Imagery of the ocean dominates the later poems of A. C. Swinburne, as in By the North Sea . In the sea, Swinburne finds the perfect canvas on which to project his musings on time, God, beauty and love. Swinburne suggests that the wind and sea indeed transcend time:
Time, haggard and changeful and hoary,
Is master and God of the land:
But the air is fulfilled of the glory
That is shed from our lord's right hand.
O father of all of us ever,
All glory be only to thee
490
From heaven, that is void of thee never,
And earth, and the sea.
And:
Though the Gods of the night lie rotten
And their honour be taken away
And the noise of their names forgotten,
Thou, Lord, art God of the day.
Thou art father and saviour and spirit,
O Sun, of the soul that is free
And hath grace of thy grace to inherit
Thine earth and thy sea.
By this, Swinburne seems to praise immortality of the sea and nature as compared to the temporal Gods humans construct. Earlier on, speaking of what seems to be the Christian God, Swinburne says:
Here is all the end of all his glory --
Dust, and grass, and barren silent stones.
Dead, like him, one hollow tower and hoary
In this way, Swinburne uses imagery of wind and sea to challenge the idea of eternal gods. Indeed, he seems to challenge the idea of anything immortal except for his descriptions. But Swinburne most likely only holds the wind and sea in so high regard in so far as they are his constructions; by infusing his aesthetic sense into the natural things around him.
Questions
1. Is the meter scheme of the poem (I believe bacchi) a resurrection of some classical form, or an attempt to mimic the sound of the sea? If the latter, are trisyllables more conducive to suggestions of the sea, e.g. "Annabel Lee"?
2. Compare this poem to Turner's depictions of the sea. How does Swinburne's use of imagery compare to Turner's paintings in the attempt to convey certain aesthetic beliefs?
3. Is Swinburne's praise of natural phenomena, such as the sun, itself a sort of theism ("Thou, Lord, art God of the day"), or does he make this comparison in order to satirize the church?
4. Though Swiburne seems to contrast nature with the Christian God, he also presents the sea as somewhat foreboding and bleak, using such imagery as : "her waters are haggard and yellow" and "his garments are grey as the hoary/ Wan sky where the day lies dim." What can be said about this gloomy outlook on both the temporality of God and an eternal but unappealing nature?
5. How can one call something constantly changing, such as water, immortal in any sense? Might this change or inform Swinburne's conception of time at all?
Last modified 21 March 2008