My
River runs to thee –
Blue
Sea – Wilt welcome me?
My
River wait reply.
Oh
Sea – look graciously!
I'll
fetch thee Brooks
From
spotted nooks –
Say
Sea – take Me?
F219
(1861) 162
The
mighty oceans and seas are receptacles for all the rain that runs off the hills
and plains into rivulets, brooks, streams and majestic rivers. The water runs
downhill, looking for its place of rest at the lowest point. And so the basins
that hold the oceans stay full. This love poem comes from a river rushing
towards its appointed end, the “Blue Sea” and asking hopefully if it will be
welcomed. As if signing a formal letter, the River will “wait reply.” As if a
job applicant or someone else asking a great favor, the River hopes the Sea
will be gracious.
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The Heathcote R. flowing into the Pacific near Sumner, NZ. |
Just
as the ocean is fed by rivers, so rivers are fed by brooks and streams. In
order to make herself more welcome, the River promises to “fetch” all its
feeder brooks from their shady “nooks,” adding their water to her own. There is
a nice play on words here, as “Brooks” might be read as “Books” – which are
also kept in little nooks with dappled light from the windows. As this poem was
sent to Mary Bowles who was probably a great reader, this allusion would be
apropos.
The
poem ends with a childishly playful plea: “Say Sea – take Me?” The question
mark turns what might otherwise seem a demand into a sweet request.
The
metaphor is of love. The beloved is like the sea and the river wants only to
merge with it. To adorn herself the river will bring the most lovely little
brooks to add to the beloved’s glory and contentment. This metaphor was
espressed much more concisely in two lines from a letter to Samuel Bowles that
have been deemed a poem (#206):
Least
Rivers – docile to some sea.
My
Caspian – thee.
Dickinson
usually sent her poems to Samuel Bowles rather than his wife, Mary. A bit
transparent, perhaps, but women in that era were much more effusive in their
protestations of love and affection to each other so perhaps Mary didn’t find
anything amiss. It is difficult to overlook a deeper sexuality in the poem, though,
in light of other more explicit poems where the sea suggests sexual passion. In
“Wild Nights – Wild Nights,” for example, Dickinson writes of throwing out the
compass and chart to row “in Eden – / Ah, the Sea! / Might I but moor – tonight
– / In Thee!”
Sprinkled
throughout the poem, and the poem's primary rhyme, are long "e"s:
thee, Sea, me, graciously, Sea, Me. Along with the many "s" sounds,
this gives the poem the sound of the sea (“Say Sea – take Me?” has just the
sound of a quiet wave gliding up the shore and back) or the sliding of the
river through the estuary. The poem is written in rhyming couplets with a final
single line that echoes the second line. The slant rhyme of "reply"
and graciously" in the second couplet ties "graciously" in to
the Sea / Me rhymes as just discussed.
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