Love Songs

Part 1

Produced by A. Light and L. Bowser. For Gwenette.

Love Songs

Sara Teasdale

Author of "Rivers to the Sea", "Helen of Troy and Other Poems", Etc.

To E.

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 running water singing on the rocks When once in English woods I heard a lark.

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.

Prefatory Note

Beside new poems, this book contains lyrics taken from "Rivers to the Sea", "Helen of Troy and Other Poems", and one or two from an earlier volume.

Contents

Barter Twilight Night Song at Amalfi The Look A Winter Night A Cry Gifts But Not to Me Song at Capri Child, Child Love Me Pierrot Wild Asters The Song for Colin Four Winds Debt Faults Buried Love The Fountain I Shall Not Care After Parting A Prayer Spring Night May Wind Tides After Love New Love and Old The Kiss Swans The River November Spring Rain The Ghost Summer Night, Riverside Jewels

Interlude: Songs out of Sorrow

I. Spirit's House II. Mastery III. Lessons IV. Wisdom V. In a Burying Ground VI. Wood Song VII. Refuge

III

The Flight Dew To-night Ebb Tide I Would Live in Your Love Because The Tree of Song The Giver April Song The Wanderer The Years Enough Come Joy Riches Dusk in War Time Peace Moods Houses of Dreams Lights "I Am Not Yours" Doubt The Wind Morning Other Men Embers Message The Lamp

A November Night

Love Songs

Barter

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.

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.

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.

Twilight

Dreamily over the roofs The cold spring rain is falling; Out in the lonely tree A bird is calling, calling.

Slowly over the earth The wings of night are falling; My heart like the bird in the tree Is calling, calling, calling.

Night Song at Amalfi

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

I asked the darkened sea Down where the fishers go-- It answered me with silence, Silence below.

Oh, I could give him weeping, Or I could give him song-- But how can I give silence, My whole life long?

Part 2

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.

A Winter Night

My window-pane is starred with frost, The world is bitter cold to-night, The moon is cruel, and the wind Is like a two-edged sword to smite.

God pity all the homeless ones, The beggars pacing to and fro, God pity all the poor to-night Who walk the lamp-lit streets of snow.

My room is like a bit of June, Warm and close-curtained fold on fold, But somewhere, like a homeless child, My heart is crying in the cold.

A Cry

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

Oh, there are breasts to bear his head, And lips whereon his lips can lie, But I must be till I am dead Only a cry.

Gifts

I gave my first love laughter, I gave my second tears, I gave my third love silence Through all the years.

My first love gave me singing, My second eyes to see, But oh, it was my third love Who gave my soul to me.

But Not to Me

The April night is still and sweet With flowers on every tree; Peace comes to them on quiet feet, But not to me.

My peace is hidden in his breast Where I shall never be; Love comes to-night to all the rest, But not to me.

Song at Capri

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

Now while I watch the dreaming sea With isles like flowers against her breast, Only one voice in all the world Could give me rest.

Child, Child

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 wound new joy will start; Only love proudly and gladly and well, Though love be heaven or love be hell.

Child, child, love while you may, For life is short as a happy day; Never fear the thing you feel-- Only by love is life made real; Love, for the deadly sins are seven, Only through love will you enter heaven.

Love Me

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

When he harkens what you say, Bid him, lest he miss me, Leave his work or leave his play, And kiss me, kiss me, kiss me!

Pierrot

Pierrot stands in the garden Beneath a waning moon, And on his lute he fashions A fragile silver tune.

Pierrot plays in the garden, He thinks he plays for me, But I am quite forgotten Under the cherry tree.

Part 3

Pierrot plays in the garden, And all the roses know That Pierrot loves his music,-- But I love Pierrot.

Wild Asters

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

Now the fields are brown and barren, Bitter autumn blows, And of all the stupid asters Not one knows.

The Song for Colin

I sang a song at dusking time Beneath the evening star, And Terence left his latest rhyme To answer from afar.

Pierrot laid down his lute to weep, And sighed, "She sings for me." But Colin slept a careless sleep Beneath an apple tree.

Four Winds

"Four winds blowing through the sky, You have seen poor maidens die, Tell me then what I shall do That my lover may be true." Said the wind from out the south, "Lay no kiss upon his mouth," And the wind from out the west, "Wound the heart within his breast," And the wind from out the east, "Send him empty from the feast," And the wind from out the north, "In the tempest thrust him forth; When thou art more cruel than he, Then will Love be kind to thee."

Debt

What do I owe to you Who loved me deep and long? You never gave my spirit wings Or gave my heart a song.

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

Faults

They came to tell your faults to me, They named them over one by one; I laughed aloud when they were done, I knew them all so well before,-- Oh, they were blind, too blind to see Your faults had made me love you more.

Buried Love

I have come to bury Love Beneath a tree, In the forest tall and black Where none can see.

I shall put no flowers at his head, Nor stone at his feet, For the mouth I loved so much Was bittersweet.

I shall go no more to his grave, For the woods are cold. I shall gather as much of joy As my hands can hold.

I shall stay all day in the sun Where the wide winds blow,-- But oh, I shall cry at night When none will know.

The Fountain

All through the deep blue night The fountain sang alone; It sang to the drowsy heart Of the satyr carved in stone.

The fountain sang and sang, But the satyr never stirred-- Only the great white moon In the empty heaven heard.

The fountain sang and sang While on the marble rim The milk-white peacocks slept, And their dreams were strange and dim.

Bright dew was on the grass, And on the ilex, dew, The dreamy milk-white birds Were all a-glisten, too.

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