Blue

Responses

1. 

   tanya June 23, 2023

   Review:
   The poem is about the lone ghost-ship, which is the subject and poetic persona narrating its tale of fighting through a storm. It resonates with the hardships of life, through the emotional states of sorrow and joy, while battling loneliness. The title ‘Blue’ aptly adds to this emotion of darkness, grief, and mystery.
   The poem starts with a provocative metaphor in which the human emotions of joy and sorrow are compared to the natural ‘island’ and ‘landlocked sea’ respectively. The poetic persona becomes the ghost-ship and since it is ‘unbound by gravity,’ it is beyond any pull, be it the physical force of gravity, or human bound. The ghost-ship sails in the sea, which stands for sorrow and ‘landlocked,’ hence there is some kind of physical boundary that the environment presents. This suggests subtle contradictions that add multiple layers to the meaning of the poem. One such contradiction is that the ship is sailing in sorrow, but with a sense of freedom, as it sails ‘against the wind’ and rows ‘amongst the clouds’. Secondly, the sea itself, a symbol of vastness, eternity, depth, and multiple possibilities, and freedom, is landlocked. The sea itself is bound physically, suggesting its constricted sense of being. Another contradiction is that the poetic persona is the ghost-ship, with a semblance of being dark, mysterious, gleeful, and dreadful. It is unimaginable that the poet would bring together such a figure with freedom and aspirations, as seen in the first two lines of the second stanza. Eventually, what is brought to the reader is a very fresh perspective and unpredictable ideas.
   The use of literary devices such as personification enhances the image evoked in the poem, as it is said that the storm smiles and damages the ghost-ship. Soon, the storm takes on a new image, that of a shroud covering the ship. The ship ultimately faces death after a tumultuous and powerful attempt to go against the storm. The poem ends on an open-ended note where the poetic persona imagines whether the sea will discover it, or whether it will finally reach land. It leaves the ghost-ship, the poetic persona, in an unknown and uncertain state of being. The last line also suggests a future of possibilities, as once the shroud is lifted and when it is discovered, either by sea or land, it will also be recognition and acknowledgement of the poetic persona.
   The poem is in free verse, complementing the free spirit that the poetic persona presents. This way, the form, structure, and content of the poem synchronize with each other, evoking the same sense of freedom in the reader. There are short, readable stanzas that maintain the flow of the thoughts throughout the lines.
   The poem has a powerful tone and there is a sense of transcending boundaries. This is seen in the imagery, ‘I sail against the wind’, which also shows that the language is simple, yet assertive. The poem does not have a physical geography in which it is set, and thus, this lends the poem its universal nature, where every human being can relate to the themes of sorrow, joy, fighting through a storm, and freedom. With its emotional strength and the will to go on against all odds, the poem surely reaches the audience with a powerful message.