The 18 best Poems about the Sea (from the best authors)
The sea is a recurrent theme in poetry and literature . It is a natural phenomenon that many poets have described, as it awakens many sensations, through its waves, its sensation of calm or storm, its colours, its sound, its smell…
In this article we will know the 18 best Poems about the Sea , from the best authors of all times.
The best Poems and verses about the Sea
The 18 best Poems about the Sea that we are going to read belong to the best poets of different periods; we will find authors like Mario Benedtti, Antonio Machado, Jorge Luis Borges, Federico GarcÃa Lorca, Guillermo Prieto…
We will see how many of them incorporate in their poems, besides the sea, other natural elements (beach, sun, wind…). We will also see how they frequently personify the sea, attributing to it characteristics and actions typical of human beings.
1. The Sea, by Jorge Luis Borges
Before Sleep (or Terror) Knitted
mythologies and cosmogonies,
before time was minted in days,
the sea, the ever-present sea, was already and was.
Who is the sea? Who is the violent one
and ancient being that gnaws at the pillars
of the earth and is one and many seas
and chasm and glow and chance and wind?
Whoever looks at it sees it for the first time,
always. With the amazement that things
elementals leave, the beautiful
afternoons, the moon, a fire in a bonfire.
Who is the sea, who am I? I will know the day
subsequent to the agony.
- Comment: In this poem, Jorge Luis Borges talks about love as something shocking and beautiful; he describes it, and emphasizes how one feels when seeing it: as if it were always the first time. He also refers to it as something that was before anything else, before the universe and the cosmos.
2. The Sea, by Mario Benedetti (excerpt)
What is the sea, anyway?
Why does he seduce? Why does he tempt?
usually invades us like a dogma
and forces us to be shore
swimming is a form of embracing
to ask you again for disclosures
but the water strokes are not magic
there are dark waves that drown out daring
and all-confusing mists
the sea is a covenant or a sarcophagus
from infinity brings unreadable messages
and ignored prints of the abyss
sometimes transmits a turbine
tense and elemental melancholy
the sea is not ashamed of its castaways
totally lacks conscience
and yet it attracts temptation flame
lick the suicide’s territories
and tells stories with a dark ending
- Comment: Benedetti speaks of the sea as something mysterious full of hidden messages; he describes its waves, its waters and the shore that precedes it. He also describes the sensations the sea transmits, especially melancholy, and makes a metaphor; he talks about swimming in it as a way to embrace it (in a way he personifies it).
3. I Remember the Sea, by Pablo Neruda (excerpt)
Chilean, have you been to sea in this time?
Walk in my name, wet your hands and raise them up
and I from other lands will worship those drops
that fall from the endless water on your face.
I know, I have lived all the coast of me,
the thick North Sea, from the moors, to
the stormy weight of foam on the islands.
I remember the sea, the cracked and the railroad coasts
of Coquimbo, the haughty waters of Tralca,
the lonely waves of the South, which created me.
I remember in Puerto Montt or in the islands, at night,
when returning along the beach, the boat waiting,
and our feet left fire in their tracks,
the mysterious flames of a phosphorescent god.
- Comment: In this poem Pablo Neruda talks about different places near the sea, and the sea itself (Puerto Montt, Coquimbo, Tralca, North Sea…). He describes his passion for the sea and the sensations it transmits to him. He talks about its waters, the sand, the foam, etc.
4. Sea, by Federico GarcÃa Lorca (excerpt)
The sea is
the Lucifer of the blue.
The Fallen Sky
for wanting to be the light.
Poor doomed sea
to eternal movement,
having previously been
still in the sky!
But from your bitterness
you were redeemed by love.
You gave birth to pure Venus,
and keep your depth
virgin and painless.
Your sorrows are beautiful,
sea of glorious spasms.
But today instead of stars
you have greenish octopuses.
Hold your suffering,
formidable Satan.
Christ walked for you,
but so did Pan.
- Comment: Federico GarcÃa Lorca talks about the movement of the sea, its colour and the animals that live in it (“greenish octopus”). He mentions sadness as something beautiful. He also speaks about Christ and Satan, referring to legends of the bible that took place in the sea.
5. In front of the sea, by Octavio Paz
The wave is shapeless?
In an instant it sculpts
and in another it falls apart
in which it emerges, round.
His movement is his form.
Waves are retreating
anklets, backs, necks?
but the waves return
Breasts, mouths, foams?
The sea dies of thirst.
He squirms, with no one,
on his bedrock.
He’s dying of air hunger.
