Introduction. We naturally expect the sea to play a large part in English Literature. Students of Anglo-Saxon have often dwelt upon its prominence in our earliest verse. It re ceived slight but glorious recognition at the hands of Shakespeare and some of his contemporaries. In the eighteenth century poets had little to say of it save that it was "big and awful" (1), but with Byron and Shelley there was a fresh burst of sea-enthusiasm. How has it been with the Vic torian singers? This study is an attempt to answer that question as far as eight of the greater poets are concerned. We shall obviously find that certain moods and aspects of the sea have appealed most to each poet, and that the best and most truthful description in each lays stress upon different details, portrays a separate special charm. The treatment of color and effects of light and shade varies greatly; one can hardly dwell too often upon the constantly changing tints of the sea, while to others it is apparently a study in a single color. No two have heard the same things (1) Myra Reynolds: The Treatment of Nature in English Poetry between Pope and Wordsworth. when they have listened to the voice of the sea, "Its voice mysterious, which whoso hears Must think on what will be and what has been; " is it glad or sorrowful, threatening, pitiful or triumphant? does it ever speak the words of God or fate? The poet's personal attitude towards the sea is of the greatest interest: has it been to him a beautiful dead thing, without love, without companionship, or a divine personality, allglorious with its own life and capable of inspiring the deepest devotion? Is it plastic, ready to take the impress Equally of human joy and sorrow, or is it a higher, calmer power that can impose its own peace upon the heart of man? important is the poet's use of the sea in metaphor and simile: of all that nature has given us the sea is perhaps the most wonderful, certainly the most variable in its beauty, the most terrible in its wrath; with its vastness, its unrest, and a mystery that science has never been able to touch, its power of suggestion is unlimited, and probably as long as the soul of man shall be troubled by thoughts of life and death and destiny, he will turn to the sea for help to put into words the all but inexpressible. The poet's figurative use of the sea, therefore, may often throw light upon his philosophy. |