The Gardener 3: in the Morning I Cast My Net
The Gardener 3: in the Morning I Cast My Net - meaning Summary
Gifts Misunderstood, Later Valued
A speaker gathers curious, beautiful things from the sea and offers them to his beloved, who finds them useless. Ashamed because the gifts were not won or purchased, he discards them into the street overnight. In the morning travellers collect those same objects and carry them away to distant lands. The poem explores how worth depends on perception and context, and how insecurity or social norms can turn away gifts that others may value.
Read Complete AnalysesIn the morning I cast my net into the sea. I dragged up from the dark abyss things of strange aspect and strange beauty -- some shone like a smile, some glistened like tears, and some were flushed like the cheeks of a bride. When with the day's burden I went home, my love was sitting in the garden idly tearing the leaves of a flower. I hesitated for a moment, and then placed at her feet all that I had dragged up, and stood silent. She glanced at them and said: "What strange things are these? I know not of what use they are!" I bowed my head in shame and thought, "I have not fought for these, I did not buy them in the market; They are not fit gifts for her." Then the whole night through I flung them one by one into the street. In the morning travellers came; They picked them up and carried them into far countries.
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