Apostrophe to the ocean

ANJALI KUMARI
Literary devices 

 These include but are not limited to anaphora, apostrophe, alliteration, and caesura. The latter is a
formal device, one that’s concerned with the pauses that a poet inserts into their lines. In the case of
this particular poem, the pauses are quite evident, seen through various types of punctuation,
especially dashes.
 Alliteration and anaphora are both types of repetition. The first is concerned with the use and reuse
of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words, while the latter is focused on the broader
repetition of words at the beginning of lines. Anaphora can be seen in the first stanza. The words
“There is” start the first three lines, and “From” start two more. Alliteration can be seen in the first
line of the poem with “pleasure” and “pathless” and in line three of stanza 182 with “waters
washed.” 
 An apostrophe occurs when the poet’s speaker talks to something or someone that cannot hear or
respond to them. This might be someone whose deceased, an inanimate object, or in this case, the
ocean (as seen in the first lines of stanza 179).
Stanza 178 

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, MEANING-

There is a rapture on the lonely shore, In the unexplored and uncontrolled woods, he takes pleasure in the
freedom and the lack of structure. It’s there that he feels the most at
There is society, where none intrudes, home, despite how scary and isolating that natural landscape might
seem. Out on the ocean, where most of this extract is focused, the
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: speaker finds “society” or the togetherness that he’s unable to find
among people. There, he finds peace. This is a traditional Romantic
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
idea, one that fills the last lines of this long poem. 
From these our interviews, in which I steal When he’s by the sea, he finds that his love of Nature is bolstered. It is
From all I may be, or have been before, higher than his love of Man, but the latter also exists. From his time
communing with nature, which in its own way, speaks back to him,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel he has come closer to understanding the universe. Byron feels that a
deep connection with the natural world is the only way one can truly
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal. understand humanity’s purpose in the world. 
Stanza 179 

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean — roll! MEANING-
The next stanza begins with a very clear apostrophe or address to
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
something that cannot hear or respond to the speaker. In this
Man marks the earth with ruin — his control case, the ocean. He encourages it to “Roll on” and show its
power. There is no human force that can command or control
Stops with the shore; — upon the watery plain the ocean, despite the “Ten thousand fleets” that have tried in
vain to do so. Humanity might be able to alter the land, but
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain it’s “control / Stops with these shore.” The ocean is
something different, something that can’t be tamed. 
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own,
The next lines of the stanza reference the numerous losses that
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain, humankind has suffered in its quest to better understand the
ocean. Ships and men have been lost as they seek out new
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, passages through dangerous waters. The imagery at the end of
Without a grave, unknell’d, uncoffin’d, and unknown. this stanza is remarkable. 
Stanza 180 

His steps are not upon thy paths, — thy fields MEANING-

Are not a spoil for him, — thou dost arise The speaker continues to talk to the ocean in the next stanza.
He describes the ocean, again, as a contrast to the world
And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields on land. There, humanity walks on paths they made and
takes their spoils from fields. This is not the way the ocean
For earth’s destruction thou dost all despise, works. When humankind comes to the ocean, the ocean
rises and shakes them “from thee.” Humanity’s vile
Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies,
strength, that which has been working steadily to destroy
And send’st him, shivering in thy playful spray resources on land, is all the ocean “despises.”  

And howling, to his Gods, where haply lies The ocean has no time or patience for humankind. It disposes
of those who seek to travel on it as fast as it wants. The
His petty hope in some near port or bay, words “playful” and “howling” are interestingly
juxtaposed in this stanza, suggesting that life and death are
And dashest him again to earth: — there let him lay. all a game.  
Stanza 181

The armaments which thunder — strike the walls MEANING-

Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake, The image of the ocean playing with humanity
continues into the next lines. It sees the strongest
And monarchs tremble in their capitals,
forces that humankind can command as its “toys.”
The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make These include the “rock-built cities,” which it can
tear down when and how it chooses. The
Their clay creator the vain title take
thunderous waves of the ocean bid “nations
Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war; quake” and “monarch tremble in their capitals.” 
These are thy toys, and, as the snowy flake, The ocean can destroy the strongest ship, like a
British warship, that crosses its waters. The last
They melt into thy yeast of waves, which mar
lines refer to the “spoils of Trafalgar” and the loss
Alike the Armada’s pride, or spoils of Trafalgar. of ships to the ocean. 
Stanza 182 

Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee  — MEANING-

Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? Unlike old civilizations like “Assyria, Greece,
Thy waters washed them power while they were free, Rome, Carthage,” the ocean remains
unchanged. No matter who lives or commands
And many a tyrant since; their shores obey
the shores. These people come and go, but the
The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay ocean remains the same. Time has no effect on
Has dried up realms to deserts: — not so thou, the waters and “writes no drink on thine azure
brow.” The ocean rolls on today as it did at
Unchangeable save to thy wild waves’ play — creations dawn, he says. 
Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow —
Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou rollest now.
Stanza 183

Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty’s form MEANING-

Glasses itself in tempests; in all time, The speaker addresses the ocean in the next stanza,
Calm or convulsed — in breeze, or gale, or storm, describing how the image of God is reflected in its
waters. There, one can find God and find eternity, no
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime, matter if the waters are calm or convulsed. God is
Dark — heaving; — boundless, endless, and sublime — there through the dark and joyful times. The final lines
of this stanza appear to be an allusion to ‘The Rime of
The image of eternity — the throne
the Ancient Mariner.’ The words “monsters” and
Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime “slime” are out of place in regards to the rest of the
poem, perhaps suggesting, but delving into, the darker
The monsters of the deep are made; each zone
parts of the ocean that Harold clearly holds so dear.
Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. The ocean commands all that’s within it, he says. 
Stanza 184

And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy MEANING-

Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be His love for the ocean is reiterated in the 184th
Borne, like thy bubble, onward: from a boy stanza. The lines are suggestive of Byron’s
own love for swimming as well. He spent time
I wanton’d with thy breakers — they to me in the water as a boy and young man. The
Were a delight; and if the freshing sea waters were a “delight” to him, and if there is
ever a moment of fear, it was a pleasing one.
Made them a terror — ’twas a pleasing fear,
He felt himself a child of the ocean, and he
For I was as it were a child of thee, trusted the ocean as one has to trust a horse.
And trusted to thy billows far and near, He still feels this way today. 
And laid my hand upon thy mane — as I do here.
Question and Answer
Question and Answer
Question and Answer