Sara Teasdale’s speaker asks why she should worry that her songs do not seem to represent her. In the dreamy, drowsy mood of spring, she feels separate from the art she makes: the songs are only a fragrance or a call, while she is flint, fire, and the answer. That suggests something fiercer and more direct in her than the soft music on the page. The second stanza turns to love and time. Since love will not last, she wants her heart to speak freely while her proud mind stays quiet. The poem creates a mood of bittersweet urgency, part defiance and part tenderness. It insists that feeling, not careful thought, is what truly produces a song; the singer is almost a bystander to her own emotion.
"What Do I Care?" — Summary
What do I care, in the dreams and the languor of spring, That my songs do not show me at all? For they are a fragrance, and I am a flint and a fire, I am an answer, they are only a call.
But what do I care, for love will be over so soon, Let my heart have its say and my mind stand idly by, For my mind is proud and strong enough to be silent, It is my heart that makes my songs, not I.