WORDS FOR AN OLD AIR by Sara Teasdale
Your heart is bound tightly, let
Beauty beware;
It is not hers to set
Free from the snare.
Tell her a bleeding hand
Bound it and tied it;
Tell her the knot will stand
Though she deride it.
One who withheld so long
All that you yearned to take,
Has made a snare too strong
For Beauty’s self to break.
Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was an American lyric poet known for her intimate and emotional poetry. Her collections, including “Helen of Troy and Other Poems” (1911) and “Love Songs” (1918), which won the first Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, established her as a leading poet of her time. Despite personal struggles, Teasdale’s work remains widely admired for its beauty, simplicity, and depth.
