Barter Comments

I am now 90 years old and learned this poem in the 7th grade. I have never forgotten it and love it still.

We sang this in grade school. It helped form a life phylosophy. Stll loved at 88 years old

' Soaring fire that sways and sings, ' - best line. The arrangement of this is lovely. I love the imagery and metaphors, here. Great write. Xx NDS

She makes writing seem so easy that all you have to do is put a pen in your hand and beautiful words and images and wisdom will flow out onto the page as easy as water flows downhill.

She compares this kind of selling with a barter transaction.'Blue waves whitened on a cliff' make us think of purity, especially because the children are mentioned immediately after that. The cosmos has a perfect, eternal equilibrium. 'Loveliness' is a 'white singing ', the purity of voice necessary for peace. This poem is a pleading for love.Voted 10.

The fire creates earth (the ash) , the earth absorbs the water, the water quenches the fire and nourishes the wood, the wood feeds the fire and creates the oxygen by photosynthesis. The pine is a biblical, evergreen tree. Sara Teasdale wants to prove that love is precious and not for sale.

By using the alliteration, the personification, or simile, Sara Teasdale wrote a splendid poem in iambic tetrameter, a poem about love. The primordial elements used by the poetess are water ('blue waves') , fire ('soaring fire') , air (breath of ecstasy') , and earth ('scent of pine trees') are energies or transitions for the cosmogonic dimension of love.

Life has loveliness to sell! ! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

3: 16 My favorite poet who struggled with mental illness, untill she took her life as did so many poets back then.. James McLain

We, the ordinary mortals, can learn a great deal from this poem- A practical guide. Thanks. For one white singing hour of peace Count many a year of strife well lost,

And for a breath of ecstasy Give all you have been, or could be. Nice summation and inference. Loved the poem.

I think this is one of the most beautiful poems in the world!

I learned from my English teacher that Sara inspires about rejuvenation in Scent of pine trees in the rain

Great poetic expression on life and it so marvelous.

A delightfully skillful expression of sentiment in popular visions of nature and human sensitivities.

This is a fine piece to express, grab happiness while you can, for one hour's happiness is worth more than a lifetime of lonliness. Very touching, it is one of my favoirties of Sara Teasdale. Bonnie Collins

Another Amazing, Amazing poem by a Brilliant poet! words to live by 'Spend all you have for loveliness, Buy it and never count the cost; For one white singing hour of peace Count many a year of strife well lost, And for a breath of ecstasy Give all you have been, or could be. ' Loving this poem...so happy I read it today as I forgot about how great it really was! =Shelley=

not up to Ms. Teasdale high standards. see: Thomas Love Beddoes, 'If there were dreams to sell...' and Emerson's 'Give all to love...' too deriative.