Skagen Beach by Carl Locher (1913)
Sonnet I: Along the Sea
I walked alone and searched along the sea
for pearls, finding many fair and bright,
yet ne’er they sparkl’d nor brought me much delight.
Though pale and lustrous in their seaborn beauty,
they never won their much-applauded fame,
for though they are the seashore’s fairest sight,
their beauty pales to things in cities white,
whose tow’rs and iv’ry walls put them to shame.
And finer still within the city fair,
a woman lives with eyes much like the sea,
with tender skin and night-sky-colored hair
worn past her breast, a peerless beauty, she
whose handsome rosy cheeks and ruddy lips,
by mind yet keener still are far eclipsed.
