Rivers to the Sea | Page 3

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RIVERS TO THE SEA
BY
SARA TEASDALE
To
ERNST
CONTENTS
PART I
SPRING NIGHT
THE FLIGHT
NEW LOVE AND OLD

THE LOOK
SPRING
THE LIGHTED WINDOW
THE KISS

SWANS
THE OLD MAID
FROM THE WOOLWORTH
TOWER
AT NIGHT
THE YEARS
PEACE
APRIL

COME
MOODS
APRIL SONG
MAY DAY
CROWNED

TO A CASTILIAN SONG
BROADWAY
A WINTER
BLUEJAY
IN A RESTAURANT
JOY
IN A RAILROAD
STATION
IN THE TRAIN
TO ONE AWAY
SONG
DEEP
IN THE NIGHT
THE INDIA WHARF
I SHALL NOT CARE

DESERT POOLS
LONGING
PITY
AFTER PARTING

ENOUGH
ALCHEMY
FEBRUARY
MORNING
MAY
NIGHT
DUSK IN JUNE
LOVE-FREE

SUMMER NIGHT,
RIVERSIDE
IN A SUBWAY STATION
AFTER LOVE

DOORYARD ROSES
A PRAYER
PART II
INDIAN SUMMER
THE SEA WIND
THE CLOUD
THE
POOR HOUSE
NEW YEAR'S DAWN-BROADWAY
THE
STAR
DOCTORS
THE INN OF EARTH
IN THE
CARPENTER'S SHOP
THE CARPENTER'S SON
THE
MOTHER OF A POET
IN MEMORIAM F. O. S
TWILIGHT

SWALLOW FLIGHT
THOUGHTS
TO DICK, ON HIS
SIXTH BIRTHDAY
TO ROSE
THE FOUNTAIN
THE
ROSE
DREAMS
"I AM NOT YOURS"
PIERROT'S SONG


NIGHT IN ARIZONA
DUSK IN WAR TIME
SPRING IN
WAR TIME
WHILE I MAY
DEBT
FROM THE NORTH

THE LIGHTS OF NEW YORK
SEA LONGING
THE RIVER

LEAVES
THE ANSWER
PART III
OVER THE ROOFS
A CRY
CHANCE
IMMORTAL

AFTER DEATH
TESTAMENT
GIFTS
PART IV
FROM THE SEA
VIGNETTES OVERSEAS
PART V
SAPPHO

I
SPRING NIGHT
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.
Gold and gleaming the empty streets,
Gold and gleaming the misty lake,
The mirrored lights like sunken
swords,
Glimmer and shake.

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?
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
cloudy hair with light,
I for whom all beauty burns
Like incense in
a million urns?
Oh, beauty, are you not enough?
Why am I crying
after love?
THE FLIGHT
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 windy rain--
BUT WHAT IF I HEARD MY FIRST LOVE
CALLING ME AGAIN?
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?
NEW LOVE AND OLD
IN my heart the old love
Struggled with the new;
It was ghostly waking
All night thru.
Dear things, kind things,
That my old love said,
Ranged themselves reproachfully

Round my bed.
But I could not heed them,
For I seemed to see
The eyes of my new love
Fixed on me.
Old love, old love,
How can I be true?
Shall I be faithless to myself
Or to you?
THE LOOK
STREPHON kissed me in the spring,
Robin in the fall,
But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all.
Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,
Robin's lost in play,
But the kiss in Colin's eyes
Haunts me night and day.
SPRING
IN Central Park the lovers sit,
On every hilly path they stroll,
Each thinks his love is infinite,
And crowns his soul.
But we are cynical and wise,
We walk a careful foot apart,
You make a little joke that tries

To hide your heart.
Give over, we have laughed enough;
Oh dearest and most foolish friend,
Why do you wage a war with
love
To lose your battle in the end?
THE LIGHTED WINDOW
HE SAID:
"In the winter dusk
When the pavements were gleaming
with rain,
I walked thru a dingy street
Hurried, harassed,
Thinking
of all my problems that never are
solved.
Suddenly out of the mist, a flaring gas-jet
Shone from a
huddled shop.
I saw thru the bleary window
A mass of playthings:

False-faces hung on strings,
Valentines, paper and tinsel,
Tops of
scarlet and green,
Candy, marbles, jacks--
A confusion of color

Pathetically gaudy and cheap.
All of my boyhood
Rushed back.

Once more these things were treasures
Wildly desired.
With
covetous eyes I looked again at the marbles,
The precious agates, the
pee-wees, the chinies--
Then I passed on.
In the winter dusk,
The pavements were gleaming with rain;
There
in the lighted window
I left my boyhood."
THE KISS
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?
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.
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.
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?
SWANS
NIGHT is over the