The Pathfinder Of The Seas

Initially Mai holds a negative perspective in “Mai closed her eyes and tried to recall her father's stories— but they rang shallow against the dense roaring slabs of water she'd just seen.” The hydrographia personifies the natural elements creating a pathetic fallacy, which reflects Mai’s initially pessimistic attitude as her hope is crushed by the harsh reality of her experiences on the boat. However, this provocative experience catalyses a transformed perception, as upon reaching the shore she thinks: “The boat would land - they would all land.” The epistrophe of “land” and high modality of “would” shows her renewed hopeful perspective, which would not have been possible without physically experiencing the harshness of being on the boat. Thus, the ability for discoveries to be far-reaching and transformative is seen through these provocative and confronting external experiences that transform individual perceptions.

Though written in a very light and simple manner, the poem comes across as something very profound, laden with meaning through its incongruities. The persona, wanting to see something, often goes to the well and looks down at the water to see it. This certain search below the water's surface can be compared to man's search beneath the human experience for meaning, for certainty.

This contrast serves to communicate the scattered nature of our consciousness with the unity, elegance and fluidity of our subconscious. Furthermore, these drawn out sounds serve to also further the imagery of the tide’s “uninterrupted sweep” which is particularly effective in conveying the image of the wave rushing to envelope the shore, the word “uninterrupted” conveying this sense that the wave of inspiration is all smooth and relentless. This imagery is furthered by the 3 line-long segment, uninterrupted by punctuation. Yet, the central point made in these four lines is when the speaker states that “(he) heard” the waves. The description of the sea gives you a mental image, but Longfellow stresses upon the fact that the speaker only hears the tide, as this can be seen reflected in the title of the poem “The Sound of the Sea”. Hearing is an auditory action that allows one to be aware of the presence of the object through the sound, but not visually or physically grasp it. This suggests that inspiration is similar, in the sense that one can be aware of it but cannot consciously grasp, control or dominate it.

In this poem the poet uses many techniques to engage and hook the audience. Dan Ashlin expresses how the ocean has a life of its own through personification, an example is “it dreams, it mopes, it stretches”. I appreciate how the poet has used verbs in this technique as it positions me to feel like I can relate to human emotions, movements and

Finally, when things are heating up between the two lonely travelers, so is the weather, which “was close indoors, while in the street the wind whirled the dust about” (Chekov 507) and their thirst is unrelenting no matter what they eat or drink to quench it. “One did not know what to do with oneself” (Chekov 507), seemingly, with the desire for one another that is beginning to blossom. On this particular evening, the couple makes way for the pier to watch the incoming ship. A crowd of people have gathered with many bouquets of flowers to greet arrivals. The churning ocean echoes the intensity of their attraction for each other, along with the mess of people surrounding them and Anna’s display of uneasiness and absentmindedness. As the crowd thins out,

The ocean strokes land with calm and reassuring hands, lacing water with sand and lifting seashells in its wake. My heart urges me forward, to walk among the peace, to capture the sweet smell of sea salt. My brain reasons with the rest of my body. Turning sharply from the churning water I force my feet to leave the warm imprint they have grown to love

The poem unfolds sequentially, beginning with surfaces and reflection, moving under water, then going deeper with each stanza, into the elemental depth.

As the poem continues into the second and third stanza the persona uses imagery as a tool to express natures power. From the water to the sky, Bogan’s poem describes how nature will continue to outlast humanity, thriving under a repeated cycle of life. Compared to the conditions described in “Night,” all human endeavors are naturalized. Line seven and eight explains, “shell and weed / wait upon the salt wash of the sea.” Long before the story of Adam and Eve, nature represented a powerful force of life and sustainment. Over thousands of years of tides, the “shell and weed” described by the auditor, are conditioned to expect resources from exterior conditions (7). Systematically, the universe provides nature will all conditions necessary for survival. A miracle. Even the “stars” located in outer space have a role as they swing their lights westward / to set behind the land”, the speaker suggests (9-11). Using imagery, the auditor is able to understand the universe attains limits much greater then humanity. Thomas Edison is credited

It’s easy to tell that the ocean is a mysterious and isolating place from all of the tragic tales we hear from sailors both real and fictional. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and an anonymous author’s “The Seafarer” are quite similar in that they both revolve around said tragic tales told by sailors. However, there seem to be more commonalities between their themes, tones, and messages rather than their seaward-bound settings. But before we can discuss these similar settings and deeper themes, we have to tackle their origins.

