Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Sara Teasdale

Waves are the sea’s white daughters,
 And raindrops the children of rain,
But why for my shimmering body
 Have I a mother like Pain?

Night is the mother of stars,
 And wind the mother of foam —
The world is brimming with beauty,
 But I must stay at home.

Online text © 1998-2009 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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