Ocean of Earth – GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE
*Fun facts about the author → He stole the Mona Lisa in 1911 | He was friends with Pablo Picasso
Initially approaching this poem, I decided to begin my journey in exploring this poem, not by diving right in, but rather by researching the author (Guillaume Apollinaire) and background behind the poem. A French poet, Guillaume Apollinaire was heavily influenced by artistic movements such as Futurism and was considered a pioneer in leading the Surrealism movement. Within poetry, he incorporated a physical ‘flow’ that created visual poems (Calligrams). In particular, I interpreted his poem Oceans of Earth (Left) to be in the irregular shape of waves.
*(Poem is translated from French)
When I began my first round of reading and annotations, I noticed the lack of punctuation – more specifically none at all – that led to unclosed thoughts and open interpretation of the imagery at the end of nearly every line; primarily the symbol of an ‘octopi’. Moreover, I initially did not emphasize the shape of the poem. I found that in my first round of reading, I was reading the poem as flat lines, rather than with its original variability in the line structure. It left me more confused after my first read despite my previous research. However, looking into the line structure and idea of Calligrams, I found that the varying heights of the lines signified the irregularity of waves and uncertainty on a greater scale in life. These breaks were necessary in controlling my pace, especially given that there was no punctuation.
The parallels between the earth and the ocean (Humans and Octopi) left me confused, in particular the last stanza, which I found to be a shift in idea from the first. Then, I struggled to connect the “earthly octopi” representative of humans to the “Pale octopi of chalky waves O octopi with pale beaks”. It was not consistent with the characteristics of the octopi in the first stanza where the point of view was from an outside observer of a foreign entity; the octopi. In the second stanza the point of view shifts to someone or something in direct influence or correlation with the octopi illustrated by the language like us, our, and you. Within this shift, I was able to draw further parallels between an octopus’s home, the ocean, and humans on land, bridged by the idea that despite home conforming, everything comes with its uncertainties and irregularities – characteristics of waves. This led me to believe that the idea of ‘pale’ within the octopi is a disease, in a broader context, something unsafe and unexpected despite being at home.
Upon the second read, I dove deeper into the intricacies of word choice and tone. At the same shift between the 2 stanzas, the author shifts from a worrying tone to an accepting tone towards the realities of home. The initial idea of octopi and oceans seems rather foreign though the phrase strands ‘crawling’ and ‘rivers flowing’, ‘middle of the ocean’ and ‘airplanes are laying eggs’; places and actions that are hard to attribute to human characteristics, but in the following stanza, Apollinaire follows up with word strands of ‘gravediggers’, ‘around the house’ and ‘skys honeysuckle’, all of which signify land rather than the ocean. This concept of introducing an issue from a foreign perspective rather than slowly relating it to the nature of humans is similar to that of a sonnet, where one explicit shift highlights the greater point about the relationship between familiarity and uncertainty with home falling into both categories.
While looking for rhyme schemes or a structure beyond the shape of the poem, I was struggling to find any set defined rules that the poem would follow. I had already determined the shift in tone and point of view but was distracted by the symbols and metaphors that seemed to encompass every other line within the poem. Perhaps it can be attributed to the time period and setting it was written in (surrealism), where an emphasis was placed on the reader’s interpretation, primarily of earth and nature. Surrealism states that art or poetry is aimed to target and activate the subconscious mind, where each reading could be a new interpretation given the vastly broad imagery that is tied to individual experiences. When reading “its windows are rivers flowing from my eyes’ ‘ I immediately envisioned Estuaries – a mix of river and ocean that typically serve as the gateway between land water and ocean water. However, upon second reading, I pictured a flood from a natural disaster that displaces homes.
What helped me tie the poem together was the last 2 lines, “Around the house is this ocean that you know well | And is neer still”. It is where I made a distinction between a home and a house, where a house could be inherently safe, but a home includes a surrounding environment that is ever-changing.