The speaker feels that faith has disappeared and has separated her or him from the "ebb and flow" of life. This lost faith is compared to a sea that is very similar to the sea described in the first stanza. Words of lightness and beauty are used once more. The shore "lays like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd." There is a sense of encompassing joy in this phrase. This bright and joyful image is then contrasted by the last five lines of the stanza. "The Sea of Faith" has now retreated, like a tide withdraws from the shore. It is interesting to note the similarities and differences between the words of these five lines and the words from the first stanza. The sweet "night-air"becomes "the night-wind," and the cliffs that were once "glimmering and vast" are still vast, but only dreary edges. The sea that was "round" and "full" has now left the world empty and exposed. Similarly, the speaker has lost his faith and feels alone and vulnerable.

Unlike the wandering narrator, the seafaring narrator focuses his descriptions of the community that is present in nature. The seafarer the utterly rejects the notion that a “sheltering family / could bring consolation for his desolate soul” (25-26). This “sheltering family” (25) that the seafaring narrator alludes to in this line is the exact form of close-knit family that the narrator in “The Wanderer” laments for desperately. While the seafaring narrator offers striking similar descriptions of the landscape being “bound by ice” (9), he does not focus on these descriptions to dwell on the loss of an earthly community. Instead, the narrator in “The Seafarer” finds the landscape that he inhabits wonderfully abundant with natural — even spiritual — elements that are commonly associated with an earthly community. In the barren landscape, the seafaring narrator discovers “the wild swan’s song / sometimes served for music” (19-20) and “the curlew’s cry for the laugher of men” (20-21). These vibrant and vivid descriptions of the natural world that the narrator discovers in the harsh,

“The Sound of the Sea” is a sonnet by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, describing the sounds of the sea and relating it to human inspiration. Through only auditory images of the sea and other powerful natural forces, Longfellow effectively alludes to the nature of human inspiration. Through detailed and sensory imagery, Longfellow communicates the subtle details of the human soul and how inspiration functions.

Oceans are a body of salt water, which are calm at times and furious the deeper you explore. Boats sink when they go to deep without knowing the circumstances or the outcomes of what lies ahead. People who seek gold or other valuable treasures dive down into the waters in search of abandoned boats. In “Oceans,” Dreamer uses similes, metaphors, personification, and shifts to show that fearlessness hides what is really on the inside. The poet compares herself to a ocean,

This poem is unique and more patently autobiographic unlike other romantic poems that were written during his era in the early 18th century by other fellow writers. Byron’s poem is entirely focused on the beauty and the fascination that he endures with the ocean. The title of the poem indicates the subject of the poem; it also has the first literary device that is seen throughout this poem. The word apostrophe is when the writer speaks to the ocean as if it can hear and respond. As a child Byron becomes aware of realities imperfections but the skepticism of his disillusionment coexisted with a lifelong propensity to seek ideal perfection in all of life experiences (Marchand). In the first stanza Byron expresses and underlines the feelings, fascination and his overwhelming love that he endures with the ocean.

When I was a little girl at early of my age, I spent a wonderful time with my grandma near a sea in my hometown during the last two months of her life. That was the first time we saw the smile back to her face since we got the news that she got intestine cancer. Back to that time I was deeply impressed by how being around the sea was capable to change people’s emotion in such a positive way. The poet, Pablo Neruda, in his poem “The Sea” illustrates how the sea teaches a trapped man a lesson on how to be released from struggling to find freedom and happiness. The three crucial poem-writing elements, sound, structure, and figurative language make the power of sea more vivid just like a picture we could see and have physical feelings about. And when we try to get a deeper understanding of the poem, it is the sound that we hear first.