POEMS ABOUT BEAUTY ...

The Unimaginative

Each form of beauty's but the new disguise

Of thoughts more beautiful than forms can be:

Skeptics, who search with unanointed eyes,

Never the Earth's wild fairy-dance shall see.

Madison Cawein

 

Spring Night

The park is filled with night and fog,

The veils are drawn about the world,

The drowsy lights along the paths

Are dim and pearled.

Gold and gleaming the empty streets,

Gold and gleaming the misty lake,

The mirrored lights like sunken swords,

Glimmer and shake.

Oh, is it not enough to be

Here with this beauty over me?

My throat should ache with praise, and I

Should kneel in joy beneath the sky.

O, beauty, are you not enough?

Why am I crying after love,

With youth, a singing voice, and eyes

To take earth's wonder with surprise?

Why have I put off my pride,

Why am I unsatisfied, --

I, for whom the pensive nightL

Binds her cloudy hair with light, --

I, for whom all beauty burns

Like incense in a million urns?

O beauty, are you not enough?

Why am I crying after love?

Sarah Teasdale

 

Barter

Life has lovelilness 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.

Sarah Teasdale