The moon is a curving flower of gold,
The sky is still and blue;
The moon was made for the sky to hold,
And I for you.
The moon is a flower without a stem,
The sky is luminous;
Eternity was made for them,
To-night for us.
Tonight
Analysis, meaning and summary of Sara Teasdale's poem Tonight
2 Comments
Leave a Reply to Caroline Cancel reply
Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Sara Teasdale better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.
As in her poem “Blue Squills,” Sara Teasdale pictures things in nature as being eternal, quite unlike human life. She appears to have no belief in everlasting life for the human soul. She is obviously speaking to a man that she loves, and the implication of the first stanza is clearly that just as the moon was made for the sky to hold, so I was made for you to hold. The second stanza states the idea that the moon and sky are eternal; therefore their embrace will last forever, but we are not like them. We have only tonight, only a very brief time to love each other. The suggestion is surely that we should not waste these precious moments and this opportunity for love.
Beautiful.