I Am Not Yours
Sara Teasdale
I am not yours, not lost in you, Not lost, although I long to be Lost as a candle lit at noon, Lost as a snowflake in the sea. You love me, and I find you still A spirit beautiful and bright, Yet I am I, who long to be Lost as a light is lost in light. Oh plunge me deep in love—put out My senses, leave me deaf and blind, Swept by the tempest of your love, A taper in a rushing wind.
Of note
This poem has become a popular text for choral composers. David N. Childs and Z. Randall Stroope have set it for choir and Daron Hagen as a solo song, and Childs's version for treble choir is on its publisher's all-time best-seller list.
Poetry Tale: The Love Poet’s Secret Exit
FREE AND OPEN: Hello Doggo’s music, recordings and artwork: CC0 1.0, credit optional. The source poem has its own rights status: Poem is public domain.
TEXT PROVENANCE · First published October 1915 in Rivers to the Sea · Text from a 1918 reprinting of Love Songs (1917), via Project Gutenberg.
Love Songs (1917), Project Gutenberg ebook 442
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