Farhanah Hussain (02) 1E4

Task: Analyse the use of poetic devices in The Sea. How effective is the comparison between the sea and the dog? In this essay, I will discuss the poetic devices used in The Sea. The poetic devices used are namely metaphors, imagery and personification. Firstly, I would like to discuss the metaphors used in The Sea. Throughout the poem, the poet used an extended metaphor and he compared the dogs hunger to the sea in the first line The sea is a hungry dog. Then, the poet used the lin e He rolls on the beach all day that refers to the waves being personified as a male rolling and crashing onto the beach. The line Hour upon hour he gnaws on the stones refers to the waves crashing forward and the motion of the waves crashing again and again, bringing the stones forward thus rumbling, tumbling stones. Then in the second last line He lies on the sandy shore refers to the sea being quiet and calm. All the metaphors are referring to typical actions of a dog and I think it was an effective use of metaphors and a good comparison of the dog to the sea. Secondly, there is a continuous use of imagery throughout the poem. For example He rolls on the beach all day gives the readers an imagery of gentle waves lapping onto the sand. Then, the dog gnaws upon stones and the sea dog moans and licks his greasy paws. All of these actions give the readers thinking that the sea dog is hungry because these are actions a dog would do if it is hungry. It would be playful. So the first stanza of the poem would be about the sea dog being hungry, playful and alert. In the second stanza, there is imagery of the sea dog being excited and active because it bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs and then it shakes its wet sides over the cliffs. This makes the sea dog look curious and the sea dog was very fidgety. Then the dog howls and hollos long and loud creating an image of dog being alert. When a dog howls, it is to alert someone of an intruder or such. In this entire stanza, there is no mention of th e sea but I understand that the sea is excited or active like the dog. The phrase used is a visual imagery and gives the reader a picture painted in a mind. In the third stanza, the poet talks about the sea dog being calm, tired and almost lazy. With h is head between his paws indicate the dog is tired and wants to sleep. He lies on the sandy shores, So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores. These lines end the third stanza and the poem and the sea dog is asleep and tired. These lines are also an auditory type of imagery and the readers can imagine hearing the dog, a gentle quietness occasionally interrupted by the dogs snores. In my opinion, imagery was effectively used in this poem as a poetic device because the author used imagery so the readers could imagine the comparison of the sea and the dog with ease. The readers can also see the growth of the sea dog in the poem because each stanza reflects a particular mood or state of the dog and this is linked to the actions of the sea . In the first stanza, the sea dog is hungry and playful and then it was alert and excited in the second stanza. It was tired and sleepy at the third stanza and the poem ends of with the sea dog asleep. Lastly, there is use of personification in the poem. In the line And whe n the night wind roars, the wind is given life as it is given a human quality of being able to roar and therefore personified. Next, the moon rocks and the moon is being personified as it is given human qualities which would be the ability to move because it is otherwise an inanimate object.

Farhanah Hussain (02) 1E4

In conclusion, the poet used the poetic devices effectively and evokes at least one of the senses of the readers. I enjoyed reading the poem because it was easy to imagine because of the use of the extended metaphor and the imagery.