The speaker in Sara Teasdale’s “A Prayer” makes a vow rather than a request for something small. She says that until she is dead to the world—blind to its beauty, deaf to music, and silent even amid joy—she wants to love with all her strength. The first stanza frames this as a limit: as long as she can still feel and perceive, she refuses to hold back. The second stanza repeats that idea plainly: until her heart is quenched and she has left the land of the living, let her love completely.
The final line carries the poem’s emotional weight. She does not ask to be loved back; she is willing to love “careless if I am loved again,” meaning she will not make affection depend on being returned. The mood is earnest and slightly melancholy—vulnerable, yet fiercely independent. It is a prayer for the courage to keep loving fully, even without guarantee.