Under the Sea

Quotes on the sea:

"The deckhands make fast the steamboat, the plank is thrown for the shoregoing passengers"

"The regatta is spread on the bay… how the white sails sparkle!"

"Off on the lakes the pikefisher watches and waits by the hole in the frozen surface"

"A boatman over the lakes or bays or along coasts..."

"Vivas to those who have failed, and to those whose war vessels sank in the sea, and those themselves who sank in the sea.
And to all generals that lost engagements, and all overcome heroes, and the numberless unknown heroes equal to the greatest heroes known."

Comment: These lines are within a stanza about battles and Whitman is saluting those who have died in them. I chose to comment on these two lines in particular because the sea, in a sense, is an all encompassing after-life for many. Death has no prejudices and everyone is equal once they die. Within the sea, the distinguished and the commoners lay side by side. Whitman considers all who die heroes.

"You sea! I resign myself to you also….I guess what you mean,
I behold from the beach your crooked inviting fingers,
I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me;
We must have a turn together….I undress….hurry me out of sight of the land,
Cushion me soft….rock me in a billowy drowse,
Dash me with amorous wet….I can repay you."

Comment: This stanza follows a long dedication to "Earth" and then two shorter stanzas on passionate and how "we hurt each other as the bridgroom and the bride hurt each other." This is the first long section on the sea by Whitman. As the first stanza shows, the sea ends up being personified as his lover. However, the “you” can be rather ambiguous in these lines. Whether he is referring to “you” as the reader, or “you” the sea, or maybe even both at once is hard to distinguish. The sea is a wonderful metaphor for Whitman’s desire to merge with the reader to become one, and if you consider the stanzas leading in, Whitman could mean that in a erotic and sexual way.
However, another reading could be to consider that the sea is the reader and the merging of Whitman into the sea is his poetry into our minds… The last sentence in particular is odd: "I can repay you". Whitman is saying that if you partake in this grand scheme of his (penetrating into his poetry so to speak...) you can benefit from it.

"Sea of stretched ground-swells!
Sea of breathing broad and convulsive breaths!
Sea of the brine of life! Sea of unshovelled and always-ready graves!
Howler and scooper of storms! Capricious and dainty sea!
I am integral with you…. I too am of one phase and of all phases"

Comment: This stanza immediately follows the previous one and the sea takes on a new definition. Instead of the sea being the reader, the sea is now the actual sea. This sea takes on similar qualities to that of land. It has its “stretched ground-swells”, but is also a place for “unshovelled and always-ready graves”. This description is similar to my first commented quote about how all are equal in death. The sea collects and takes in all the waste from land, it is “the brine of life”. All the waste from the land ends up being washed out to see, therefore the sea ends up collecting the trash that the land creates. In a sense, the sea is an ideal metaphor for Whitman because it contains a piece of everything and is all encompassing.

"The mariners put the ship through dangerous unknown seas,
This is the geologist, and this works with the scalpel, and this is a mathematician."

"It sails me….I dab with bare feet….they are licked by the indolent waves,
I am exposed….cut by bitter and poisoned hail"

"Scorched ankle-deep by the host sand….hauling my boat down the shallow river"

"Where the she-whales swims with her calves and the never forsakes them,
Where the steamship trails hindways its long pennant of smoke,
Where the ground-shark’s fin cuts like a black chip out of the water,
Where the half-burned brig is riding on unknown currents,
Where shells grow to her slimy deck, and the dead are corrupting below;
Where the striped and starred flag is borne at the head of the regiments"

"I ascend to the foretruck….I take my place late at night in the crow’s nest….we sail through the arctic sea….it is plenty light enough"

"How the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless wreck of the steamship, and death chasing it up and down the storm,
How he knuckled tight and gave not back one inch, and was faithful of days and faithful of nights"

"Did you read in the seabooks of the oldfashiond frigate-fight?
Did you learn who won by the light of the moon and stars?"

"Our foe was no skulk in his ship, I tell you…
We had received some eighteen-pound shots under the water,
On our lower-gun-deck two large pieces had burst at the first fire, killing all around and blowing up overhead

Ten o’clock at night, and the full moon shining and the leaks on the gain, and five feet of water reported,
The master-at-arms loosing the prisoners confined in the after-hold to give them a chance for themselves."

"The panorama of the sea….but the sea itself?"

"Long have you timidly waded, holding a plank by the sore,
Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
To jump off in the midst of the sea, and rise again and nod to me and shout, and laughingly dash with your hair."

Comment: This is Whitman’s last reference to the sea in “Songs of Myself”, and not surprisingly too. In the previous stanza, Whitman has already begun talking about how he plans to enlighten the readers, to "wash the gum from your eyes" as he says. So in the stanza following, Whitman continues this line of reasoning by asking the reader to stop drifting and start swimming, to stop living only at the surface of the water, but to delve deep and into the sea and discover what lies beneath.

Analysis:

Just as Whitman describes the woods as a way to get to know oneself, the sea is where you go as a collective. Naked, wet and together would be the theme to consider (like the 29 bathers). The metaphor of the sea is perfect for describing how Whitman wants us to read his poetry. Literally, he would prefer if we metaphorically dived into it and swim around, enjoying the pleasurable sensations and feelings of the words. As we discussed in class, the hierarchy of senses is disrupted, especially if one is submerged in water; you cannot see, hear, smell (and you probably should not open your mouth to taste anything). Swimming is purely touch without any of the other senses getting in the way.