Song at Capri
When beauty grows too great to bear
How shall I ease me of its ache,
For beauty more than bitterness
Makes the heart break.
Now while I watch the dreaming sea
With isles like flowers against her breast,
Only one voice in all the world
Could give me rest.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 15, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Song at Capri” was included in Sara Teasdale’s collection Love Songs (Macmillan, 1925). About Teasdale’s work, poet and editor Maggie Millner writes in her essay “Sara Teasdale in The Yale Review,” published by The Yale Review (2026), “Teasdale was best known for short, gauzy poems about romantic love. She had a strong musical ear, favoring ballad stanzas and referring to many of her poems as ‘songs’ or ‘lyrics.’”
Sara Teasdale
Born in 1884, Sara Trevor Teasdale's work was characterized by its simplicity and clarity and her use of classical forms.