Intangible, untamed, When its a symbol for carnal longings as this poem appears to be. Inspired by Cincinnati Poet Laureate Yalie Saweda Kamara's "Haiku Love Letters for Gabby Douglas," we thought about the density of haiku and how, in a series, they offer different angles on the same topic and are more powerful than they look. Night after night her purple traffic Childlike though the world ye spanned; With so many ways to use seaside imagery, poets have been drawing inspiration from the shoreline since the dawn of rhyme. Sirs, / in that great vault. Are there works still to do? . Sea-Shore Musingsby Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon. William Butler Yeats's exploration of enduring love makes this one of the most famous love poems to date. Like so much Anglo-Saxon literature, The Seafarer was almost lost forever. love the ocean sound the clash of the waves the hot sun beaming on the hot sand the ice cream melting cold and frezzing cold. Thats hard to talk about, because where I live has no boundaries. Cities not built to last Petrels were, and larks ashore. Whether youre near the shore or a landlocked poetry-lover, its hard to deny the powerful imagery of the sea. Watching the waves crash against the rocks. Extended Hempen Hands Untamed and wild, My life is like a stroll upon the beach,As near the oceans edge as I can go;My tardy steps its waves sometimes oerreach,Sometimes I stay to let them overflow. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Ocean I Love: An Idyllic Poem. The Chicago Poetry Center is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Lets dive right in! Weve scoured the oceans of verse to bring you these ten classic seafaring poems, covering over a thousand years of English-language poetry. These sands, these listless, helpless,Sun-gold sands, Ill play with these,Or crush them in my white-fanged handsFor leagues, to pleaseThe thing in me that is the Sea,Intangible, untamed,Untamed and wild,And wild and weird and strong!. The sunset does its best Ah me! Fleas around the tamarisk, an early cigarette. Here's a list of some of these brilliant ocean poems starring the sea. Rumis poetry is very consciously engaged in collaborative listening and making, the friendships and the powerful conversational dynamic going on in and around it there in the moment of its making. The mermaids in the basement Calmly the wearied seamen restBeneath their own blue sea.The ocean solitudes are blest,For there is purity. Alan Watts Talking Zen: What Are The Taoist Ways & Its 3 Keys? The ocean is also a place of beauty and mystery, which is why so many poets have been inspired to write poems about it. Or crush them in my white-fanged hands From classic works by famous poets that capture the majesty and mystery of the sea to short and sweet pieces that evoke the sights, sounds, and emotions of the ocean, youll find them all here. Les Murray - 1938-2019. Let your soul and spirit fly.". How still,How strangely stillThe water is today,It is not goodFor waterTo be so still that way. I am glad the tide swept you out,O beloved,you of all this ghastly hostalone untouched,your white flesh covered with saltas with myrrh and burnt iris. This touches my heart, because it brings back beautiful memories of all the lighthouses that I have seen in my lifetime. And the marsh dragged one back,and another perished under the cliff,and the tide swept you out. you hear the grating roarOf pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,At their return, up the high strand,Begin, and cease, and then again begin,With tremulous cadence slow, and bringThe eternal note of sadness in. The Ocean has its silent caves, Deep, quiet, and alone; Though there be fury on the waves, Beneath them there is none. O, not from memory lightly flung,Forgot, like strains no more availing,The heart to music haughtier strung;Nay, frequent near me, never staleing,Whose good feeling kept ye young.Like tides that enter creek or stream,Ye come, ye visit me, or seemSwimming out from seas of faces,Alien myriads memory traces,To enfold me in a dream! Why, lads, so silent here to me, To Ralph, Vasey, Alistair, Biddy, John and me. But for others, writing seaside channels a sense of vastness, infinite depth, and perhaps loneliness or even danger. Published by Family Friend Poems April 2019 with permission of the Author. Of love and memory. I live in Alaska and the sunsets are so beautiful on the water. The Ocean By Nathaniel Hawthorne The Ocean has its silent caves, Deep, quiet, and alone; Though there be fury on the waves, Beneath them there is none. They are all masterpieces. In the deep heart of meThe sullen waters swell towards the moon,And all my tides set seaward.From inlandLeaps a gay fragment of some mocking tune,That tinkles and laughs and fades along the sand,And dies between the seawall and the sea. A love poem but also a nature poem. No man undertaking such a life could fail to fear, at least a little, what the Lord (Jesus) might have in store for him at the end i.e., what his fate might be. Growing up in New Jersey, I have always had easy access to the ocean. Desolate and loneAll night long on the lakeWhere fog trails and mist creeps,The whistle of a boatCalls and cries unendingly,Like some lost childIn tears and troubleHunting the harbors breastAnd the harbors eyes. Love is the religion, and