19 pages • 38 minutes read

At the Sea-Side

Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1913

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The structure of “At the Sea-Side” consists of a single stanza of six lines. The rhyme scheme of this single stanza features two rhyming couplets in a somewhat regular rhyme scheme: aabccb. A closer look at the meter reveals a somewhat regular yet likewise imperfect pattern. The first two lines of the poem are written in iambic tetrameter. An iamb is a metrical foot, or unit, of poetry consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. With a line written in iambic tetrameter, this means that there are four of these unstressed/stressed units: “When I was down beside the sea / A wooden spade they gave to me” (Lines 1-2).

The third line of the stanza, however, is written in iambic trimeter, meaning there are three of these unstressed/stressed units. Line 3 reads: “To dig the sandy shore.” The next three lines of the stanza, Lines 4-6, follow this same metrical pattern. Lines 4 and 5 are written in iambic tetrameter and Line 6 is written in iambic trimeter. Both the third and the sixth lines—the lines written in iambic trimeter—rhyme with one another, separating the rhyming couplets that comprise the other lines. The movement of the lines from iambic tetrameter to the shorter iambic trimeter lines almost look to readers like waves receding, growing smaller before expanding again. The rhythmic undulations are accented by the regular rhyme scheme, mimicking the undulations beachgoers would expect from the seashore.

Figurative Language

A simile is a comparison of two unlike things using the term “like” or “as.” There is one simile featured in Stevenson’s poem: “My holes were empty like a cup” (Line 4). The purpose of this simile could be twofold. First, it fits with the child’s perspective which Stevenson’s speaker relates through this memory of the seaside. The acknowledgment of the similarity between the holes and cups is innocent in its simplicity. Further, the simile is necessary to help the reader visualize how the “sea came up / [t]ill it could come no more” (Lines 5-6). The imagery of an overflowing cup helps readers (including adolescent readers for whom the poem was intended, as it was published in A Child’s Garden of Verses) imagine the waves filling the holes to the brim.

Enjambment

Enjambment occurs when a line of poetry does not end with strict punctuation marks indicating a hard stop at the end of the metrical line. Rather, with enjambment, the sentence or thought of a line simply continues in the next line. For example, Lines 3, 4, and 6 all end with periods. However, the rest of the lines do not. Line 1 ends with the speaker describing being by the sea and then immediately continues into the next line to explain how the wooden spade is given to him: “[…] beside the sea / [a] wooden spade…” (Lines 1-2). Line 2 ends with “they gave to me” and immediately segues into the third line relating the intended usage of the spade: “To dig” (Line 3). The penultimate line of the poem describes how “the sea came up / [t]ill it could come no more” (Lines 5-6). This enjambment encourages a fluidness in both silently reading the poem and reciting it aloud. Rather than the staccato effect created by lines with end punctuation, a poet’s use of enjambment prompts readers to continue moving to the next line in one continuous reading. This fluidity is, again, reminiscent of the flow of the waves as described in Stevenson’s poem.