Two Songs for Solitude

by Sara Teasdale


Original Language English

The Crystal Gazer

I shall gather myself into myself again,
     I shall take my scattered selves and make them one,
I shall fuse them into a polished crystal ball
     Where I can see the moon and the flashing sun.
 
I shall sit like a sibyl, hour after hour intent,
     Watching the future come and the present go--
And the little shifting pictures of people rushing
     In tiny self-importance to and fro.


The Solitary

Let them think I love them more than I do,
     Let them think I care, though I go alone,
If it lifts their pride, what is it to me
     Who am self-complete as a flower or a stone?
 
It is one to me that they come or go
     If I have myself and the drive of my will,
And strength to climb on a summer night
     And watch the stars swarm over the hill.
 
My heart has grown rich with the passing of years,
     I have less need now than when I was young
To share myself with every comer,
     Or shape my thoughts into words with my tongue.
 

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Dark of the Moon The Collected Poems Christmas Carol Rivers to the Sea



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