Figurative Language In Robert Robertson's Poem

I was compelled to write an anthology on this poem because I liked how it focussed on a person’s imperfections rather than their strengths. The character in this poem, as he states in the first three stanzas, is weary and fatigued from his long swim; something I can relate to after countless swim practices. Another feature which caught my attention was the fact that the author chose to include his character fantasizing another life for himself, which was both sentimental and unusual.

This poem, formatted into free verse (meaning it does not have rhyme or a regular meter) tercets (stanzas that consist of three lines), contains figurative language (language that contains or uses figures of speech) such as similes (a figure of speech that makes a comparison) and metaphors (comparisons of one thing to another without the use of like or as). “The currents pull like weeds”, a simile located in the third stanza, gives the reader extra detail so we can further understand the struggle the speaker is experiencing. Robert Robertson also includes a small metaphor in his second stanza’s first and
second lines, “the hung weight of my legs” and “a plumb-line”, comparing the weight of his legs to a plumb-line. These language features help the reader by giving them more details so they can connect with the story and really be able to put himself in the speaker’s position. The perspective, or point of view, the author chose to write in was first person (writing from the author's point of view or perspective). This most likely means that the author experienced this or was trying to take on the role of the persona himself. I think the tone (the general attitude of a piece of writing) of this poem was, in the first three stanzas, fear and exhaustion and, in the last two stanzas, longing. The first three stanzas, which focuses on how tried and far way from shore the main character is can most definitely spark a fearful tone due to the fact that it is not safe to be far away from shore when it is getting dark. We can also see these emotions in lines three and four of the third stanza, “and I am very tired” and “and cold, and moving out to sea”, as they show this man’s worry about being so far away from shore. However, the last two stanzas only talk about the family this man never had who is “playing on the beach”. The fact that the man is only picturing them there because he never had a family, gives the tone a longing expression of how much he would have wanted that family. The most common effect the tone has on the reader is that it draws their attention and helps them to understand the emotion being used within the poem. Another feature I found in this poem was that there was a small amount of wordplay (the witty exploitation of the meanings and ambiguities of words).
This play on words can be found in the last tercet of the poem reading, “and back to their beautiful mother”, “who smiles at them, looks up”, and “from her magazine, and waves.” Once you have read that last line you will most likely make the connect that the title of this poem is waves, but, hopefully, it will cause you to dig deeper. As a result of the setting being at a beach, and it not mentioning anything else about waves, the poem starts getting the reader to question and make hypotheses about what has happened. Such questions may include, “what is the women doing, waving hello or goodbye?” or “is she a memory or a figure of imagination?”, and it is these questions that lead to a better re-reading of the poem for a
reader.