on the sea Flashcards
(19 cards)
what is the poem about?
the poem describes the power if mystery and the sea , reflects on its extreme changes iun mood from wild to violent to gentle. The speaker recommedns the sea as a cure for those who arr weary-the sight of the sea will revive their tired eyes. Similarly anyone whose ears have been bombarded with too much man-made noise will find relief in teh magical sounds of je waves playing in the mouth of an old sea cave.
when was the poem written?
1817 on teh sile of wight, in the letter which keats wrote to reynolds he included a cope if the poem-in the ltter he claims to be haunted by the passage in Lear-do you not hear the sea?
the octave
rickjly onomatopoetic, the gentle mood iof the sea being conveyed through soft sibilants and liquid vowel sounds in phrases such as “eternal whisperings” “shadowy soiund” and “good temper” another notable sea sound is convey through “gluts” the word is enacting the sound the water makes when filling caverns
the sounds of the sea
it can be seen to be reccuring throughout the poem, they have been forverever and will continue too linking kjeats minds wutrh taht of ancienbt mysteries-he attributes changing tides to the greek moon goddess -hectate
‘untill ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quired’ ‘ dinned with uproar rude’
keats sees both the eternal dnamsim of the sea and its linke to hellensitic past as an antiddote to the stresses of modiern day living-the repreated ‘d’ and ‘r’ sounds captures the cacphony that bombards human ears.
“i”
does not come up at all in any of the peoms making it less perosnal than some of keats other poems
structure
keats uses a petrachian sonnets form with two abba quatrians followed by a ceded sestet. the repeated ryhme schme of the octet helps it to capture the power sounds and moods of the sea. the octets consistes of two lomg sentnces thir length and rhythm being wave like-effect further enahnced by tyeh use of extensive enjambment.
the sestet
continues focusing on human beings and their relief tthat tehy can obtain by allowing thir tiured eyes to ‘feast’ on the seas vastness’ as if it can assuge their need for the sights and sounds of hectic everydqy lifeand allow them to bind more meangiful experince.
‘when last the winds of Heaven were unbound’
the winds are similarly anmated through theri assocaition with the myth iof Aleous rthe god of winds the effect of this animation is to endow the sea with a person force that ibncreases the sense if power and mystery.
contrast between vast and expanse
‘very smallest shell’ -shows the cahnging mood swings of the sea
nature
and its dynamic range- thes sea is capable of both ‘mightly swell’ and leaving the ‘very smallest shell’ undisturbed and aslo its abiluty to strike awe into human beings.the sea is also shown to have a theraputic effect.
common themese in keats poems
keats is fascianted by things wich appear eternal and contrasts them with ephemeral affiars of mankind.
“its eternal whisperings around”
the opening is sudden, spare and direct. keats personifies the waves
“shadowy sound” onomatopoetic in the soft ‘s’ and ‘sh’ sounds this is alliterative and eachoing the wisphering in line one. the calm and soft soothing effect contrasts the powerful dangerous seas, ‘gentle’ vs ‘temper’
“gluts twice ten thousand caverns, till the spell Of hectate leaves from their old shadowy sound”
keats mythologises the aquatic natural world by mentioning hectate and “sea nymphs” makes visisting the sea shore sould like a spiritual experince.lush sensual description ‘gluts’ suggests greed as if the sea is able to groge itself on the costal ‘caverns’, ‘glut’ is onomatopoetic as if the caves are sucking the water in.
“when last the winds of heaven were unbound”
volta
“o ye!” “O ye!”
repeated for emphasis, luke a regain SYNTACTIC PARALLELISM known as ANAPHORA
“eye-balls vexed and tired, feast them upon the widness of the sea-“
the sea is capilatised here to suggest an abstract idea of the sea, the essence rather than the reality a refernce probaly to plaots theroy of forms.’feast’ completes the lexical feild of eating ‘fed’ gluts’ ‘mouth’
“cloying melody-“
“sea-nymphs quired”
keats mythologises the aquatic natural world by mentioning hectate and sea nymphs makes visiting the sea shore sound like a spiritual experince.ceasura creates a concluion to the advice given from keats to the troubled listener
“hectate”
greek goddess associated with whit craft, magic and the moon. ‘the spell of hectate’ refers to the pull of the moon which causes the tides when the tides have abated the caves are left with the sound of the gently lapping waves.
