After a love ends, the speaker compares her heart to a hollow ledge on the shore after the tide has gone out. A little pool of water remains, but it is cut off from the sea that once filled it. The water is tepid, still, and slowly drying inward from the edges. That image captures the feeling of loss: not always violent or dramatic, but quiet, empty, and fading. The love is gone, yet something of it lingers as a shallow, stagnant pool. The speaker has no illusion that the tide will return; she simply recognizes what is left behind. The mood is subdued and resigned, with a sadness that comes from stillness and depletion rather than sharp pain.
Ebb — Summary
I know what my heart is like Since your love died: It is like a hollow ledge Holding a little pool Left there by the tide, A little tepid pool, Drying inward from the edge.