This paper examines the sea as a central metaphor in John Keats' "On the Sea" (1817) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Sound of the Sea" (1920). Both poets treat the ocean as an unpredictable, irresistible force that reflects the human condition, yet they approach the metaphor differently. Keats invokes pagan mythology — particularly the goddess Hecate — to frame the sea as a connection to ancient, unspoiled nature in contrast with modern life. Longfellow, writing a century later, personifies the sea directly and focuses on its sounds, linking its surging tides to the mysterious interior life of the poet and the irrational nature of creative inspiration. Together, the poems demonstrate the enduring Romantic fascination with the ocean as a symbol of wildness and transcendence.
One of the most potent metaphors in literature is that of the ocean. The ocean has a timeless, rhythmic quality that has inspired authors of all genres, nations, and eras. For the early 19th-century Romantic poet John Keats, observing the sea motivated him to reflect upon pagan mythology and the moon's inconstant temperament. For Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, writing roughly a century later, the sea became a vehicle for exploring the mysterious interior life of the poet and the irrational wellsprings of creative inspiration. Together, their poems reveal how the ocean's dual nature — sometimes violent, sometimes tender — made it an enduring symbol for writers grappling with the relationship between nature, antiquity, and the human mind.
In his poem simply titled On the Sea, Keats writes that sometimes the sea "with its mighty swell / Gluts twice ten thousand Caverns, till the spell / Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound." Keats notes how the sea can sometimes be harsh and threatening while at other times it can be mild and even tender. Although it may fill some caverns with its threatening presence, at other times it is "in such gentle temper found / that scarcely will the very smallest shell / Be moved for days from where it sometime fell."
While Keats does mention "the winds of heaven" in one line, he primarily invokes Hecate, the pagan goddess of witches and the moon, to explain the sea's personality and meanderings, rather than drawing on Christian imagery. The sea is a reminder of the wildness of nature and the purer, unspoiled quality of ancient civilization. The poem ends with Keats urging the reader who is tired and fed up with the "cloying melody" of the modern world to "Sit ye near some old Cavern's Mouth and brood, / Until ye start, as if the sea nymphs quired!" The natural world may be terrifying, but it is necessary to embrace it in order to truly feel alive.
The Sound of the Sea by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was written in 1920, more than a hundred years after Keats' 1817 poem. For Longfellow as well, the sea is an irresistible force, although he engages in more direct personification of the sea rather than invoking age-old goddesses or nymphs. The first line of the poem presents how "The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep," as if the sea were a human being. Longfellow's poem lacks the frequent classical allusions found in Keats' work.
As the title suggests, Longfellow focuses more on the immediate sounds of the sea than on its visual behaviors. The sea is said to speak with "a voice out of the silence of the deep," and its echoes are "mysteriously multiplied / As of a cataract from the mountain's side, / Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep." Longfellow places far greater emphasis on how the sea affects the interior life of the poet, whereas Keats focuses on directing his readers to experience the sea as a way of escaping the limits of their mundane lives. Longfellow muses that just as the roar of the sea arises, "So comes to us at times, from the unknown / And inaccessible solitudes of being, / The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul."
"Both poets use sea to illuminate human experience"
Although today we are aware of the scientific reasons that the sea can sometimes be choppy and sometimes be still, both authors focus instead on how the sea can take a gazer by surprise. Keats' poem does implicitly note how the moon may affect the sea, given that Hecate was the goddess of the moon as well as witchcraft, but his use of mythology suggests the sea's power lies beyond the purely rational. Longfellow even more directly states that the sea is an entity which cannot be reasoned with — much like poetic inspiration itself.
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