Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)
The Old Maid
1I saw her in a Broadway car,
2 The woman I might grow to be;
3I felt my lover look at her
4 And then turn suddenly to me.
5Her hair was dull and drew no light
6 And yet its color was as mine;
7Her eyes were strangely like my eyes
8 Tho' love had never made them shine.
9Her body was a thing grown thin,
10 Hungry for love that never came;
11Her soul was frozen in the dark
12 Unwarmed forever by love's flame.
13I felt my lover look at her
14 And then turn suddenly to me, --
15His eyes were magic to defy
16 The woman I shall never be.
Notes
1] Broadway car: streetcar in the Manhattan entertainment district of New York City.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Rivers to the Sea (1915: New York: Macmillan, 1923):
11. PS 3539 E15R5 Robarts Library
First publication date:
1915
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2004
Recent editing: 1:2004/1/30
Form: quatrains
Rhyme: abcb
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