Once By The Pacific by Robert Frost

Once By The Pacificby Robert FrostThe shattered water made a misty din.Great waves looked over others coming in,And thought of doing something to the shoreThat water never did to land before.The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.You could not tell, and yet it looked as ifThe shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,The cliff in being backed by continent;It looked as if a night of dark intentWas coming, and not only a night, an age.Someone had better be prepared for rage.There would be more than ocean-water brokenBefore God's last Put out the Light was spoken.

1. Frost was very big in his life on people being in harmony with nature,and this poem could be interpreted as nature releasing it's wrath on us forour mistreatment of it.2.The Biblical aspect is that "put out the light" is a twisted form of "andthen there was light", what God said in Genesis when creating the world.The idea would be that God said "put out the light" one last time,signaling the end of the world, which would make this poem apocalyptic.This is the most popular interpretation.3. The lesser known interpretation could be that "put out the light" is aquote from Shakespeare's play "Othello", in which a man is convinced by ajealous man that his wife was cheating on him, so he killed his wife. Justbefore he suffocated her, he said "put out the light", therefore giving thepoem a possible meaning of murder. The huge storm is in reference to God'swrath for a murder committed.

Paraphrase

"Once by the Pacific" (1928)

The narrator describes a night on an ocean beach when the ocean waves seem to be preparing to destroy the land and its people. The shore, cliff, and continent are allied together against the threat of the oncoming storm, but the narrator doubts that they will be successful at quelling the destructive force of the ocean. Moreover, this destruction will not last a single night, but rather for an age - perhaps even at the direct order of a higher power.

Analysis

This poem is in the traditional sonnet form of fourteen lines and corresponds to the Shakespearean rhyme scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GG.

The poem is based on a traumatic experience from Frosts childhood in San Francisco. During a walk along a popular ocean beach, Frosts parents accidentally left him behind, and Frost found himself alone, facing an ominous storm suddenly coming toward land. This upsetting event was exacerbated by numerous other trips to the ocean when Frosts father would leave him on the beach while he took long-distance swims. Frost would be convinced that his father was abandoning him and would wait in a state of heightened anxiety until his father would reappear in the waves.

Frost clearly incorporates his childhood terror of the ocean into the poem, but expands the threat by describing the destructive rage of the ocean against all of mankind. The ocean waves have a palpable consciousness that is concerned only with the destruction of anything they can touch: Great wavesthought of doing something to the shore / That water never did to land before. In this clash between the rising titans of water and land, it is easy to imagine a terrified little boy trapped between the two, unable to escape and doomed to destruction by one of the two forces.

The threat of the ocean is particularly palpable because of the waves malevolent personification. These waves are not the unconscious results of changing weather systems, but rather evil, sentient beings that intend to use all of their might to destroy anything they can touch. The thought of the ocean waves makes them the most terrifying because their war against humanity seems to be premeditated. Moreover, the vast ocean is an unconquerable foe; even the shore and cliffs need to be supported by the entire continent in order to face the malignant waters.

Above all, Frost makes it clear that the ocean waves are not a threat to be faced by an individual, let alone a child. He describes a fear that should be felt by all people on a universal level and provides a general warning: Someone had better be prepared for rage.

Frost ends the poem with a question about the source of the oceans destructive rage. Is it possible that the same God who ordered, Let there be light! could be provoking the ocean in order to destroy all of mankind? Frost leaves it to the reader to ask whether God has completely abandoned humanity and allied Himself with the angry forces of nature to destroy the unappreciative human species.

Robert Lee Frost(March 26, 1874 January 29, 1963) was an Americanpoet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions ofrurallife and his command of American colloquial speech.[1]His work frequently employed settings fromrural lifeinNew Englandin the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. A popular and often-quoted poet, Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving fourPulitzer Prizes for Poetry.