by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933)
To a picture of Eleonora Duse in "The Dead City"
Language: English
Your face is set against a fervent sky, Before the thirsty hills that sevenfold Return the sun's hot glory, gold on gold, Where Agamemnon and Cassandra lie. Your eyes are blind whose light shall never die, And all the tears the closed eyelids hold, And all the longing that the eyes have told, Is gathered in the lips that make no cry. Yea, like a flower within a desert place, Whose petals fold and fade for lack of rain, Are these, your eyes, where joy of sight was slain, And in the silence of your lifted face, The cloud is rent that hides a sleeping race, And vanished Grecian beauty lives again.
Authorship:
- by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "To a Picture of Eleonora Duse in "The Dead City"", appears in Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Robert Owens (1925 - 2017), "To a picture of Eleonora Duse in "The Dead City"", op. 102 no. 2 [soprano and piano], from Four Sonnets to Duse, no. 2. [ sung text not verified ]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2013-05-15
Line count: 14
Word count: 112