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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET TO ELEONORA DUSE (2) by SARA TEASDALE

Poet Analysis

First Line: YOUR BEAUTY LIVES IN MYSTIC MELODIES,
Last Line: And with the Orphean lay it trembles mute
Subject(s): DUSE, ELEONORA (1858-1924);

Your beauty lives in mystic melodies,
And all the light about you breathes a song.
Your voice awakes the dreaming airs that throng
Within our music-haunted memories.
The sirens' strain that sank within the seas
When men forgot to listen, floats along
Your voice's undercurrent soft and strong.
Sicilian shepherds pipe beneath the trees;
Along the purple hills of drifted sand,
A lone Egyptian plays an ancient flute;
At dawn the Memnon gives his old salute
Beside the Nile, by desert breezes fanned.
The music faints about you as you stand,
And with the Orphean lay it trembles mute.



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