[Editor's Note: This book, as originally published, contains many selections taken from two of Teasdale's previous works, Rivers to the Sea and Helen of Troy and Other Poems. Only a few of these poems are included in this online version, primarily in cases where Teasdale made slight changes from earlier versions. Note that she left instructions for only about 15 of the works from sections I and III be included in her Collected Poems. Modifications are individually noted for each poem. -- Steve]

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.

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.

Pierrot

PIERROT stands in the garden

     Beneath a waning moon,

And on his lute he fashions

     A fragile silver tune.           [A little silver tune.]

Pierrot plays in the garden,

     He thinks he plays for me,

But I am quite forgotten

     Under the cherry tree.

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           [And the clever little daisies ]

     Always knew.

Now the fields are brown and barren,

     Bitter autumn blows,

And of all the stupid asters

     Not one knows.

Buried Love

I HAVE come to bury Love           [I shall bury my weary 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           [But oh, I shall weep at night]

     When none will know.

The Fountain

ALL through the deep blue night           [On in 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 And 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.

The fountain sang and sang

     The things one cannot tell;

The dreaming peacocks stirred

     And the gleaming dew-drops fell.

A Prayer

UNTIL I lose my soul and lie

     Blind to the beauty of the earth,

Deaf though shouting wind goes by,           [Deaf tho' a lyric 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.

May Wind

I SAID, "I have shut my heart

     As one shuts an open door,

That Love may starve therein

     And trouble me no more."

But over the roofs there came

     The wet new wind of May,

And a tune blew up from the curb

     Where the street-pianos play.

My room was white with the sun

     And Love cried out in me,

"I am strong, I will break your heart

     Unless you set me free."

Tides

LOVE in my heart was a fresh tide flowing

     Where the starlike sea gulls soar;

The sun was keen and the foam was blowing

     High on the rocky shore.

But now in the dusk the tide is turning,

     Lower the sea gulls soar,

And the waves that rose in resistless yearning

     Are broken forevermore.

After Love

THERE is no magic any more,           [There is no magic when we meet,]

     We meet as other people do,           [We speak as other people do,]

You work no miracle for me

     Nor I for you.

You were the wind and I the sea --

     There is no splendor any more,

I have grown listless as the pool

     Beside the shore.

But though the pool is safe from storm

     And from the tide has found surcease,

It grows more bitter than the sea,

     For all its peace.

The Kiss

I HOPED that he would love me,

     And he has kissed my mouth,

But I am like a stricken bird

     That cannot reach the south.

For though I know he loves me,

     To-night my heart is sad;

His kiss was not so wonderful

     As all the dreams I had.

November

THE world is tired, the year is old,

     The fading leaves are glad to die,           [The faded leaves are glad to die]

The wind goes shivering with cold

     Where the brown reeds are dry.

Our love is dying like the grass,

     And we who kissed grow coldly kind,

Half glad to see our old love pass           [Half glad to see our poor love pass ]

     Like leaves along the wind.

Spring Rain

I THOUGHT I had forgotten,

     But it all came back again

To-night with the first spring thunder

     In a rush of rain.

I remembered a darkened doorway

     Where we stood while the storm swept by,

Thunder gripping the earth

     And lightning scrawled on the sky.

The passing motor busses swayed,

     For the street was a river of rain,

Lashed into little golden waves

     In the lamp light's stain.

With the wild spring rain and thunder

     My heart was wild and gay;

Your eyes said more to me that night

     Than your lips would ever say. . . .

I thought I had forgotten,

     But it all came back again

To-night with the first spring thunder

     In a rush of rain.

The Ghost

I WENT back to the clanging city,

     I went back where my old loves stayed,

But my heart was full of my new love's glory,

     My eyes were laughing and unafraid.

I met one who had loved me madly

     And told his love for all to hear --

But we talked of a thousand things together,

     The past was buried too deep to fear.

I met the other, whose love was given

     With never a kiss and scarcely a word --

Oh, it was then the terror took me

     Of words unuttered that breathed and stirred.

Oh, love that lives its life with laughter

     Or love that lives its life with tears

Can die -- but love that is never spoken

     Goes like a ghost through the winding years. . . .

I went back to the clanging city,

     I went back where my old loves stayed,

My heart was full of my new love's glory, --

     But my eyes were suddenly afraid.

Jewels

IF I should see your eyes again,

     I know how far their look would go --

Back to a morning in the park

     With sapphire shadows on the snow.

Or back to oak trees in the spring

     When you unloosed my hair and kissed

The head that lay against your knees

     In the leaf shadow's amethyst.

And still another shining place

     We would remember -- how the dun

Wild mountain held us on its crest

     One diamond morning white with sun.

But I will turn my eyes from you

     As women turn to put away

The jewels they have worn at night

     And cannot wear in sober day.