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 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?
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”).
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 …!”).
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.”
