I have no riches but my thoughts, Yet these are wealth enough for me; My thoughts of you are golden coins Stamped in the mint of memory;
And I must spend them all in song, For thoughts, as well as gold, must be Left on the hither side of death To gain their immortality.
Sara Teasdale’s speaker claims a different kind of wealth. She has no money, but her thoughts—especially memories of a beloved—are enough. She turns those thoughts into “golden coins / Stamped in the mint of memory,” an image of memory as the place where love is made precious and permanent.
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