the universe is the book. At the time he was the direct living descendant in the line of Rumi. Thank you for helping us celebrate Loving. Staring down at the shoreline from a cliff, Arnold draws a parallel between the sand and sea and science and religion. Nor less, as now, in eves decline, only thou and I, and never a soul in the world would know of this our In leviathans wake what boat prevails? The infinite of sky. When I depart for aye? Wait for the smooth old coins, There are poems about sea swimmers, surfers and lovers. Once in a year of wonderI brought to you a dream,And all your waves gave back to meOnly its gleam.But now I come again, O Sea,Under a changing sky,And all your waves lie gray and stillAs dreams that die. That made the breeze to blow . I stray aloneHere on the edge of silence, half afraid. Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk. I love seafaring novels so thank you thank you for the seafaring poem suggestions! Published by Family Friend Poems August 13, 2021 with permission of the Author. To-night I hear you crying on the beach,Like a weary child on its mothers breast A cry with an infinite and lonesome reachOf unutterably deep unrest;And thou didst never sin why art thou so distressed? Famous Poems About the Ocean The Sea of Sunset by Emily Elizabeth Dickinson This is the land the sunset washes, These are the banks of the Yellow Sea; Where it rose, or whither it rushes, These are the western mystery! One used to see below the hill, God is pleased when your love realizes The midnight stars are bright How safe they lean on heavens sinless breast!O Sea! Sir George Ivan Morrison (1945-) is a Grammy Award-winning Northern Irish singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and producer. previous post: The Dream That Must Be Interpreted Rumi, The Essential Rumi reissue: New Expanded Edition, Rumi: Soul Fury: Rumi and Shams Tabriz on Friendship, by Coleman Barks, Seashore during sunset by Nick Rizzo/Scopio, Multicultural happy friends at holi festival by IgorVetushko. Water is always changing its shape, filling yet fleeting. The ocean and truth. The land is no longer in view,The clouds have begun to frown;But with a stout vessel and crew,We ll say, Let the storm come down!And the song of our hearts shall be,While the winds and the waters rave,A home on the rolling sea!A life on the ocean wave! of earth and water. Yes! I said quickly. - Will Bowen. However, after his loves unexpected death, the speaker juxtaposes the kingdom with sepulcher there by the sea to signify a more solid, gothic, and final feeling. This ambiguity is doubtless deliberate, because it fuses the land and the sea, the water and the trees, in one seamless image, suggesting the longed-for meeting of the two. Yea, present all, and dear to me, Read Poetry presented by Andrews McMeelThis website contains affiliate links. Their trajectory couldn't be simpler, but this film, at nearly two aimless hours, doesn't seem interested in, or capable of, that kind of focus . Up from the dark the moon begins to creep;And now a pallid, haggard face lifts sheAbove the water-line: thus from the deepA drownd body rises solemnly. There is a calmness found when walking beside the ocean, sitting watching the tides come and go. And booming guns implore I felt his silver heel Upon my ankle, then my shoes where time and space have no hold. It is tangible, visual, and with the right metaphor, its also all-encompassing and ultimately mesmerizing. 6. and fragile glass becomes as hard as diamond. Ye who held your lives in hand Nor holding unto life too dearly, Who knows when the chains will be off,and the boat, like the last glimmer of sunset,vanish into the night? NEW POEMS ABOUT OCEAN Oceans anais vionet My boyfriend (Peter) and I went down to New Haven Harbor today. Ride over, ride over bars of sea riding,the sun and the blue riding of the seasit in the saddles and say it, sea riders. Ye come, ye visit me, or seem Once again you beckon me. The soft ocean sprays across my nose. One heart-beat at heart-core. As wholly as a dew If you could shake lose your foot, Martin Doyle. Sweep over her! The ocean is also a place of beauty and mystery, which is why so many poets have been inspired to write poems about it. Do express, naught save great sorrowing. But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. arise! Lodged by the flinging surge ashore? Emily Dickinson, I started Early Took my Dog. heartland once of steamboats and drawl, now half desert, half freshwater province. Wild sea-spray driven of the stormIs not so wildly white as she,Who beckoned with a foam-white armTo me. free as waves, free from all bondage of words. Sleep, sweeter than loves face or home;And deaths immutability;And music of the plangent foam,For me! Ropes round our mackintoshes, waders warm and dry, Copyright 2023 All rights reserved. and the boat, like the last glimmer of sunset, Voice of the sea that calls to me,Heart of the woods my own heart loves,I am part of your mysteryMoved by the soul your own soul moves.Dream of the stars in the night-seas dome,Somewhere in your infinite spaceAfter the years I will come home,Back to your halls to claim my place. Dont pretend like children You say, I dont need help with this. And made as he would eat me up Alien myriads memory traces, The sea is History. As he writes on, Walcott makes a point about how the colonizers of Saint Lucia have buried everything associated with its original inhabitants. And floats upon the breeze. The perpetual cadence of the vast sea But I must chase such thoughts away,They mar this happy hour,Remembering thou dost but obeyThy Great Creators, power;And in my own fair inland home,Mysterious, moaning main,In dreams Ill see thy snow-white foamAnd frowning rocks again. 