The poem explores an earlier fascination with water in its many forms, including large expanses, rapids, foam and the sea.
Its speaker was drawn to the movement of tides, the sensation of wet sand between toes, the salt foam of the shore and the shifting reflections of a lake.
Waves were watched closely as their rhythm suggested when the next powerful surge might arrive, while the thought of being engulfed by the sea’s fury became a recurring image.
The later dreams are darker, taking the form of drowning and depicting Endymion being pulled down by the wake while bound to a mast in a drowsy undertow.
The speaker wishes that screams would amount to more than bubbles and that birth had occurred without lungs.
Skin is described as worn by the sea and weathered by salt, moving through muddied kelp in the manner of darkling thoughts.
Despite this change, the earlier attraction to water remains.
The poem remembers lying beside it, being enveloped by it and becoming part of it.
Cool salt is imagined as touching the skin and coating the palate, while the roar of waves fills the body and drowns out the things that once held the speaker’s fascination.
The piece was published by The Oxford Student.