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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Song Making

Sara Teasdale

My heart cried like a beaten child
 Ceaselessly all night long;
I had to take my own cries
 And thread them into a song.

One was a cry at black midnight
 And one when the first cock crew —
My heart was like a beaten child,
 But no one ever knew.

Life, you have put me in your debt
 And I must serve you long —
But oh, the debt is terrible
 That must be paid in song.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Flame and Shadow | Macmillian, 1920
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