The Poetic Wardrobe {Exiled}

I live by the ocean. But I live in a city by the ocean. There's barely a beach. Mainly, it's a busy wharf filled with touristy stores and restaurants. Except for the seagulls, you sometimes forget how close by the turbulent ocean you are. 

Last Winter and Spring, we spent several months living by the sea in a more rustic environment. Lately, I've been missing those months, and I've dreamed of living in an even more rustic oceanside community. As usual, Edna St. Vincent Millay (one of my favorite lyric poets and a fellow Mainer) sums up my feelings quite well.

Exiled

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Searching my heart for its true sorrow,

This is the thing I find to be:

That I am weary of words and people,

Sick of the city, wanting the sea;

Wanting the stick, salty sweetness

Of the strong wind and shattered spray,

Wanting the loud sound and the soft sound

Of the big surf that breaks all day.

Always before about my dooryard,

Marking the reach of the winter sea,

Rooted in sand and dragging driftwood,

Straggled the purple wild sweet pea.

Always I climbed the wave at morning,

Shook the sand from my shoes at night,

That now am caught beneath big buildings,

Stricken with noise, confused with light.

If I could hear the green piles groaning.

Under the windy, wooden piers, 

See once again the bobbing barrels,

And the black sticks that fence the weirs;

If I could see the weedy mussels

Crusting the wrecked and rotting hulls,

Hear once again the hungry crying

Overhead, of the wheeling gulls;

Feel once again the shanty straining

Under the turning of the tide,

Fear once again the rising freshet,

Dread the bell in the fog outside,

I should be happy!--that was happy

All day long on the coast of Maine.

I have a need to hold and handle

Shells and anchors and ships again.

I should be happy, that am happy.

Never at all since I came here.

I am too long away from water;

I have a need of water near. 

Outfit Details

Dress: Handmade by Me - Colette Patterns Peony

Sweater: Gap

Glasses: Unkown

Belt: Thrifted 

Oh, and yes, that is Winnie the Pooh on my dress. And no, Winnie the Pooh has nothing to do with the poem.