The 18 Best Poems About the Sea (from the Best Authors)

The sea is a recurring theme in poetry and literature It is a natural phenomenon that many poets have described, since it awakens many sensations, through its waves, its sensation of calm or storm, its colors, its sound, its smell…

In this article We will know the 18 best Poems about the Sea from the hand of 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 from different eras; We will find authors such as Mario Benedtti, Antonio Machado, Jorge Luis Borges, Federico García Lorca, Guillermo Prieto…

We will see how many of them incorporate in their poems, in addition to the sea, other natural elements (beach, sun, wind…). In addition, 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) wove

mythologies and cosmogonies,

Before time was coined into days,

The sea, the always sea, was already and was.

Who is the sea? Who is that violent one

and ancient being that gnaws at the pillars

of the earth and it is one and many seas

and abyss and brightness 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, the fire of a bonfire.

Who is the sea, who am I? I will know the day

later that follows agony.

2. The Sea, by Mario Benedetti (excerpt)

what is the sea definitely?

why does it seduce? why tempt?

It usually invades us like a dogma

and forces us to be shore

swimming is a way to embrace it

to ask for revelations again

but water splashes are not magic

There are dark waves that drown the audacity

and mists that confuse everything

the sea is an alliance or a sarcophagus

from infinity brings illegible messages

and ignored images of the abyss

sometimes transmits a disturbing

tense and elemental melancholy

the sea is not ashamed of its castaways

totally lacks consciousness

and yet it attracts a tempting flame

lick the suicide’s territories

and tells stories with dark endings

3. I remember the sea, by Pablo Neruda (excerpt)

Chilean, have you gone to the sea during this time?

Go in my name, wet your hands and lift them up

and from other lands I will adore those drops

that fall from the infinite water on your face.

I know, I have lived all along my coast,

the thick North Sea, from the wastelands, to

the stormy weight of the foam on the islands.

I remember the sea, the cracked and iron shores

of Coquimbo, the haughty waters of Tralca,

the lonely waves of the South, which created me.

I remember in Puerto Montt or on the islands, at night,

When returning along the beach, the boat that waits,

and our feet left the fire in their footprints,

the mysterious flames of a phosphorescent god.

4. Sea, by Federico García Lorca (excerpt)

The sea is

the Lucifer of blue.

The fallen sky

for wanting to be the light.

Poor damned sea

to eternal movement,

having previously been

still in the firmament!

But of your bitterness

love redeemed you.

You paid pure Venus,

and your depth remained

virgin and painless.

Your sadnesses are beautiful,

sea ​​of ​​glorious spasms.

But today instead of stars

you have greenish octopuses.

Hold on to your suffering,

formidable Satan.

Christ walked for you,

but so did Pan.

5. Facing the sea, by Octavio Paz

Is the wave shapeless?

In an instant it is sculpted

and in another it falls apart

in which it emerges, round.

Its movement is its form.

The waves retreat

haunches, backs, necks?

but the waves return

breasts, mouths, foams?

The sea dies of thirst.

It writhes, without anyone,

in its bed of rocks.

Die 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 leaf makes!

Hardly daring.

See the land sad, but in the middle

you, like a rose.

• Comment: The poet Marià Manent talks about the sadness that the sea and the land transmit (or that is/are). And he introduces – surely – a person, in the middle of the sea, like a marine pearl, and in the middle of the earth, like a rose that blooms. That is to say, he unites the human being and natural phenomena, mixes them, incorporating the former into the latter.

7. What the sea will be like, by Guillermo Prieto (excerpt)

Your name or sea! It resonates inside me;

awaken my tired fantasy:

moves, enlarges my soul,

It fills her with fervent enthusiasm.

Nothing limited compresses me,

when I imagine contemplating your breast;

I allude, melancholic and serene,

or august forehead; your sublime moan.

You will be oh sea! magnificent and grand

when you sleep smiling and peaceful;

when your still and dilated breast

caress the delicious atmosphere?

• Comment: Guillermo Prieto talks about what hearing the word “sea” provokes him; the shock, the feeling of “enlarging the soul”, the enthusiasm… he Personifies the sea, and speaks of its “bosom” and the sounds of it. For him the sea is something magnificent and splendid, which transmits many emotions.

8. The Sad Sea, by Antonio Machado

A steel sea of ​​gray waves beats

inside the rough gnawed walls

of the old port. The north wind blows

and ripples the sea.

The sad sea lulls

a bitter illusion with its gray waves.

The north wind ripples the sea, and the sea lashes

the port wall.

The afternoon closes the horizon

cloudy Over the sea of ​​steel

There is a sky of lead.

The red brig is a ghost

bloody, on the sea, that the sea shakes…

Dismal the north wind hums and whistles sadly

in the bitter lyre of the strong rigging.

The red brig is a ghost

that the wind stirs and rocks the rippled sea,

the rough curly sea of ​​gray waves.

• Comment: Antonio Machado describes the sea and also personifies it, like most authors: he talks about how it pulsates, he talks about its colors (he names several), the wind that accompanies it, the waves (which are “gray”)… Also He attributes other actions to it: “cooing.” He talks about him as if he felt, as if he had emotions like we do. On the other hand, he describes other phenomena, such as the sky (“lead sky”).

9. The sea is happy, by José Gorostiza (excerpt)

We will go search

banana leaves to the banana grove.

The sea is happy.

We will go look for them on the road,

father of skeins of linen.

The sea is happy.

Because the moon (turns fifteen years old)

she turns white, blue, red, brown.

The sea is happy.

Because the moon learns advice from the sea,

in tuberose perfume he wants to move.

The sea is happy.

I will release seven rods of spikenard

for my girlfriend with nice feet.

