Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What's with the cold, dark imagery in the first two stanzas? Why do you think the ocean is initially depicted in this way?
- How does this poem's form affect the way you read it?
- How are life and death portrayed in this poem? Do the two appear to work together or not?
- What's so important about that "defiant" edifice? Why might Moore have chosen the cliff to be a symbol for humanity?
- Why does the speaker continuously dissolve one set of images into another? Why are these images so different from one another in terms of language and mood?