Explore "By the Sea" by Sara Teasdale on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Beside an ebbing northern sea / While stars awaken one by one, / We walk together, I and he.
He woos me with an easy grace / That proves him only half sincere; / A light smile flickers on his face.
To him love-making is an art, / And as a flutist plays a flute, / So does he play upon his heart
A music varied to his whim. / He has no use for love of mine, / He would not have me answer him.
To hide my eyes within the night / I watch the changeful lighthouse gleam / Alternately with red and white.
My laughter smites upon my ears, / So one who cries and wakes from sleep / Knows not it is himself he hears.
What if my voice should let him know / The mocking words were all a sham, / And lips that laugh could tremble so?
What if I lost the power to lie, / And he should only hear his name / In one low, broken cry?