Triolets

I

Love looked back as he took his flight,
And lo, his eyes were filled with tears.
Was it for love of lost delight
Love looked back as he took his flight?
Only I know while day grew night,
Turning still to the vanished years,
Love looked back as he took his flight,
And lo, his eyes were filled with tears.


II
(Written in a copy of "La Vita Nuova". For M. C. S.)

If you were Lady Beatrice
And I the Florentine,
I'd never waste my time like this--
If you were Lady Beatrice
I'd woo and then demand a kiss,
Nor weep like Dante here, I ween,
If you were Lady Beatrice
And I the Florentine.


III
(Written in a copy of "The Poems of Sappho".)

Beyond the dim Hesperides,
The girl who sang them long ago
Could never dream that over seas,
Beyond the dim Hesperides,
The wind would blow such songs as these--
I wonder now if she can know,
Beyond the dim Hesperides,
The girl who sang them long ago?


IV

Dead leaves upon the stream
And dead leaves on the air--
All of my lost hopes seem
Dead leaves upon the stream;
I watch them in a dream,
Going I know not where,
Dead leaves upon the stream
And dead leaves on the air.


Sara Teasdale