Come, when the pale moon like a petal
Floats in the pearly dusk of spring,
Come with arms outstretched to take me,
Come with lips pursed up to cling.
Come, for life is a frail moth flying
Caught in the web of the years that pass,
And soon we two, so warm and eager
Will be as the gray stones in the grass.
Love Poems by Sara Teasdale
Meaning of the Poem ‘Come’ by Sara Teasdale
In ‘Come’, Sara Teasdale distils a yearning for love into a moment of delicate intensity. The speaker beckons their beloved beneath a pale spring moon, evoking the softness of dusk and the sweetness of intimacy. There is a sensual immediacy to the request – arms open, lips pursed – set against the tender vulnerability of nature and night. The romantic longing is heightened by the fragility of the setting, with the moon described as a drifting petal and life itself likened to a moth caught in a web.
The second stanza deepens the urgency, reminding both lover and reader of mortality. Time passes swiftly, and the warmth of love may soon turn to stone. Teasdale evokes the ephemeral nature of human connection: vivid and alive now, but inevitably fading. This awareness makes the speaker’s plea all the more compelling: to love now, while they still can, before their shared warmth is lost to the grass and grave.
