How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
Whirl up, sea—
whirl your pointed pines,
splash your great pines
on our rocks, (1-4)
The first lines of the poem are all about commanding and demanding. The Oread is powerful (or at least her words are powerful) and she bids the ocean to follow her commands. Her verbs at the beginning of each line are imperative and strong: whirl, whirl, splash. This is not a nymph to ignore. And her language is also strong in the sense that she's created fabulous images for us. Her description of the sea using the vocabulary of the land is fresh and exciting.
Quote #2
hurl your green over us,
cover us with your pools of fir. (5-6)
More strong language ahead. We've got two more powerful verbs—hurl and cover—and the Oread's extended metaphor of sea and forest continues. We almost feel like we're drowning in an ocean of pine trees. What a scary thought (but an awesome image to end a poem on). Even if the Oread is not successful in erasing the boundaries between sea and land, we're confident in her power to change our image of the world with words. And as Shmoopers are lovers of words, we think that this is a pretty darn significant skill.