"I Love You" by Sara Teasdale

When April bends above me
And finds me fast asleep,
Dust need not keep the secret
A live heart died to keep.

When April tells the thrushes,
The meadow-larks will know,
And pipe the three words lightly
To all the winds that blow.

Above his roof the swallows,
In notes like far-blown rain,
Will tell the little sparrow
Beside his window-pane.

O sparrow, little sparrow,
When I am fast asleep,
Then tell my love the secret
That I have died to keep.


Teasdale, Sara. "I Love You." Poetry.org: From the Academy of American Poets. Academy of American Poets, 2011. Web. 19 Apr 2011. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19424.




About Sara Teasdale

While born in St. Louis, Missouri (1884), Sara Teasdale traveled frequently to Chicago, where she was a part of the magazine titled Poetry. Teasdale published her first volume of poetry in 1907, with another following in 1911, and a third collection in 1915. Teasdale married Ernst Filsinger in 1914, and moved to New York City. In 1918, Teasdale won the Columbia University Poetry Society Prize (a prize that became the Pulitzer) in addition to winning the Poetry Society of America Prize for Love Songs (1917). She and her husband divorced in 1929. Teasdale only published three more collections of poetry during her lifetime, with the final installment published in 1930. Sadly, Teasdale committed suicide in 1933 after being weakened by pneumonia. Her last collection, titled Strange Victory was published posthumously in the same year. Much like Elinor Wylie, Teasdale’s work has been called simple, but written with clarity about her subject matter.


"Sara Teasdale" Poetry.org: From the Academy of American Poets. Academy of American Poets, 2011. Web. 19 Apr 2011. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/658.




Using the first stanza as a guide, I believe that the subject of this poem has passed away, though I also do not get the feeling that this is a poem written for one depressed either. I believe that this poem is stating the fact that love will continue even after death. Instead of being transferred through word of mouth, the love passes from the April sprigs of grass (not stated, but implied in stanza one), to the thrushes and meadow-larks (stanza two), to the swallows (stanza three), then a sparrow (also stanza three), of the love carried by the one who is no longer here. Then that little sparrow will tell her still-living lover (stanza four) of her secret: she loves him still.
Perhaps their love was not one allowed by society, perhaps pride stood in the way, or a million other things could have gone wrong. Whatever happened, I don’t believe that the one being admired in this poem is knowledgeable of the fact. The voice keeps alluding to her “secret” and that it is one that she has died to keep. Maybe she died of a broken heart, or maybe it was self-inflicted because of a love that could never be.
I believe that this poem has both hopeful moments (the various symbols of spring and continuing life along with the spreading of her secret) and tragic ones (the love constantly kept secret). While analyzing this poem, I did get slightly confused as to what I thought it meant, personally, and the two scenarios above are somewhat contradictory. But--not to dig deep into the pool of mushy-ness--isn’t that kind of how love works? Just an ending thought!