Sara Teasdale - Rivers to the Sea (1915)

20 Sourced Quotes

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Oh who can tell the range of joy
Or set the bounds of beauty?

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

Sara Teasdale
There in the windy flood of morning Longing lifted its weight from me, Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering, Swept as a sea-bird out to sea.

Sara Teasdale
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
I am the pool of gold
When sunset burns and dies,—
You are my deepening skies,
Give me your stars to hold.

Sara Teasdale
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 do not hope to bind the wind Or set a fetter on the sea — It is enough to feel his love Blow by like music over me.

Sara Teasdale
Until I lose my soul and lie Blind to the beauty of the earth, Deaf though shouting wind goes by, Dumb in a storm of mirth; Until my heart is quenched at length And I have left the land of men, Oh, let me love with all my strength Careless if I am loved again.

Sara Teasdale
Oh, beauty, are you not enough?
Why am I crying after love?

Sara Teasdale
Life is a frail moth flying
Caught in the web of the years that pass.

Sara Teasdale
One by one, like leaves from a tree,
All my faiths have forsaken me.

Sara Teasdale
I send you my thoughts — the air between us is laden,
My thoughts fly in at your window, a flock of wild birds.

Sara Teasdale
Old love, old love,
How can I be true?
Shall I be faithless to myself
Or to you?

Sara Teasdale
The grass is waking in the ground,
Soon it will rise and blow in waves —
How can it have the heart to sway
Over the graves,
New graves?

Sara Teasdale
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. 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.

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?

Sara Teasdale
The spring is fresh and fearless
And every leaf is new,
The world is brimmed with moonlight,
The lilac brimmed with dew.

Here in the moving shadows
I catch my breath and sing -
My heart is fresh and fearless
And over-brimmed with spring.

Sara Teasdale
I could not be so sure of Spring
Save that it sings in me.

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

Sara Teasdale
Love in my heart is a cry forever Lost as the swallow's flight, Seeking for you and never, never Stilled by the stars at night

Sara Teasdale
How should they know that Sappho lived and died
Faithful to love, not faithful to the lover,
Never transfused and lost in what she loved,
Never so wholly loving nor at peace.

Sara Teasdale