Images and Symbols in Pablo Neruda’s The Sea

One critic claimed that poets like E. E. Cummings work with punctuation and word placement on a page. They achieve this by attempting poetry that can only be experienced through the eye and cannot be read aloud. Pablo Neruda, however, shows the opposite in most of his poems. The Sea, in particular, is a work of art that brings beauty to the writer’s language through its imagery and many complex figures of speech. The imagery in the said poem suggests an adventurous ocean that appeals to all five senses. 

 

The stunning imagery in every line of The Sea is arguably its most striking feature. The poem is brought to life by images that engage the senses, such as a single wave in a sea and a presumed school of fish. The dominant images transport the reader to the ocean and let them comprehend the speaker's intense yearning for the water. The employment of strong verbs enhances the impact of Neruda's imagery. In particular, the use of terms like "spin" and "ascended" helps paint a realistic picture of the sea, yet the sea is a metaphor. Through vivid imagery and strong pictures of the water, Neruda allows the reader to understand why the speaker must head out to sea. The phrases "whatever it is that I learn" and "I rescue the day with fragment" create a spirit of freedom and independence in the poem.

 

The poem is highly metaphorical and symbolic. On the surface, the story is about setting out to the ocean alone. However, as the author of this paper examines further, it is quite evident that there is meaning beyond superficial images. The intensity of the speaker’s feelings has created two themes that complement each other. First, a theme of longing for freedom and an adventurous ocean is developed. Although not the only theme, it is recognizable and easily found after the initial reading of the poem. For example, this yearning for the sea and adventure can easily be seen in the refrain, "I need the ocean to teach me/whatever it is that I learn.” Thus, it is intensified by the line “as if by the trick of the magnet, I spin on the circle of a wave of the sea, the sea’s university.”

 

The latter implies that no matter how hard it is, the speaker is determined to go and learn from the sea university. It shows that the speaker hungers for an adventurous and free life. This hunger for life is also seen through references to the freedom of tender deployment of waves in line twenty-three. Equally important, Neruda uses strong metaphors to create a theme of life resembling a sea. The sea is a symbol of greatness and mystery. It can be perceived as a symbol of life as the speaker is determined to go there yet uncertain of what will happen next.  

 

The last line says, I cling to what is purest in movement, which suggests that life is a long sea journey and the determination to cling is too dominant to deny. These two themes work together to convey the speaker’s passionate feelings for the sea and help the reader understand the sea's importance to the speaker.