Tears
Tears - meaning Summary
Private Grief Unleashed at Night
Whitman depicts intense, private grief made visible in a nocturnal scene. A composed daytime figure becomes a storm of weeping at night, described as a lone form on the shore whose tears flood and are absorbed by sand. The poem contrasts public restraint with unrestrained sorrow, using sea and storm imagery to suggest overwhelming emotion and the natural, almost elemental force of private mourning.
Read Complete AnalysesTEARS! tears! tears! In the night, in solitude, tears; On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck’d in by the sand; Tears—not a star shining—all dark and desolate; Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head: —O who is that ghost?—that form in the dark, with tears? What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch’d there on the sand? Streaming tears—sobbing tears—throes, choked with wild cries; O storm, embodied, rising, careering, with swift steps along the beach; O wild and dismal night storm, with wind! O belching and desperate! O shade, so sedate and decorous by day, with calm countenance and regulated pace; But away, at night, as you fly, none looking—O then the unloosen’d ocean, Of tears! tears! tears!
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