Poem comparisonb
Poem comparisonbSurfie vs The Surfer
two poems, two themes and how poetic techiniques develope them
Surfie, by Jane Marshall, and The Surfer, by Judith Wright, are quite obviously both poems about surfing. The subject matters in each poem are the same.
Both authors have managed to write a poem about surfing, only to create different impressions, formed by their many poetic techniques, within two different themes.
these themes are:
Surfie - This poem is about a surfer who is taking on some of the characteristics of the wave he is riding. With it he has wealth. He the surfer can be wealthy with the richness that surfing has to offer but he cannot ever be as powerful due to the oceans unpredictability. It can choose to resume its own respected status of undeafetable power, anytime. He is merely a man riding the wave. Who is only to be thrown around in a mess of broken waves and white water.because he is underpowered by the waves unpredictability. Whereas ‘The Surfer’, is about the the paradox that can arise from the mystique of the ocean. The sea in this surfers eyes is an object of beauty and controllability, not a monster of momentarily shared wealth and unpredictabilty, but a figure that is not totally understood. It is an object of serenity. One easily likened to the rest of natures many beauties. But to one who is sitting upon the shore, a spectator, the sea and its waves can be seen as a snarling monster. The wave holding the power rather than the surfer. The sea is untame, true. But only with out a rider.
Surfie is a poem, rich with the use of constructive and thoughtful sound devices. The author has used these sound devices to describe and make point of the uncertainty surrounding an object as powerful as the ocean.
The sound of a breaking wave is an uncertain noise. Firstly there is a silent rise in the ocean, the lip curls over and drops without noise, then all of a sudden there is a gigantic roar, an expression of power. This power of uncertainty has an effect on the surfer. He is unsure as to the direction or ending of his ride and to the power at which he is being granted. Onomatopoeia, in this poem, describes it wonderfully. ’sway sway’. These are words which clearly express themselves. They are words of uncertainty and a lack of power. This surfer is trying to retain his footing and keep up with the rich ride he is apon. Even the rhyme in this poem is influenced by the uncertainty that this immensely powerful wave produces. Its uncertainty is linked to the feeling that the wave produces, it can do what it wants, when it wants. Unstructured, unpredictable and powerful. Just like the wave. The surfer is not as powerful as the wave and that it what it is expressing to him.
He can share in its riches, but when it wants, it can through him from his mount with nothing he can do to stop it. ‘The sea is rolling for the gods’ not for one man who wants a ride of riches. There is no sense of control for this surfer, he is merely riding.
The Surfer is a hard poem to explain in terms of sound devices as it come across as a very literal poem. There is no clear, defined rhyming pattern although there are glimpses of rhyme. This is probably due to the fact that the surfer is aware of what people can see in the ocean and that the other side, the less natural, more aggressive, powerful side of it, is a picture in some peoples minds.
It is clearly not in rhyme because rhyming is conformity and that is something that nature is not. It is completely unpredictable.
The surfer in this poem has realised that because he is a part of nature, he can blend quite well with nature. Like a bird ‘wheeling in air’. He is an object of nature no matter what way it is looked at and while he is surfing he realises that.
‘Mortal, masterful’, alliteration. This is flowing, a fluid liquid motion of vocalisation,
earthly and skilled. This is explaning the surfer and how he carves his craft, but in the same instance it is explaining the wave and the bird. It is nature. The nature and the surfer are both at one with each other, likeness’s spring from human to ocean to bird and back.
“Muscle of arm thrust down long muscle of water’, they are becoming similar in ways not though of. by the ones on the shore. It is not personification, and the sharing of
human qualities but more a realisation of the similarities between man and water, bird and nature.
Surfie is full of sight imagery, but that in particular that of metaphors.
These metaphors describe the richness that the surfer is experiencing.
‘Jewels are flying round my head’, is a reference to what he most dearly loves. The experience of surfing and what is to be see and enjoyed when you are partaking in it.
The jewels he is refering to are not in a monetary sense but a different way of looking upon what is regularly seen. These jewels are water droplets, as are the ‘pearls’ and ‘diamonds’ that are told of. This is because the wave he is riding is in fact, to him, a huge wall of unexplainable riches. An object of wealth as it explains so much to him and offers him a lifestyle of richness and learning.
The author uses personification also to emphasize the importance of a surfing experience to the surfer. But it is personification in a higher sense, it is the likening of the ocean to a person, but also a god. A figure of wealth, ‘the sun god’, a man of yellow gold, bright future and prospects. The wave being greater that any other.
‘my sinews and flesh are molded to the wave’, as this surfer is trying to be at one with this wave as he surfs it.
Although no matter how hard he tries he can only gain the richness of his experience and no more. He is bound by the wave, his wealth is gone as soon as he leaves the water. So he goes ‘where the wave goes’. intrigued by the experience.
His wealth is not something that can be carried away, so he will surf forever. His material wealth meaning nothing when he is surfing. Possibley, even when he isnt.
The sound devices used in The Surfer are mainly metaphorical. They refer to the mysterious side of the ocean, the side that is only seen by a surfer or spectator when standing upon the shore. The sea is tame, hospitable and natural to the surfer.
This is clearly stated through the authors use of personification, ‘rollers shoulders’. Controlable and obviously trusted by the surfer. To climb upon ones shoulders requires trust, especially when it is these shoulders that are to be taking you home in dimming light. Although this trust and understanding is apparent to one who is in the water, it fades dramatically when feet are set upon the shore. The surfer knows it is only when he is on the sand that he can see ocean in such a way, as it quite clearly states it. ‘For on the sand’. But never the less the ocean can be seen as a ‘grey- wolf sea’, with its wolf-teath, waiting to swallow another victim. Imagery as it is, to the effect of creating a wild, uncontrolable ocean. Although it is already known by the surfer, that the sea to him is restrained, this imagery is used to construct the other viewpoint of the sea and also to create controversy between readers. The metaphors used in the last paragraph are from the vantage point of the person who has not yet conquered the ocean and its mysteries.
It is purely seeding the conquerers of the ocean, from those who are still looking upon it as a wild animal, unrestrained and beastly. An underlying meening or the verge of a analogy possibly. This sea can have everything you want or everything you despise, depending on what you want to see in it and where you stand.
Both of these poems are great in the fact there meanings, however different, are relevant to the ocean. These are not poems which are written by poets who have no feeling or knowledge of the ocean and how it works.
Both poems are indeed poems which describe the ocean in a realistic and interesting way, which is a surprise as the ocean is probably rarely looked upon in ways such as these. It is interesting to me that Surfie concertrated on what The surfer tried to get away from, that being the powerful side of the ocean being the only side. Different opinions from different people. All standing from differnet view points, which is what these poems are all about.
The themes are also very well supported in one way or another, if it is not a sound technique it is a sight device. The ocean is a powerful thing as are both of these poems because the correct poetic techniques have been used in the right instances.