Steely stars and moon of brass, How mockingly you watch me pass!
You know as well as I how soon I shall be blind to stars and moon, Deaf to the wind in the hemlock tree, Dumb when the brown earth weighs on me.
With envious dark rage I bear, Stars, your cold complacent stare;Heart-broken in my hate look up, Moon, at your clear immortal cup, Changing to gold from dusky red --Age after age when I am dead To be filled up with light, and then Emptied, to be refilled again.
What has man done that only he Is slave to death -- so brutally Beaten back into the earth Impatient for him since his birth?
Oh let me shut my eyes, close out The sight of stars and earth and be Sheltered a minute by this tree.
Hemlock, through your fragrant boughs There moves no anger and no doubt, No envy of immortal things.
The night-wind murmurs of the sea With veiled music ceaselessly, That to my shaken spirit sings.
From their frail nest the robins rouse, In your pungent darkness stirred, Twittering a low drowsy word --And me you shelter, even me.
In your quietness you house The wind, the woman and the bird.
You speak to me and I have heard:
If I am peaceful, I shall see Beauty's face continually;Feeding on her wine and bread I shall be wholly comforted, For she can make one day for me Rich as my lost eternity.
[End of original text.]
Biographical Note:
Sara Teasdale (1884-1933):
Teasdale was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where she attended a school that was founded by the grandfather of another great poet from St. Louis --T. S. Eliot. She later associated herself more with New York City.
Her first book of poems was "Sonnets to Duse" (1907), but "Helen of Troy" (1911) was the true launch of her career, followed by "Rivers to the Sea" (1915), "Love Songs" (1917), "Flame and Shadow" (1920) and more. Her final volume, "Strange Victory", is considered by many to be predictive of her suicide in 1933.
From an anthology of verse by Jessie B. Rittenhouse (1913, 1917):
"Teasdale, Sara (Mrs. Ernst B. Filsinger). Born in St. Louis, Missouri, August 10, 1884. Educated at private schools. She is the author of "Sonnets to Duse", 1907; "Helen of Troy, and Other Poems", 1911;"Rivers to the Sea", 1915; "Love Songs", 1917. Editor of "The Answering Voice: A Hundred Love Lyrics by Women", 1917.
Miss Teasdale is a lyric poet of an unusually pure and spontaneous gift."