- Comment: Octavio Paz first describes the waves of the sea; their shape, their movement. He also personifies it, as other poets do: “The sea dies of thirst”, making a sort of play on words (die of thirst, water, sea…) How can “something” that is full of water die of thirst? And then, it goes on: “Dies of thirst for air.”
6. They say: The sea is sad, by Marià Manent
They say: the sea is sad. What a sign
makes every wave, when it breaks!
And I see a sad sea, but in the middle
you, like a pearl.
They say: the earth is sad.
What a sign the blade makes!
Barely dare.
See the sad land, but in the middle
you, like a rose.
- Comment: The poet Marià Manent talks about the sadness that transmits (or that is/are) the sea and the land. And he introduces -surely- a person, in the middle of the sea, as a sea pearl, and in the middle of the earth, as a rose that blooms. That is, it unites the human being and the natural phenomena, mixing them, incorporating the first into the second.
7. How the Sea Will Be, by Guillermo Prieto (excerpt)
Your name, or sea, resounds within me;
awakens my tired fantasy:
move, enlarge my soul,
of fervent enthusiasm fills it.
Nothing limited compresses me,
when I imagine contemplating your breast;
alluvial, melancholic and serene,
or august brow; thy mooing sublime.
You will be oh sea! magnificent and great
when you are sleeping in peace and quiet;
when your breast is still and dilated
caress the delicious atmosphere?
- Comment: Guillermo Prieto talks about what the word “sea” provokes in him; the commotion, the feeling of “enlarging the soul”, the enthusiasm… He personifies the sea, and talks about its “bosom” and its sounds. For him the sea is something magnificent and splendid, which transmits many emotions.
8. The Sad Sea, by Antonio Machado
Feel a sea of grey wave steel
inside the rough gnawed walls
from the old port. The north wind blows
y
Close the evening horizon
overcast. On the sea of steel
there’s a leaden sky.
The red brigantine is a ghost
bloody, over the sea, that the sea shakes…
Dreary buzzes the north wind and whistles sadly
on the sour lyre of the strong rigging.
The red brigantine is a ghost
that the wind stirs and rocks the curly sea,
the rough, curly sea of gray waves.
- Comment: Antonio Machado describes the sea and also personifies it, as most authors do: he talks about it pulsating, he talks about its colors (he names several), the wind that accompanies it, the waves (which are “gray”)… He also attributes other actions to it: “lulling”. He talks about it as if he felt, as if he had emotions like us. On the other hand, he describes other phenomena, such as the sky (“leaden sky”).
9. Se alegra el mar, by José Gorostiza (excerpt)
We’ll go get
banana leaves in the banana tree.
The sea is happy.
We’ll go get them on the road,
father of the skeins of flax.
The sea is happy.
Because the moon (turns fifteen on pain)
it gets white, blue, red, brown.
The sea is happy.
For the moon learns counsel from the sea,
in spikenard perfume wants to move.
The sea is happy.
Seven spikenard sticks I will detach
for my girlfriend with the nice foot.
- Comment: José Gorostiza also personifies the sea, attributing to it human actions or characteristics. Throughout the poem he repeats several times that “the sea is happy”. He also mentions a banana plantation, a road, the moon… that is, different phenomena of nature as well.
10. Tus gritos y mis gritos en el alba, by Gabriel Celaya
Your screams and my screams at dawn.
Our white horses running
with a light powder on the beach.
Your lips and my saltpetre lips.
Our blond heads passed out.
Your eyes and my eyes,
your hands and my hands.
Our bodies
algae blooms.
Oh love, love!
Dawn Beaches.
- Comment: This poem is a little different, it does not make such a direct allusion to the sea, but rather to the beach. Thus, Gabriel Celaya starts talking about the dawn and the beach. He incorporates marine elements but focuses on him and another person (“your eyes and my eyes, your hands and my hands”…). He talks about love and mentions the beaches at dawn as something romantic.
11. Calm, by Eliseo Diego
This silence,
white, unlimited,
this silence
of the sea, calm, motionless,
that suddenly
break the light snails
by an impulse of the breeze,
Spreading
from evening to evening, it takes a rest
maybe because of the sand
of fire,
the infinite
deserted beach,
in a way
that does not end,
maybe,
this silence,
Never?
- Comment: Eliseo Diego, more than defining the sea, speaks of its silence, which is broken by the sound of the breeze. He talks about how this silence expands along the beach, the shore, and even in the afternoon and night.
12. By the Sea, by José Hierro
If I die, they can put me naked,
naked by the sea.
Grey waters will be my shield
and there will be no fighting.
