“Dusk in Autumn” (A Poem)

Dusk is a reoccurring theme in the poetry of Sara Teasdale – “Central Park at Dusk,” “Dusk in Autumn,” and “Dusk in War Time.” In “Dusk in Autumn,” the poetess weaves a collection of seemingly mismatched symbols (the Masonic scimitar, crescent, and star alluded to in the first stanza[1] and the Christian soul cakes referenced in the second stanza[2]) into a vague tale of a coven’s autumn meeting and the narrator’s desire to join their festivities.

The moon is like a scimitar,

A little silver scimitar,

A-drifting down the sky.

And near beside it is a star,

A timid twinkling golden star,

That watches likes an eye.

And thro’ the nursery window-pane

The witches have a fire again,

Just like the ones we make, –

And now I know they’re having tea,

I wish they’d give a cup to me,

With witches’ currant cake.[3]

Works Referenced

Bogle, Joanna. A Book of Feasts and Seasons. Herefordshire: Gracewing, 1986.

Prescott, Winward. Masonic Bookplates. Boston: The Four Seas Company, 1918. 

Teasdale, Sara. “Dusk in Autumn.” Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems. Boston: The Poet Lore Company, 1907. 35.

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[1]Prescott, 11. 

[2] Bogle, 174.

[3] Teasdale, 35.