Sara Teasdale’s speaker lies awake while an old love and a new love struggle inside her. The past does not fade quietly: it returns like a ghost, and every kind word the old love once spoke now feels like a reproach. Those memories crowd around her bed, asking for loyalty. But she cannot give it. Whenever she tries to remember what she used to feel, she sees her new love’s eyes fixed on her, and that gaze pulls her forward. The mood is intimate, restless, and full of guilt. The real conflict is not which person she wants. She already knows. The harder question is whether following her new feelings means betraying the self who loved before. The closing lines leave her suspended between self-faithfulness and regret.
New Love and Old — Summary
In my heart the old love Struggled with the new; It was ghostly waking All night thru.
Dear things, kind things, That my old love said, Ranged themselves reproachfully Round my bed.
But I could not heed them, For I seemed to see The eyes of my new love Fixed on me.
Old love, old love, How can I be true? Shall I be faithless to myself Or to you?