Now while my lips are living
Their words must stay unsaid,
And will my soul remember
To speak when I am dead?
Yet if my soul remembered
You would not heed it, dear,
For now you must not listen,
And then you could not hear.
Love Poems by Sara Teasdale
Meaning of the Poem ‘Immortal’ by Sara Teasdale
In Immortal, Sara Teasdale reflects on the painful distance between inner emotion and outward expression, especially in the context of love left unspoken. The speaker longs to share their feelings, but holds back while alive, uncertain if death will finally allow those emotions to be voiced.
Even if the soul could carry these unspoken words into the afterlife, the poem laments that they would go unheard: either because the beloved cannot or will not receive them. This paradox of timing and silence leaves the love suspended, timeless yet unreachable.
The poem captures the ache of restraint and the tragic irony of communication thwarted by life’s limitations. It’s a quiet meditation on how the deepest feelings can be both enduring and forever unexpressed.
