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A short creative response essay to “On the Sea” by John Keats.
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A short analysis of the poem by John Keats, outlining the main techniques and meaning of the body of text.
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A short creative response to ‘On the Sea’ by John Keats‘On the Sea’ by John Keats begins with an abrupt start without first person that immediately
creates a sense of distance between the reader and poet. One may say that Keats chose the
opening sentence of ‘It keeps eternal whisperings around’ deliberately to accentuate the
distance he felt between himself and his brothers; Keats wrote ‘On the Sea’ in the Isle of
Wight whilst his brothers were back in London. The tone of the poem changes throughout.
The first few lines portray a tone of melancholy and sombreness however, as the poem
progresses the tone becomes quite personal and arguably reminiscent and more positive.
The poem overall is quite gentle through the usage of onomatopoeia throughout with the
repetition of sibilance to describe the ocean. The soft sounds of words like “whisperings”,
“desolate shores”, “gluts” and ‘swell” help to create imagery for the reader; it allows the
reader to picture what Keats was seeing and hearing at the time of writing, therefore,
creating a bond between poet and reader. The adjective “desolate” also helps to enhance
the melancholic atmosphere which amplifies the dejected poetic voice.
Additionally, the personification of the sea throughout the poem helps draw a parallel to
human experience which emphasises the idea that the ocean is a living body. The verb
“gluts” suggests the sea is greedy which one could say is further conveying the idea that the
sea is reckless and unpredictable much like human nature. However, Keats also references
Hecate- the Greek goddess of the moon and spirits- and he attributes the changing tides to
her. This is contradictory as he personifies the sea and implies that the sea has conflicting
emotions but then he implies that this is all down to Hecate. This fluidity of opinion links
back to the way the sea is forever moving just like emotions and beliefs.
The caesura at the end of the line “when last the winds of heaven were unbound” is
contrasting to the imagery created in the rest of the poem. The adjective “unbound”
denotes the sense of calm that is created by the sea in the poem. Keats’ decision to label
the winds as the property of “heaven” symbolises the divine force that Keats and several
other Romantics allude to. The reference to this otherworldly being and force could portray
how Keats felt towards his version of modern life. During the time of writing, science was
making advancements, and much of the discoveries made about the universe aimed to
disprove theories previously believed. Keats rebels against these ideas through this poem
and the sea and its Hellenistic past. This line of the poem is the end of the octave and this
very clearly marks the change from the octet to the sestet. This line is extremely crucial
because Petrarchan poems often show a structure in which the octave delivers a problem
and the sestet aims to solve that problem and provide a remedy.
Furthermore, the volta of the poem is the line “O ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and
tired,”; before this line, the atmosphere is quite depressing but, after the volta the
atmosphere lifts. The poem then becomes much more positive; Keats tries to portray the
idea that the sounds of the ocean are comforting and soothe him. He instructs people to
“feast” their eyes on the ocean. The word “feast” has positive connotations with pleasure
and gratification; the use of the word in this context suggests that the sea makes Keats feel
content. Keats suggests listening to the sounds of the sea as an efficacious treatment for
moroseness. This optimistic opinion of nature is befitting to a Romantic poet which is what a
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