Love Songs

by Sara Teasdale
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

I
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

II
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

IV
A November Night

Love Songs
I

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?
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;

• shower [´ʃauə] n.展出者；阵雨；淋浴 (初中英语单词)
• sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
• running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
• breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
• lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
• hidden [´hid(ə)n] hide 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• brightness [´braitnis] n.光明；快乐 (高中英语单词)
• strife [straif] n.竞争；吵架；冲突 (高中英语单词)
• loveliness [´lʌvlinis] n.美丽，可爱 (英语四级单词)
• calling [´kɔ:liŋ] n.点名；职业；欲望 (英语六级单词)
• homeless [´həumlis] a.无家的 (英语六级单词)
• whereon [weər´ɔn] ad.在什么上面；因此 (英语六级单词)