Leaning Into the Afternoons
Leaning Into the Afternoons - meaning Summary
Oceanic Longing and Solitude
The poem presents a speaker's yearning for a distant beloved, using maritime and night imagery to describe longing and solitude. The speaker casts "sad nets" toward the beloved's "oceanic eyes," sending signals across an emotional sea while darkness and dread remain. Evening and nocturnal images—the lighthouse coast, pecking night birds, and a galloping night mare—amplify the isolation and the intensity of love that both illuminates and deepens the speaker's loneliness.
Read Complete AnalysesLeaning into the afternoons, I cast my sad nets towards your oceanic eyes. There, in the highest blaze my solitude lengthens and flames; Its arms turning like a drowning man's. I send out red signals across your absent eyes That wave like the sea, or the beach by a lighthouse. You keep only darkness my distant female; >From your regard sometimes, the coast of dread emerges. Leaning into the afternoons, I fling my sad nets to that sea that is thrashed By your oceanic eyes. The birds of night peck at the first stars That flash like my soul when I love you. The night, gallops on its shadowy mare Shedding blue tassels over the land.
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