Sara Teasdale Sara Teasdale Two Songs for Solitude
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.
- Sara Teasdale