On the Sea

Question 1

‘It keeps eternal whisperings around Desolate shores’

Answer 1

• Ambiguous start - Keat’s use of the enigmatic ‘it’ that he uses to refer to the sea
• Personification of Sea through ‘it’ suggests these ‘whisperings’ could be a spirit or a immortal god, as these whisperings are ‘eternal’ and travel to ‘desolate’ places where no human has been
• Thus to Keats the sea is a conscious, living force
• Keats wants reader to hear these whisperings - done through sibilance and onomatopoeic sounds

Question 2

‘and with its mighty swell
 Gluts twice ten thousand caverns,—till the spell Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.’

Answer 2

• Sea isn’t just a gentle whisper but is a ‘mighty’ force that can flood caves - contrast
• Allusion to Ancient Myth refers to the ocean’s lack of transience and the idea that there is more to it than meets the eye
• On a literal level, Keats is observing the tide, yet he refers to this as magic through ‘spells’ and goddesses
• ^^ sea is not just vast but is enchanted
• Sibilance still pervades - also ’t’ consonance to mark water slapping against caves and rocks
• Use of caesura breaks up passage to reflect the tide via syntax - starts soft and builds

Question 3

‘Often ’tis in such gentle temper found,
That scarcely will the very smallest shell
 Be lightly moved, from where it sometime fell, When last the winds of heaven were unbound. ‘

Answer 3

• Speaker contrasts earlier power of sea with ‘gentle temper’ - further personification - claims the ocean will see tiny shell and then leave it undisturbed
• ’T’ and ‘L’ consonance helps convey gentle nature and small scale of shell
• Keats alludes back to ocean’s earlier aggressive behaviour claiming this shell was initially moved by a terrible storm - ‘winds of heaven were unbound’
• Very oxymoronic ideas - sea both ‘whispering’ and ‘mighty’, ‘gentle’ and ‘unbound’ and the natural and supernatural

Question 4

‘Ye, that have your eye-balls vex’d and tired, Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;— ‘

Answer 4

• Volta of poem - stops describing sea and instead invites reader to see and enjoy it for themselves
• Sonnet with iambic pentameter - praising
• Speakers direct address to reader accentuated through metre - emphasis on ye
• Use of ‘Ye’ is old-fashioned - biblical connotations - helps allude to earlier personification of sea as spirit or God
• ‘Wideness of sea’ acts as respite to life’s daily issues - Romantic idea of sublime
• ^^ links back to use of sibilance which contrasts ‘uproar rude’
• Also next to vastness and sublimity of sea, one’s own problems seem small

Question 5

‘Or are your hearts disturb’d with uproar rude, Or fed too much with cloying melody,— ‘

Answer 5

• ‘tired eyes’ and ‘uproar rude’ - romantic hatred towards industrialisation
• ^^ links to King Lear - Keats isn’t overly fond of sickly poetry

Question 6

‘Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quired.’

Answer 6

• Speaker gives prescription to those tired of life or overcome with problems - sit by the ocean and get lost in thought
• Sibilance returns, suggesting waves have been moving in the background throughout this poem - calming effect
• Almost cyclical structure through return to sibilance, greek mythology and ‘caverns’
• ^^ suggests speaker may have been doing what he suggested and got lost in thought by the ocean, except we heard this thoughts
• reference to Wordsworth’s ‘the world is too much with us’ - sonnet where speaker also stares out to ocean and claims he may be hearing gods rom Ancient Greece

Question 7

Form

Answer 7

• petrarchan sonnet
• volta contains apostrophe to speaker
• poem’s shape reflects bigger philosophy - switching from mediative description to apostrophe - saying everyone can be restored by sea and engaging with imagination