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Broken Things by Sara Teasdale

Broken Things
Sara Teasdale

Broken things are loveliest,
Broken clouds when dusk is red,
Broken waves where a rainbow rides,
Broken words left half unsaid.

Broken things, broken things—
How quietly they comfort me,
Riven cliffs, where I can watch
The broken beauty of the sea.

MARGINALIA

1.
This is for you. If you were waiting for a sign, this is it.

2.
You needed to break so you will understand that you are made of fragments. And that you can be put back together.

3.
This process—this living, this gathering of the self which has scattered—this is what is at stake, and not the pieces sliding into place.

4.
You will never get back everything. This is the risk of living. Of loving.

5.
You are stronger than you think.

ABOUT SARA TEASDALE

Sara Trevor Teasdale was born on August 8, 1884, in St. Louis, into an old, established, and devout family. She was home-schooled until she was nine and traveled frequently to Chicago, where she became part of the circle surrounding Poetry magazine and Harriet Monroe. Teasdale published Sonnets to Duse, and Other Poems (The Poet Lore Company), her first volume of verse, in 1907. Her second collection, Helen of Troy, and Other Poems (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), followed in 1911, and… (more)

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ENDNOTES

Comments (11)

  • V.

    thank you!

    reply
  • Ai~

    Somehow, your entry is even better than the actual poem. I can’t thank you enough for putting this blog up. God bless you.

    reply
  • Your pairings of your own words with the poems you choose are a source of continual amazement and inspiration to me. I’m reminded, too, of WCW, finding beauty in that shard of glass, and of Perelman’s Chronic Meanings, how so much is said in what is “half unsaid.”

    reply
  • i always looking forward for your entries. inspired with your selections and your words. everything are seems connected.

    reply
  • E.

    i would hug you if i could. thank you.

    reply
  • How I love this exactly tonight.

    reply
  • dan

    I’m so glad that one evening I came across your blog. I was searching for a particular poem and Read a Little Poetry was one of the search results. I’ve read so many poets’ work that I would never otherwise have come across. And I love your own writing. Such a wonderful engagement with art. Really pleased that you’re back. You have a fabulous sensibility.

    reply
  • I’m reminded of the line in Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem”: “There is a crack, a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.”

    reply
  • “Contradict yourself. In order to live, you must remain broken up.”

    – Wyndham Lewis

    reply
  • […] Broken Things by Sara Teasdale […]

    reply

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