such a lot of things That never will come true, And yet I want them all so much

I I cannot heed the words they say, The lights grow far away and dim,

Gray pilgrim, you have journeyed far, I pray you tell to me Is there a land where Love is not,