• Comment: José Gorostiza also personifies the sea, attributing human actions or characteristics to it. Throughout the poem he repeats several times that “the sea rejoices.” He also mentions a banana grove, a road, the moon… that is, different phenomena of nature as well.

10. Your screams and my screams at dawn, by Gabriel Celaya

Your screams and my screams at dawn.

Our white horses running

with a dust of light on the beach.

Your lips and my saltpeter lips.

Our blonde heads fainted.

Your eyes and my eyes,

your hands and my hands.

Our bodies

elusive algae.

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 begins by talking about the dawn and the beach. It 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 beaches at dawn as something romantic.

11. Calm, by Eliseo Diego

This silence,

white, unlimited,

this silence

of the calm, motionless sea,

that suddenly

break the light snails

by a push of the breeze,

Perhaps it extends

from afternoon to night, it rests

maybe because of the grit

of fire,

the infinite

deserted beach,

by way of

that doesn’t 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 spreads across the beach, the shore, and even into the afternoon and evening.

12. By the sea, by José Hierro

If I die, let them make me naked,

naked by the sea.

Gray waters will be my shield

and there will be no need to fight.

If I die, leave me alone.

The sea is my garden.

He cannot, who loved the waves,

wish for another end.

I will hear the melody of the wind,

the mysterious voice

The moment will finally be conquered

that reaps like a sickle.

That reaps sorrows. And when

the night begins to burn,

Dreaming, sobbing, singing, I will be born again.

• Comment: José Hierro talks in this poem about the only thing he wants when he dies: to be by the sea. Everything else doesn’t matter to him. He also mentions other elements: the waves (“he loved the waves”) and the wind (“the melody of the wind”).

13. Sunset, by Manuel Machado

It was a languid and sonorous sigh

the voice of the sea that afternoon… The day,

not wanting to die, with golden claws

from the cliffs it caught fire.

But the sea rose powerfully in its bosom,

and the sun, at last, as in a superb bed,

He sank his golden brow into the waves,

in a purple ember undone.

For my poor aching body,

for my sad lacerated soul,

for my stiff wounded heart,

for my bitter weary life…

the beloved sea, the desired sea,

the sea, the sea, and don’t think about anything…!

• Comment: Manuel Machado also personifies the sea in this poem (“the voice of the sea”, “her bosom the sea”, etc.). Like many other poets, he includes other elements of nature, such as the sun, the waves… In 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 about anything …!”).

14. Beach, by Manuel Altolaguirre

To Federico García Lorca.

The boats two by two,

like sandals of the wind

put to dry in the sun.

Me and my shadow, right angle.

Me and my shadow, open book.

Lying on the sand

like spoil from the sea

A sleeping child is found.

Me and my shadow, right angle.

Me and my shadow, open book.

And beyond, fishermen

pulling the ropes

yellow and brackish.

Me and my shadow, right angle.

Me and my shadow, open book.

• Comment: This is a poem by Manuel Altolaguirre dedicated to Federico García Lorca. He mentions fishermen, the beach, the sand… and repeats the following verses several times: “Me and my shadow, right angle. “Me and my shadow, open book.” You imagine a scene of someone on the beach, reading a book quietly and in peace.

15. The black sea, by Nicolás Guillén

The purple night dreams

over the sea;

the voice of the fishermen

wet in the sea

the moon comes out dripping

from sea.

The black sea

Through the night a sound,

flows into the bay;

through the night a sound.

The ships see it passing,

through the night a sound,

turning on the cold water.

Through the night a sound,

through the night a sound,

through the night a sound. . The black sea

-Oh, my mulatto of fine gold,

oh, my mulatto

of gold and silver,

with its poppy and its 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 who looks like the loved one: “my mulatto of fine gold, my mulatto of gold and silver.”

16. The girl who goes to the sea, by Rafael Alberti

How white her skirt is

the girl who goes to the sea!

Oh girl, don’t stain it

squid ink!

How white your hands, girl,

that you leave without sighing!

Oh girl, don’t stain them

squid ink!

How white your heart

and how white you look!

Oh girl, don’t stain them

squid ink!

• Comment: In this poem, the protagonist, more than the sea, is a girl. With the words of Rafael Alberti we can imagine a small, innocent girl (“How white your hands, girl!”, “How white your heart”). She talks about squid ink as if it were something that could corrupt her innocence, her childhood (“don’t get squid ink on them!”).

17. Beauty, by Miguel de Unamuno (excerpt)

Sleeping waters,

Dense vegetable.

gold stones,

Silver sky!

Dense vegetables emerge from the water;

Of the vegetables.

Like giant spikes, the towers

that buril in the sky

In silver his gold.

There are four bands:

That of the river, above it the mall.

The citizen tower

And the sky in which he rests.

And all resting on the water,

foundation fluid,

Water of centuries,

Mirror of beauty.

(…)

• Comment: Miguel de Unamuno alludes to gold, silver… (“stones of gold”, “sky of silver”), when he describes the sea. He describes the sea as something beautiful, hence the title of the poem “beauty.”

18. The sea is very serene, by Gil Vicente

The sea is very serene,

To the oars, rowers!

This is the love ship!

To the beat of the serenades

they will sing new songs,

you will row with sad sorrows

rowing flights of regrets;

you have sighs in pairs

the pain stops now:

This is the love ship.

And rowing in torment,

you will find other storms

with desperate seas

and disastrous affronts;

have happy lives

with major pain:

This is the love ship.

• Comment: In this poem Gil Vicente talks about the serenity of the sea, its tranquility, which can be interrupted. He also mentions the rowers or sailors who circulate on the sea; He talks about what can be found: loves, storms, turbulent waters… Thus, he continually refers to the “ship of loves.”