If I die, I’ll be left alone.
The sea is my garden.
He cannot, who loved the waves,
to wish for another end.
I will hear the melody of the wind,
the mysterious voice.
The time will finally be over
who mows like a sickle.
That mows grief
13. Ocaso, by Manuel Machado
It was a listless, resounding sigh
the voice of the sea that evening… The day,
not wanting to die, with golden claws
of the cliffs would be lit.
But her breast the sea rose up strong,
and the sun, at last, as in a superb bed,
sank in the waves the golden forehead,
in a broken-down cardboard grill.
For my poor aching body,
for my sad lacerated soul,
for my wounded heart,
for my bitterly weary life…
the beloved sea, the fancy sea,
the sea, the sea, and not thinking anything…!
- Comment: Manuel Machado also personifies the sea in this poem (“la voz del mar”, “su seno el mar”, etc.). Like many other poets, he includes other elements of nature, such as the sun, the waves… At the end he talks about his sadness and his pain, and how the sea is the only thing he needs (“the sea, and not thinking of anything…!”).
14. Beach, by Manuel Altolaguirre
To Federico Garcia Lorca.
Boats in pairs,
like sandals of the wind
dried out in the sun.
Me and my shadow, right angle.
Me and my shadow, open book.
On the lying sand
as the spoils of the sea
a child is found asleep.
Me and my shadow, right angle.
Me and my shadow, open book.
And beyond, fishermen
pulling the strings
yellow and briny.
Me and my shadow, right angle.
Me and my shadow, open book.
- Comment: This is a poem by Manuel Altolaguirre dedicated to Federico GarcÃa Lorca. It mentions fishermen, the beach, the sand… and repeats several times the following verses: “Me and my shadow, right angle. Me and my shadow, open book.” You imagine a scene of someone on the beach, reading a book calmly and peacefully.
15. The Black Sea, by Nicolás Guillén
The Purple Night Dreams
on the sea;
the voice of the fishermen
wet in the sea;
the moon is dripping
of the sea.
The black sea.
Between the night a son,
flows into the bay;
for between the night a son.
Boats see it happen,
between the night a son,
by turning on the cold water.
Between the night a son,
between the night a son,
between the night a son. . . .
The black sea.
-Oh, my fine golden mulatto,
ay, mi mulata
gold and silver,
with its poppy and orange blossom,
at the foot of the hungry and masculine sea,
at the foot of the sea.
- Comment: Nicolás Guillén refers to the sea in this poem as “the black sea”. From what he says, we can easily imagine a scene at night. At the end he introduces a female figure, a person that looks like the beloved person: “my mulatto of fine gold, my mulatto of gold and silver”.
16. The Girl Who Goes to the Sea, by Rafael Alberti
How white the skirt is
the girl who goes to sea!
Oh girl, don’t get it dirty
the ink of the squid!
How white your hands are, girl,
that you leave without sighing!
Oh girl, don’t get them dirty
the ink of the squid!
How white your heart is
and what a target you are looking at!
Oh girl, don’t get them dirty
the ink of the squid!
- Comment: In this poem, the protagonist, more than the sea, is a girl. With Rafael Alberti’s words we can imagine
17. Hermosura, by Miguel de Unamuno (extract)
Sleeping waters,
Dense vegetable.
Gold stones,
Silver sky!
From water comes dense vegetables;
From the vegetable.
Like giant spikes, the towers
That in the sky they burilan
In silver your gold.
It’s four sashes:
The one on the river, on it the boulevard.
The Citizen Tower
And the sky in which it rests.
And all resting on the water,
Fluid foundation,
Water of centuries,
Mirror of beauty.
[…]
- Comment: Miguel de Unamuno alludes to gold, silver… (“golden stones”, “silver sky”), when he describes the sea. He describes the sea as something beautiful, hence the title of the poem “beauty”.
18. Very Serene is the Sea, by Gil Vicente
Very serene is the sea,
To the oars, oarsmen!
This is the ship of love!
To the beat of the serenas
will sing new songs,
you will row with sad sorrows
rowing flights of sorrows;
three pairs of sighs
and stop the pain:
this is the ship of love.
And rowing in torment,
you will find other storms
with desperate seas
and disastrous affronts;
three happy lives
with the major pains:
this is the ship of love.
- Comment: In this poem, Gil Vicente talks about the serenity of the sea, about its tranquility, which can be interrupted. He also mentions the oarsmen or sailors who go around the sea; he talks about what they can find: love, storms, turbulent waters… Thus, he continually refers to the “ship of love”.