Explication Of The Poem Clamming

The narrator of the poem Clamming considers his experience of going to clam at the age of four to be his most memorable life story. In the last line of stanza one, the expression given is that his adventure of clamming makes him feel as if he has done something with his life, and he gives less value to serving as a pilot in a war or his other stories of growing up. Shortly after the reader is made aware that the speaker has a son. The narrator would love to surround his son by the sea, thus showing that the speaker truly loves his times with the sea. He continues on with the depiction of clamming. He describes the awkward moment one has to make with his hand in order to find a small life form and then bring it to death. In the last stanza,
it becomes vividly apparent that the speaker has been talking to his son in the previous stanza. The lesson that this father is trying to teach his son is that when he is at the sea, and especially while claiming, he must be relaxed and calm.The speaker and trying to communicate that some of the simplest and most carefree moments in life can turn into some of the greatest.