The Surfer
The Surfer - meaning Summary
Joyful Struggle with Nature
The poem depicts a swimmer whose bodily joy and muscular control let him surge through the sea, likened to gulls in flight. As dusk approaches a voice urges him home; the sun sets and the beach draws him back. The tone then shifts: the sea becomes a menacing, wolf-like force on the sand, indifferent and consuming, snatching shells and pebbles. It contrasts human delight and mastery with nature’s relentless appetite.
Read Complete AnalysesHe thrust his joy against the weight of the sea; climbed through, slid under those long banks of foam - (hawthorn hedges in spring, thorns in the face stinging). How his brown strength drove through the hollow and coil of green-through weirs of water! Muscle of arm thrust down long muscle of water; and swimming so, went out of sight where mortal, masterful, frail, the gulls went wheeling in air as he in water, with delight. Turn home, the sun goes down; swimmer, turn home. Last leaf of gold vanishes from the sea-curve. Take the big roller’s shoulder, speed and serve; come to the long beach home like a gull diving. For on the sand the grey-wolf sea lies, snarling, cold twilight wind splits the waves’ hair and shows the bones they worry in their wolf-teeth. O, wind blows and sea crouches on sand, fawning and mouthing; drops there and snatches again, drops and again snatches its broken toys, its whitened pebbles and shells.
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