By Sara Teasdale
The sun was gone, and the moon was coming
Over the blue Connecticut hills;
The west was rosy, the east was flushed,
And over my head the swallows rushed
This way and that, with changeful wills.
I heard them twitter and watched them dart
Now together and now apart
Like dark petals blown from a tree;
The maples stamped against the west
Were black and stately and full of rest,
And the hazy orange moon grew up
And slowly changed to yellow gold
While the hills were darkened, fold on fold
To a deeper blue than a flower could hold.
Down the hill I went, and then
I forgot the ways of men,
For night-scents, heady, and damp and cool
Wakened ecstasy in me
On the brink of a shining pool.
O Beauty, out of many a cup
You have made me drunk and wild
Ever since I was a child,
But when have I been sure as now
That no bitterness can bend
And no sorrow wholly bow
One who loves you to the end?
And though I must give my breath
And my laughter all to death,
And my eyes through which joy came,
And my heart, a wavering flame;
If all must leave me and go back
Along a blind and fearful track
So that you can make anew,
Fusing with intenser fire,
Something nearer your desire;
If my soul must go alone
Through a cold infinity,
Or even if it vanish, too,
Beauty, I have worshipped you.
Let this single hour atone
For the theft of all of me.
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Sunday's weather was even more gorgeous than Saturday's -- we slept with the windows open and woke to temperatures in the 60s. We had a quiet morning, Paul made eggs and pancakes, then we picked up my parents and we went to the National Museum of American History, which recently opened an Innovation Wing with exhibits on American invention and enterprise. We also went to see several other displays, including one on science fiction and creativity.
Paul, Adam, and my mother about to be "locked" in the vault of the currency exhibit...
...and the "beard tax" token inside.
An interactive exhibit on shared energy in the new Innovation Wing...
...and an original Barbie because she's an American innovation.
Paul, Adam, and my parents in front of the Lego American flag made by visitors to the museum.
Me in the Spark Lab cutout. Adam lists this as one of the tackier photos of me he's ever been asked to take.
A William Morris-illustrated copy of the utopian romance News from Nowhere in the Fantastic Worlds: Science and Fiction, 1780-1910 exhibit.
From the maritime exhibit, a large model of a merchant ship.
My parents took us out to dinner at Eggspectation in Silver Spring (having had eggs for brunch, I had the baked brie and raspberry glaze, which was delicious). Then we took my parents home and watched The Talented Mr. Ripley, which I hadn't seen in a long time and Adam had never seen; I still find the ending problematic both from a character/logic perspective and because there's a homophobic tone that really bugs me, but it's well acted and filmed.
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