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Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

The New Moon

Sara Teasdale

Day, you have bruised and beaten me,
As rain beats down the bright, proud sea,
Beaten my body, bruised my soul,
Left me nothing lovely or whole —
Yet I have wrested a gift from you,
Day that dies in dusky blue:

For suddenly over the factories
I saw a moon in the cloudy seas —
A wisp of beauty all alone
In a world as hard and gray as stone —
Oh who could be bitter and want to die
When a maiden moon wakes up in the sky?
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Flame and Shadow | Macmillian, 1920
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