"The Sea and Me"

“The Sea and Me”

It arrives and leaves as a wave,
Rolling and crashing with motion.
I yearn for this time that I save,
Sitting here next to the ocean.
I hear the warm tropical breeze
Rust’ling the branches of palm trees.

With the soft sand between my toes,
Uncovering exotic shells,
The salty scent blows through my nose,
Along with other fishy smells.
I hear gulls let out a holler,
Fighting for a lone sand dollar.

Solitude creeps up around me
As the sun dims and becomes dark.
In the vast distance out at sea,
I have come to notice a shark.
It swims up to a fishing boat
Trying its best to stay afloat.

I wish to not be like the shore,
Never taking some time to roam.
Being happy but wanting more,
I’m brushed aside like ocean foam.
It gives me hope, the great white moon,
That happiness and joy come soon.

Water may have begun to crest, 
But I know I will never rest.

 

William Wordsworth used a variety of poetic devices and rhyme schemes in his works. He did not have a set system that he would use for every poem. I chose to mimic a poem of his because of his talent and great poetic diversity. Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” was the poem I used as inspiration. This poem consists of four six-line stanzas, and the meter is iambic tetrameter. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, DEDEFF, etc. He also includes some elements of Romanticism in this work. The elements of Romanticism include a love of nature, sympathy with underprivileged people, belief in liberty for the individual, a vivid use of imagination, and an interest in ancient legends and traditions. Three of the elements he used in this particular poem are a love of nature, liberty for the individual, and imagination. In my poem “The Sea and Me,” I imitated all of these factors from the rhyme scheme to the Romantic elements. My poem is written in iambic tetrameter, with four six-line stanzas, and a rhyme scheme similar to Wordsworth’s. I also included nature, the individual, and imagination in this poem. Nature is found throughout the poem, relating to the beach. The individual element is found pertaining to the wants of the individual. Finally, imagination is found in the writing of the poem, and the narrator imagining a better life.