Summary

In the first quatrain, the speaker states her intention to gather the disparate parts of herself. She aims to recover all these scattered selves and reunify them into a polished surface that will allow her to see the moon and sun. She calls her unified self a polished crystal ball.

In the second quatrain, the speaker shares her plan to sit like a prophetess as the hours go by. The future will arrive as the present departs, and the image in the speaker's crystal ball shifts. She watches people rush about in a restless and self-concerned manner, all the while maintaining a calm and contemplative attitude.

Analysis

In her poem "The Crystal Gazer," Teasdale embraces the Modernist sensibilities of introspection and existentialism while remaining rooted in a classical tradition. She accomplishes the latter by using a conventional form: two quatrains with ABCB rhyme schemes...