Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Sara Teasdale

My forefathers gave me
 My spirit’s shaken flame,
The shape of hands, the beat of heart,
 The letters of my name.

But it was my lovers,
 And not my sleeping sires,
Who gave the flame its changeful
 And iridescent fires;

As the driftwood burning
 Learned its jewelled blaze
From the sea’s blue splendor
 Of colored nights and days.

Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Flame and Shadow | Macmillian, 1920

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Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

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