1. What brings in the seaweed? To what does "he" refer in the first stanza? What words make you feel the power of the stormwind?

2. Do you know the location of the far-off islands and foreign places that the poet mentions? Do you need to know in order to appreciate the poetry? Taken together, what do they represent? Where does the seaweed come to rest?

3. Notice how the second half of the poem repeats both the thought and the form of the first half, substituting for the "ocean" the "poet's soul," and drawing corresponding parallels to the end; point out what is compared to the storm; the seaweed; the far-off isles; the tropic lands; the wreck of ships; the restless sea; the coves and beaches. Which of the comparisons do you like best?

4. Do you like the short lines riming with the long lines? To appreciate this poem you need to read it aloud. Read it so as to get the best effect from the sound of the lines.

Library Reading. "The Secret of the Sea," Longfellow; "The Three Fishers," Kingsley.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. What devices does Byron use to give to this poem its musical quality? Point out examples. Which lines do you think most musical?

2. Byron calls the ocean a "glorious mirror"; what other names does he give to it in this poem? In which stanzas does the poet address the ocean directly? Why do you think he uses direct address?

3. On page 516 you read that Nature brings a message of beauty to us; what beauty inspired Byron in this poem? What characteristic of the ocean does the poet bring out by contrast in the fifth stanza?

4. In the second and third stanzas the poet contrasts the ocean and the earth in their relation to man; what differences are noted? With what is “watery plain" contrasted? How has man extended his control beyond the shore in recent years? What contrast does the poet make in the fourth stanza? What other poems about the ocean have you read?

Library Reading. Bring to class and read "The Sea," Procter (in Home Book of Verse, Burton E. Stevenson); "On the Sea," Keats; "Sea Fever," Masefield (in Salt Water Ballads).

Of sea-birds in the slanting beam— And far-off sails which fit before the southwind free.

So when Time's veil shall fall asunder, The soul may know

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No fearful change, nor sudden wonder, Nor sink the weight of mystery under, But with the upward rise, and with the vastness grow.

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NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. At what time of day does the poet approach the seashore? Point out the words that tell you this. Describe the view of the sea as he first caught sight of it.

2. What imaginative picture does the poet give you of the mound on which he sat? Was the road which the poet traveled to the seashore such as to make him happy or sad? Read aloud the lines that give the answer.

3. Explain the thought, "I seem like all I see." With this thought in mind, the poet feels that the "mystery" of the future may not hold any great change from the "vastness" of the present; how does he think we may, in the future, look back upon the past?

4. What is the beautiful comparison in the tenth stanza? How does the poet describe the horizon?

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. What does the poet describe in the first stanza? Point out words used in unusual or especially vivid ways, in this stanza.

2. What are the "songs" of autumn? Read aloud the lines that tell this. Can you think of other autumn songs not mentioned in the poem? How do the songs of autumn differ from the songs of spring? How can you train your ear to hear the songs of autumn?

Theme Topic. Write an account of a modern "winnowing" (threshing) scene; a reaping scene; or a harvest-home festival. Make it as vivid as you can by mentioning details of sound, color, etc.

The sanguine sunrise, with his meteor eyes, And his burning plumes outspread. Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,

When the morning-star shines dead, 83. rack, flying, broken cloud.