my reading: Whitman as an old man is looking wistfully back at his life and wondering why he never found true love. It would be consistent with Whitman's egoism to think he was "above the rest."
Parallelism is for used to heighten the torment and make the poem musical. The most effective use of parallelism is found in the lines beginning with the unstressed pronoun “thy”. The stilted pronoun is always unstressed and followed by a stressed syllable, forming iambs that suggest sharp, leaping waves.
The repetition of “thy” in the parallel structures keep the poem grounded as the torment mounts, a poetic version of pedal point in music (basically, a sustained bass note while increasing dissonances are introduced in the harmony). The effect is dramatic escalation that builds until the final line.
Free verse gives rhythm to the sea. The asymmetry of syllables and stresses represent both the ebb and flow of “white-maned racers racing to the goal” along with the waves of Whitman’s own consciousness. The poem is bookended by its shortest and most revealing lines. Between these lines, the poem rocks back and forth in waves of varying power, reaching a climax just before its conclusion, where it retreats to a level even lower than where it started, signifying a calm in the storm
Whitman never reveals what the sea confesses. What is the “tale cosmic elemental passion?” Is it a confession of forbidden love? Appreciation of the poem doesn’t depend on knowing what erupted from the soul’s abysms—it’s between Whitman and the sea. This mystery is part of the poem’s beauty and enduring quality.
some scholars believe "the first and last confession of the globe" is a reference to Darwin's theory of evolution. Whitman had been discussing Darwin with Burroughs during this trip.
The idea of the sea having dimples seems a bit asburd. This points to Whitman being integrated with the sea, as he wrote in Song of Myself: "You, Sea! I am integral with you." The heavy personification is transformed into a kind of self-analysis. In looking at the sea, Whitman sees his own reflection, his dimples, his scowl, his tears, and "white mane". A reading of the poem in which Whitman and the sea are the same, provides an entry point for psychoanalytic methods of analysis.
Looking outside the text and into Whitman's biography brings in some interesting angles to ponder. Lines 11-13 echo the longing sentiment expressed in a letter written to a friend in March of 1884, the same month and year that the poem made its public debut in Harper's. “Why is it that a sense comes always crushing in on me, as of one happiness I have missed—life, and one friend & companion I have never made.” (Reynolds, 544)
Were Whitman’s repressed homosexual longings the reason for his suffering?
This line brings the poem full circle back to Whitman. Whitman is more than an observer—he’s related to the sea. The use of the word “kindred” is important here because it ties Whitman’s soul to the soul of the sea. With this revelation, the heavy personification is transformed into a kind of self-analysis. In looking at the sea, Whitman seems his own reflection.
Parallelism is for used to heighten the torment and make the poem musical. The most effective use of parallelism is found in the lines beginning with the unstressed pronoun “thy”. The stilted pronoun is always unstressed and followed by a stressed syllable, forming iambs that suggest sharp, leaping waves.
The repetition of “thy” in the parallel structures keep the poem grounded as the torment mounts, a poetic version of pedal point in music (basically, a sustained bass note while increasing dissonances are introduced in the harmony). The effect is dramatic escalation that builds until the final line.
Personification, present in almost every line, humanizes the sea. The sea has lips and dimples, it races, it smiles, it cries, it scowls, it feels lonely, it has a heart, it pants, hisses, mutters, laughs, and confesses. The sky is deaf. To modern-day readers, so much personification might border on the absurd, but the personification is a testament to Whitman’s imagination and gives the poem a clear nineteenth-century tone.
In lines 1-4, Whitman addresses the sea. The development follows as the sea responds with its “varied strange suggestions” in lines 5-16. What follows is not as "plainly" listed as Whitman states.
The waltzing dactyls in line 11 stand out from the prevailing rhythm: “something thou ever seek’st and seek’st yet never gain’st”. Interestingly, the double dactyls are broken up by rhyming trochees of opposite meaning: “ever” and “never”. The poem’s lilting dance is short-lived. This strengthens the theme of constraint and freedom denied.
The sea Whitman is addressing is the Jersey Shore at Ocean Grove. He wrote the poem in 1883 while vacationing with naturalist John Burroughs. It was published in Harper's in March 1884.
The first line is a catch-all for poetic sound devices. We have an interjection, a compound adjective, consonance, assonance, repeating trochees, personification and exclamation. The quick utterance of “husky-haughty” makes a hissing sound that suggests sea water fizzling as it hits the beach.
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