About this work:
"Winter Stars" was written by Pulitzer Prize winning
American poet Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) and was first
published in 1920 in the collection "Flame & Shadow." She
grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, found acclaim while living in
New York City, and became disillusioned in her later years.
Perhaps she was writing this poem with WW I in mind; it
rings as true today with our current wars. In basic language
she addresses universal themes. The poem's optimism
doesn't fully resonate until the last verse, indeed the last
line. The poem touched me in several ways. The music
develops from the melody in the first verse, heard in sixths,
in Em, around a pedal tone: the constancy of the heavens.
The melody is heard again, but this time simultaneously
inverted. When the stars are mentioned, we move from
minor to major. In the 3rd verse, about the innocence of
childhood, all voices move together into three-part harmony
in major keys (with a subtle key shift in the third line). The
last verse includes the lyric "All things are changed, save in
the east.." It begins with all voices singing the inverted
melody in harmony; it goes from E major, to G major, and
concludes with the melody un-inverted, in E major.
Winter Stars
by Sara Teasdale
I went out at night alone;
The young blood flowing beyond the sea
Seemed to have drenched my spirit’s wings—
I bore my sorrow heavily.
But when I lifted up my head
From shadows shaken on the snow,
I saw Orion in the east
Burn steadily as long ago.
From windows in my father’s house,
Dreaming my dreams on winter nights,
I watched Orion as a girl
Above another city’s lights.
Years go, dreams go, and youth goes too,
The world’s heart breaks beneath its wars,
All things are changed, save in the east
The faithful beauty of the stars.
Source: Flame and Shadow (1920)
This text is in the public domain.