Analysis of Seascape Essay

When I think of the sea, I picture the cool breeze blowing on my face, the peaceful sound of the waves or the sun setting in the background. However, when I read the newspaper, a different picture of the sea has been painted. There are reports on the Tsunami splashed across the front page, or how a ship has capsized due to the furry of the sea. In the poem Seascape by Stephen Spender, we come face to face with this two-faced nature of the sea. Spender has described the two contrasting views of the ocean through the shift between the praising tone towards the ocean and the tone of resentment in stanza three, where he has attempt to convey sadness towards the loss of human lives to the furies of the sea.

The first stanza begins with a tone of appreciation towards the sea. There are some days the happy ocean lies, setting the tone of the poem as very calm and peaceful, like an unfingered harp. When the harp is played it creates music just like when the sea is not calm we can hear the sound of the waves. As the afternoon gilds all the silent wires, the poet describes the setting of the sun and its orange color reflected in the sea. Sensory and visual imagery is used as the poet says into a burning music for the eyes, and this imagery is used to show that as the waves start to appear during sunset it creates music for the ears and a picturesque view for the eyes. The reflection of the sunlight is seen through the mirrors flashing between the fine-strung fires, and these fine- strung fires represent the uniformity of the waves and the suns reflection in between the ebbs and tides of the waves. These fine-strung fires are also compared to the harps wires and the space in between these wires is equal as the distance between the ebb and tide of the wave are equal. The alliteration in mirrors flashing between fine-strung fires, brings attention to the strong image created.

It is almost like the sea is able to pull its spectators with romance, roses, horses, spires and allow them to walk on ribbed sand, posing no danger at all. This could also be that the beach is heaped up with roses that were left on the sea shore for the deceased and horses are used to drive the coffin to the cemetery. These funerals could have been for the voyagers who were lost and consequently died at sea. Although the poet has painted a beautiful picture of the ocean, hiding the imperfections of the ocean through the absence of the use of enjambment, the uneven rhyming pattern, ABCACCB, appears to belie this sense of appreciation. Despite the rhyming being done in major rhyme, the pattern is chaotic and unstructured.

The second stanza furthers this impression with another irregular pattern, CBBACA, using the same end rhymes as the stanza above. All this calmness that existed in the first paragraph is now disturbed with the sigh, and this sigh brushes upon the calmness and disrupts it. The first four lines of the stanza feature no ending punctuation, and the only remnant of the above pattern is the two final lines, ending with hedged in shires; and hushing wave buries. The shift in pattern is accompanied by the beginnings of a shift in diction, with words such as shadowing hand and sharp cries and buries creating a darker tone. Shadowing hand brings about an eerie feeling like when you know something is there but you cannot see it. This shadowing hand, could also refer to the seagulls flying across the sea and their hand-like shadow is reflected in the water. These seagulls then brush over the waves as though they are touching the wires of the harp as the poet says, Drawing across its wires some gulls sharp cries, and the cries refer to sea gulls cries as they fly over the ocean. These, deep as anchors, the hushing wave buries, refers to the ability of the sea to drown the noise around. This could also be referring to the voices of the drowning voyagers, whose voices could be heard no more when they died and the sea buried them. The peaceful seascape is slowing eroding.

Eventually, the praising tone towards the sea collapses in the third stanza, with the tone shifting dramatically in the second half of the stanza with the shift from the frolicking of the butterflies two zig-zag butterflies like errant dog-roses to the sentence they drown. The rhyming pattern here runs ABCAB, finally nearing a regular rhyming pattern, and then collapses with the final minor rhyme between sacrifice and butterflies. In this stanza, the poet has portrayed the voyagers as happy and foolish enough to go on a journey that may result in their death. The link between the voyagers and the butterflies Spiralling over sea in foolish greys, until they fall into reflected skies refers to how the sky is reflected in the water and the butterflies mistaken the sea for the sky, heading towards it and downing instead. Similarly, voyagers drown as a result of their willingness to go out into the dangerous sea. However, the poet makes it seem as if this downing is a sacrifice or a ritual and makes the voyagers seem noble with such wings that sunk in rital sacrifice.

The final stanza presents another attempt at a structured rhyming pattern, ABCABC, but then falls apart with the final and seventh line in the stanza, breaking the symmetry of the pattern. In this way, the poet purposefully presents the reader with a view of the flaws of the sea. No matter its happy, innocent appearance, the consistently imperfect rhyming pattern reveals the poets darker perspective on the sea. The poet presents us with an ocean contorted and cruel like a badly played harp, trying but never succeeding to achieve, in sound, the appearance of perfection.