This poem remined me of happiness that the person is walking on water. In the first stanza the author uses great description. An example from the passage is,"And poled off, gliding upright onto the shining topsoil of the bay." That awesome how she describes her walking on the water. The author also describes how she is crossing over between the two worlds, which are the land and sea. "Between two open blue worlds." She also describes how she doesn't make marks in the sea but when she goes onto the land she makes marks in the sand which shows that she did walk on water. She also talks about how she was alongside pelicans and beneath her was a shark. The shark was stalking her.
I thought the author was a very good writer and really has great description. In the end I made the connection that the person actually died and went to heaven. That's what it seems to me. I got this impression because it says that she's just waking. It also says that the king's grave turns you to light. It said all darkness is no more. It all relates to heaven.
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Although I agree that this poem is in reference to death and the crossing over between earth and heaven, I think its almost more mystical and sacriligious. The walking the water scenario reminded me of the movie, The Craft. In the movie, four girls come together to practice witchcraft. There is a scene in the movie where one of the girls walks on water. It is a sign that she is superior to all others, including God.
I don't know what Dickey's intentions for this poem were, but to me, the tone and the imagery go hand-in-hand. The tone of this is very mellow and peaceful. The idea of a man gliding along the water, marking his toes in the sand, and then ascending into heaven seems calm and peaceful as well.
I agree that this poem deals with something happy, and uplifting. When I first started reading it I thought that maybe the person was parasailing. I do not really know why, but i figures because of the joy and excitement. Also the description of the sharks. When you parasail, you can see every shark in the water because you are at the perfect height directly above the water. Also this would explain why the person was not leaving any marks on the water.
Then as I read on I thought that it had something more biblical about it. I thought that the person was maybe making the journey to heaven. I agree that it defiantly relates to heaven. I think you had some good ideas about this poem that relate to this theory of it ending in heaven.
I thought you made a good point that the narrator leaves footprints in the sand because he or she did have wet feet from actually walking on the water. Also, I thought your interpretation of the poem as a whole was interesting. I had not thought of it as though the person was going to Heaven, but your reasoning seems very valid and insightful. Your comment about the person spanning two worlds can be taken from the literal sense of water to beach to the metaphorical worlds of Earth and Heaven. However, I thought that the writer was depicting a sort of Christ-like figure because Jesus was capable of walking on water. Also, the narrator describes himself/herself as having “childish heels,” so the depiction of “A child who leaned on a staff” indicated to me that the narrator was now using third person but still talking about himself/herself. This image brought to mind a shepherd, which Jesus also was a form of. Later a boy is described “on the burning deck” and “with a staff.” If you do not think this description is about the narrator, do you think it is an angel welcoming the person into Heaven or have some other hypothesis?
This poem striked me as being really religous. the walking on water made me think of god, and the how in the bible they made references to walking on water, and seperating water ect. It also made me think that she was on her way to heaven, passing graves, and being hunted by a shark which i thought was kind of symbolic of the devil. The devil stalkes those who die but this person belonged in heaven so it never attacked. I think it liked this poem more because for me it was a lot easier to understand. And this one also remined me of OConner because of the talkes of heaven and because of the symbolic references to the bible.
I think you did a great job analyzing this poem. I personally thought of multiple meanings, but feel as though yours may sound more logical than mine. I immediately thought of a religious background when I started reading this poem, but I like your idea of the basis being happiness. Possibly walking on water represents the happiness involved, and if this happiness did not exist the person may fall into the water to the evil of the shark. The shark may also represent fear, but the boy is so happy that he does not seem to be bothered by the fact that the shark is following him.
I agree that this poem was about crossing between life and death. The tone of this poem was inlike a lot of Dickey's other poems that we read because the tone was peaceful and almost in awe of all that was happening. There was no negative emotion. The imagery was also different because while the overall topic is of something that is more surreal, Dickey did not use the metaphors that his other poems had, he described what you would actually see if you were walking on water.
I have to say that you interruption of this poem is very interesting and thought threw. I find that create larger pictures from the lines of the poems so that you can understand it.
I got the feeling that this was a very peaceful poem when i first started reading it. I like the part where he describes walking on the water and then walking on the sand and leaving the imprints. I think the description in the poem is really good and i like how they compare the land versus sea. It is almost a very calming peace as he ascends into heaven.
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