Re: Poetry and the sea/A poem and comments -- Poetry Spaces

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Subject: Re: Poetry and the sea/A poem and comments

Author:
Daniel

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Date Posted: 05:05:35 06/13/10 Sun
In reply to: Daniel 's message, "Poetry and the sea" on 10:40:21 06/12/10 Sat

>We read several poems about the sea, (Eliot, Keats,
>Poe), what is it about the sea that inspires so many
>writers? Can you think of any other sea theme poems
>you think are interesting?

Here's another sea poem - by Anne Stevenson. I've written some comments - what do you think about the poem or the comments?

North Sea off Carnoustie
by Anne Stevenson

North Sea off Carnoustie

You know it by the northern look of the shore,
by salt worried faces,
an absence of trees, an abundance of lighthouses.
It’s a serious ocean.

Along marram-scarred, sand-bitten margins
wired roofs straggle out to where
a cold little holiday fair
has floated in and pitched itself
safely near the prairie of a golf course.
Coloured lights have sunk deep into the solid wind,
but all they’ve caught is a pair of lovers
and three silly boys.
everyone else has a dog,
Or a room to get to.

The smells are of fish and of sewage and cut grass.
Oystercatchers, doubtful of habitation,
clamour weep, weep, weep, as they fuss over
scummy black rocks the tide leaves for them.

The sea is as near as we come to another world.

But there in your stony and windswept garden
a blackbird is confirming the grip of the land.
You, you, he murmurs, dark purple in his voice.

And now in far quarters of the horizon
lighthouses are awake, sending messages –
invitations to the landlocked,
warnings to the experienced,
but to anyone returning from the planet ocean,
candles in the windows of a safe earth.

It has been noted that despite having lived most of her life in Britain Anne Stevenson’s poetry echoes her American, particularly New England origins. The nature of that influence is sometimes an explicit concern with antecedents or ideas and at other times an atmosphere, an echo of Puritan reserve, a sparseness of voice suggesting careful choices.
Carnoustie (in Scotland) might be better known for its golf courses than shoreline scenery, and, to be honest, Stevenson makes no attempt to recommend this setting for its stunning natural beauty. Located on the bleak coastline of the north sea it expresses a point of separation that is more than the geographical; a distance, or difference, between the human scale and nature. There is a visual quality to the poem that draws an evocative picture of the commonplace. The only “outside” presence is the mildly comic fair that has taken up residence. Otherwise, the details are mundane . sounds, smells, people with homes (or dogs) to go to. Stevenson captures this winter atmosphere of a coastal town and the way that the sense of purpose is present in everything, purpose determined by the relationship between people and the sea. The imagery of fishing is pervasive, the “lights” of the fair are fishing lines that have sunk into the wind, catching – well – the equivalent of a few tiddlers (young fish.) The life of play and dalliance represented by the fair and lovers is not what life beside this “serious ocean” is about. Even in this modern setting where the golf course certainly generates more income than fishing life here is about survival, and the poem about the fragile persistence of habitation. The Oystercatchers are like scavenging birds picking up the bits left by the great beast of the sea and living here, for people, is probably not so different although the “weep weep” sound of lament the birds make is contrasted to the kinder “you you” of the tamer blackbird.
Separated as a single line from the rest of the poem is the sentence “The sea is as near as we come to another world.” The break and pause (itself like reaching the end of the land), are clearly meant to halt us, in thought. Stevenson’s idea seems to be (and this is where the references to her New England “Puritanism” of spirit might come in), that this is what there is; we make of it what we can, without hoping for, or expecting anything else. The “other world” of the sea, which on the one hand emphasises isolation, also intensifies an awareness of community: “…there in a stony and windswept garden / a blackbird is confirming the grip of the land.” The land, like a hook, holds the inhabitants of this isolated scene to the dogged triumph of their existence.

(“marram” (line.5) is a type of tough grass that grows in sandy earth.)

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Subject	Author	Date
Re: Poetry and the sea/A poem and comments	Gloria	06:04:27 06/15/10 Tue