Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A MAN WHO UNDERSTOOD WOMEN by SARA TEASDALE

Poet Analysis

First Line: HE MEETS HER TWICE OR THRICE A YEAR
Last Line: A SAINT, A SINNER, OR A FOOL.
Subject(s): WOMEN;
He meets her twice or thrice a year,
Sometimes less and sometimes more,
Each time they meet the stage is set
Exactly as the time before.

He is most glossy and most gay,
Witty, omniscient, and bland,
She is inscrutable and mild,
She lets him play his hand.

And if his pyrotechnics pale
A little on her moonlit sky
He scarcely knows that it is so,
And only vaguely wonders why.

And if he finds her eyes too wide,
A shade too deep, a shade too cool,
She lets him wonder which she is,
A saint, a sinner, or a fool.



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