Sara Teasdale’s speaker is walking along a long beach by herself, thinking of someone who loves this beauty as she does. The breaking waves sound like “measured thunder,” and that sound pulls her back to an earlier time when the two of them heard the same “monotone” together. The landscape around her—echoing dunes and a cold, sparkling silver sea—is beautiful but solitary. Her feeling is more than nostalgia; it edges into grief. She imagines that both of them will pass through death and long stretches of time before they can hear that sound together again. The mood is quiet and lonely, poised between love for the natural world and the ache of being separated from the person who would most share it.
"I Thought of You" — Summary
I thought of you and how you love this beauty, And walking up the long beach all alone I heard the waves breaking in measured thunder As you and I once heard their monotone.
Around me were the echoing dunes, beyond me The cold and sparkling silver of the sea-- We two will pass through death and ages lengthen Before you hear that sound again with me.