You Will Know When You Get There by Allen Curnow

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Emma Baldwin March 17,

2019

‘You Will Know When You Get There’ by Allen Curnow is a twenty-three line poem and the title
piece of Curnow’s collection, You Will Know When You Get There: Poems. The piece is
separated into ten couplets, or sets of two lines, and one final tercet, or set of three lines.

Curnow has not chosen to structure the poem with a consistent pattern of rhyme or
rhythm. The lines are all very similar in length though. This lends the piece a feeling of
physical unity on the page. It appears to be very structured upon first glance but when one
investigates deeper the emotional nature of the text is emphasized through the free verse
style.

Summary of You Will Know When You Get There

‘You Will Know When You Get There’ by Allen Curnow speaks on the path of life through
metaphors of the sun and sea.

The poem begins with the speaker describing how no one, no matter who they are, goes to
the sea before or after their time. The vague language of the poem lends a dark and
foreboding feeling to the sea. This is contrasted by the warmth of the sun. The two elements
come to represent life and death.

In the following lines the sun funnels its light into the sea without seeming to know it is
emptying. Three characters are introduced to the narrative. A man wading into the sea and
two young boys. The boys represent life, and the man, impending death.

The poem concludes with the inevitable ending that the first lines alluded to.The listener,
referred to as “you” progresses deep into the ocean, alone.

Analysis of You Will Know When You Get There

Lines 1-6
In the first couplet the speaker begins by describing a “sea’ which from “Nobody comes up
from” late. It immediately appears as if there is some kind of deadline the speaker is very
aware of. The line that no one ever passes is represented by the sea. It is a place that no
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one goes to, or comes back from late.

These lines, and those that follow are vague. It is not entirely clear what exactly the speaker
is referring to. There is though a sense of foreboding. The sea does not seem like a place
one wants to venture to, especially if it is “late.” In the following couplets the speaker goes
on to describe the path that leads to the sea.

The description is also very dark, adding to depressing mood of the lines. If one was to
travel down this path they not want to go down the “last steep kilometre.” It appears to be
the most dangerous part of the walk. This is due to the wet areas that have been
pummelled by a “shower.” The shower of rain was, and is, so powerful that it “shred[s]” the
light coming from the sky.

Curnow’s speaker is now describing a path which seems quite dangerous. One is liable to
fall as the ground is wet, and there is no clear light coming from the sky. Although it
continues to pour from its “tank,” the sun, it is obscured by the rain. Whatever dark forces
are in this area, they are able to block out the light of the sun.

From these sections one should be able to infer that some aspect of this piece is going to be
about death. It is likely the force which takes light, and from which no one goes to late or
early. One goes to “death” exactly when they are meant to. It is embodied by the sea in the
first lines.

Lines 7-12
The following lines are not any clearer than those which preceded them. At this point the
speaker references the “celestial.” One must trace the mention of the sun into these new
couplets to understand that the “Reservoir” spoken of in line eight is the sun. The sun, and
the light it emits, is “celestial.” It continues to pour out, unaware that it is “emptying.” This is
due to the fact that the “light” is still there. The speaker has put a finishing point on the sun’s
ability to produce light. At some unknown point it is going to end.

This can be considered as an allusion to the death that awaits everyone. One continues to
live, emptying their reserve of light, until there is nothing left. In the following lines Curnow
makes a direct reference to Ezra Pound’s Canto VII with the line, “‘gathers the gold against
it.’” In this line Pound was referencing how gold is able to attract light even in the gloom.

This line fits into Curnow’s poem as the sun sits over the sea like gold. It attracts all the good
and fine things in life. Some of the light that becomes a part of the sun, and which shines
under its influence, is the “crushed rock.” It is not something one immediately notices on a
beach. It is often simple “underfoot.”

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The next couplet introduces “you” into the poem. There is a speaker the speaker is
addressing this work to, although it is unclear who this person is. The listener is said to “go”
alongside the sun. It is likely the metal destination is death, or as represented in this piece,
the sea.

Lines 13-18
In the path towards death, the “sun gets there first.” In its way, this line is depressing but
also somewhat comforting. If the sea is death, one should not be as fearful of it as the sun
and all its light as entered there as well.

In the next stanzas two characters are introduced. These “Boys” are pure embodiments of
life. They have faces lit by the “campfire light.” They sit on the beach and watch as a man
travels towards its waters. After the previous descriptions of the ocean the reader should
also be alarmed by this fact.

The speaker states that the man has an arrangement with ocean that it “be shallowed three-
point seven metres.” This way the man can reach the mussels he is seeking more easily.

Lines 19-23
In the final five lines of this piece the day is coming to an end. One’s life is dating to a close
just as the sun is setting. There is only “One hour’s light..left.” Although this last hour should
be precious and important there is the moon to contend with. It is acting like an
excrescence, or growth. The moon feeds off the sun’s last light.

The concluding lines describe the slamming of a door. Its force is so strong that it makes the
“sea-floor shudder.” With the door’s final closing, one has entered into the last moments of
their life. It is time to proceed down the dangerous path, into the ocean. The listener is
described as doing just this. They travel “alone…into the surge-black / fissure.”

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