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I Would Live in Your Love by Sara Teasdale

Summary, meaning, line-by-line analysis & FAQ.

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Sara Teasdale's "I Would Live in Your Love" is a brief yet powerful poem that expresses a deep desire to be fully immersed in another person's love, much like sea-grass sways under the ocean's influence.

Poet
Sara Teasdale
Core theme
Dreams
The PoemFull text

I Would Live in Your Love

Sara Teasdale

I would live in your love as the sea-grasses live in the sea, Borne up by each wave as it passes, drawn down by each wave that recedes; I would empty my soul of the dreams that have gathered in me, I would beat with your heart as it beats, I would follow your soul as it leads.

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

Sara Teasdale's "I Would Live in Your Love" is a brief yet powerful poem that expresses a deep desire to be fully immersed in another person's love, much like sea-grass sways under the ocean's influence. The speaker longs to let go of her own inner thoughts and dreams, seeking to align herself completely with her beloved's heartbeat and essence. This poem captures the beauty of surrender, portraying it as an enriching experience rather than something to fear.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. I would live in your love as the sea-grasses live in the sea, Borne up by each wave as it passes, drawn down by each wave that recedes;

    Editor's note

    Teasdale starts with a powerful image: sea-grass anchored to the ocean floor, swaying gently with each incoming wave and then drawn back by every retreating wave. The speaker wishes for her entire being, enveloped in her beloved's love, to mirror this experience — passive, rhythmic, and entirely influenced by external forces. Sea-grass offers no resistance, and that's crucial. She isn't seeking to *share* love; she longs to *exist within* it, just as a plant thrives in water.

  2. I would empty my soul of the dreams that have gathered in me, I would beat with your heart as it beats, I would follow your soul as it leads.

    Editor's note

    The second half of the stanza, which is just four lines long, shifts focus inward. The speaker is ready to let go of her own inner world—her personal dreams and aspirations—to create space for this love. The last two lines take this idea even further: she desires her heartbeat and soul to be in harmony with her beloved's. The phrase "I would" is repeated three times in these lines, adding a rhythmic urgency to the poem, almost like a vow being made.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

The tone feels both longing and quietly ecstatic. Teasdale doesn’t come across as desperate or sad; instead, she feels like someone who has made a choice and is at peace with it. The poem's long, flowing lines, crafted in a loose anapestic meter, create a wave-like rhythm that reflects the sea imagery, allowing the *sound* of the poem to bring its description to life. Overall, it conveys a sense of willing, even joyful, surrender.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

Sea-grasses
Sea-grass moves with the water, bending with each current. Teasdale uses this imagery to convey a love so profound that the lover feels like a natural part of the environment, alive yet completely molded by the beloved's actions.
The sea / waves
The sea represents the beloved's love — vast, rhythmic, and all-encompassing. The waves rising and falling reflect the natural ebb and flow of a relationship, and the speaker desires to experience every one of those movements instead of remaining detached from them.
Dreams
The "dreams that have gathered in me" reflect the speaker's personal inner life — her hopes, ambitions, and self-identity that have developed over time. Her willingness to let go of these dreams is the poem's boldest move: she's ready to exchange her unique inner world for complete unity with someone else.
Heartbeat
The heartbeat is the simplest, involuntary indicator of life. The desire to beat *with* her beloved's heart suggests that the speaker envisions a connection so profound that it transcends conscious thought — tapping into the body's own automatic rhythms.

§06Historical context

Historical context

Sara Teasdale wrote this poem in the early twentieth century, a time when she grappled with her deep romantic desires alongside the societal constraints on women's emotional and creative expressions. She released several collections — including *Rivers to the Sea* (1915) and *Love Songs* (1917), the latter winning the Columbia University Poetry Prize, which was a precursor to the Pulitzer — establishing her as one of the most popular American poets of her time. Teasdale's work represents the end of the Romantic lyric tradition, just before modernism shifted poetry toward irony and fragmentation. She used clear, musical language to explore themes of love, beauty, and inner emotions, even as those topics were being dismissed by the avant-garde. Her life was marked by loneliness and challenging relationships, which lends her poems of longing a personal depth, even when they come across as purely lyrical.

§07FAQ

Questions readers ask

The speaker desires to be so immersed in her beloved's love that she merges completely with them, much like sea-grass is enveloped by the ocean. She's ready to let go of her own dreams and personal thoughts to align perfectly with the one she loves.

Adjacent texts in the archive

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How Do I Love Thee — Elizabeth Barrett BrowningWild Nights Wild Nights — Emily DickinsonA Red, Red Rose — Robert BurnsLove Song of J. Alfred Prufrock — T. S. Eliot

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