1. The moon is distant from the sea by Emily Dickinson. Merchantmen poise upon horizons, The grey sea and the long black land; And the yellow half-moon large and low; And the startled little waves that leap In fiery ringlets from their sleep, As I gain the cove with pushing prow, And quench its speed i' the slushy sand. Waiting a sign. For a change of pace, see our review of a superb collection of hilariously bad poetry by the great and good. Why do the waves ask me But rafts that strain,Parted, shall they lock again?Twined we were, entwined, then riven,Ever to new embracements driven,Shifting gulf-weed of the main!And how if one here shift no more,Lodged by the flinging surge ashore?Nor less, as now, in eves decline,Your shadowy fellowship is mine.Ye float around me, form and feature:Tattooings, ear-rings, love-locks curled;Barbarians of mans simpler nature,Unworldly servers of the world.Yea, present all, and dear to me,Though shades, or scouring Chinas sea. The stars are singing hymns of calm. Presuming Me to be a Mouse Like an infinite force I dare not impede, This 124-line poem is often considered an elegy, since it appears to be spoken by an old sailor looking back on his life and preparing for death. Please give us two to three minutes to fill in this survey and well send you two free gifts. And man-of-wars men, whereaway? The red and white striped lighthouse, We saw the yellow foam flakes drift He was open to truth from any culture and from every human life. Although its opening line is most familiar as 'I must go down to the sea again', it began life in its 1902 incarnation as the slightly odder 'I must down to the seas again'. Words for a Valentines or Galentines card, a love letter, or to cheer someone up when they cant get to the water. All 7 of us loved these trips. Some words to read - or to send yourself - when you need a little extra love and ocean magic in your life. Up, up to the clouds where their hoaryCrowned heads melt away in the skies,The beautiful mountains of gloryEach side of the song-ocean rise.Here day is one splendour of sky-light Of Gods light with beauty replete.Here night is not night, but is twilight,Pervading, enfolding, and sweet. But to clasp, retain;To see you at the halyards mainTo hear your chorus once again! A mortal thing so to immortalize; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The poem is for Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy whose name made global headlines in 2015 after he drowned in the mediterranean sea, but it is also for all the other refugees that lost their lives. Is this the greatest English poem about a sea-voyage? lavishly blessing everybody. Dont wash your hands there. Published by Family Friend Poems November 2014 with permission of the Author. Still, as I look, faint shadows stealOer thy calm heaving breast,And there are times, I sadly feel,Thou art not thus at rest;And I bethink me of past tales,Of ships that left the shore,And meeting with thy fearful gales,Have neer been heard of more. Unsurprisingly then, poetry about the ocean takes many shapes. So I agree with those two Jelaluddins, Chelebi and Rumi. even though I know I could drown, ever changing, constant If you buy something through one of those links, you dont pay a penny more, but we receive a small commission. There's something about the sound of waves crashing against the shore that is so peaceful and calming. I started early, took my dog, May no rapt boy recall you e'er, No maiden in her beauty's glow! Stirs a restless desire that engulfs me. Unreal as insects that appallA drunkards peevish brain,Oer the grey deep the dories crawl,Four-legged, with rowers twain:Midgets and minims of the earth,Across old oceans vasty girthToilingheroic, comical! you will distribute creation, Thanks! The first of the five sections of The Dry Salvages is especially worth reading for its comparative analysis of the river and the sea. Thy voice, can it rejoice? The dead are here.We are not quite alone. & Its Benefits Tolle Edition. Much of the ocean is mysterious. Poems are the property of their respective owners. She was presented with her 6,000 prize by The Moth . Oooh. Joan Tollifson, Protected: Your 2022 Generositys Impact on 2023 & More , What Are The Benefits of Simply Waiting? Spring tide and blizzard would unite for the world, which seemsTo lie before us like a land of dreams,So various, so beautiful, so new,Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;And we are here as on a darkling plainSwept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,Where ignorant armies clash by night. Yes, you say, I am already united with God. soak you back into wet ground. This is a love affair with the sea and shore. But such a tide as moving seems asleep,Too full for sound and foam,When that which drew from out the boundless deepTurns again home. Pick Me Up Poetry may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers.