The Wind in the Hemlock
Sara Teasdale 1884 (St. Louis) – 1933 (New York City)
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."
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 02, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 164 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABBCC DDEEFFGG CCHH ICCXIJCCJKLLCKLL CCFXCC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,277 |
Words | 255 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 8, 4, 16, 6 |
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"The Wind in the Hemlock" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/34594/the-wind-in-the-hemlock>.
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