Poetry Friday: "Winter Stars"

What is it about stars that is so evocative? I can't even answer my own question, but I know I'm not alone in loving their imagery. There's a lot I love about this poem, too--how perfectly it captures the sense of winter melancholy that finds us all from time to time, the slow shift in its tone from sorrow to quiet hope, and how well it echoes the sense of creeping peacefulness and slowed-down, utter stillness that one feels when standing outside late at night, looking up at the stars. And the last line of this poem is so lovely, I won't say anything more, I'll just let you read it.

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.