The Sea By James Reeves

                     The Sea By
                   James Reeves

The poem is about the sea. The poet,in the first stanza, compares the rough sea to a hungry dog; in the second stanza, the roaring sea is compared to a howling dog; and in the last, the calm sea is compared to a sleeping dog.

The poet compares the sea to a hungry dog. Just as the sea is of grey colour and dangerous, in the same way the dog is also of the same colour and quality. Just as the sea walks on the beach all day, and its long and thick waves clash with stones in the same way the hungry dog with its clashing teeth and untidy jaws gnaws the bones. When the dog doesn't get anything to eat, it becomes very sad and licks its paws; similarly the waves of the sea water doesn't get anything to engulf, it licks the sand lying on the beach.

In the second stanza, the poet says that at night when the wind blows very hard and makes the moon move backward and forward, the sea water bounds to his feet and hits the cliffs with great force and as such great noise is produced; similarly the dog produces noise by howling at night and shakes its wet sides over the cliffs.

Here the poet says that in the month of May or June, the days are so quiet or calm that even the grasses on the hill of sand do not move nor make any high or thin sound. During this time, as the dog sleeps quietly with its head between its paws, in the same way the sea lies on the shores so quietly that it scarcely makes any sound.