20 pages • 40-minute read
From the Wave
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Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“From the Wave” is written in four-line stanzas, or quatrains, that rhyme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MNMN FOFO. This alternating rhyme scheme is matched by an alternating meter. The meter is largely iambic throughout (an iamb is a two-syllable foot where an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable), but the number of iambs per line varies in an alternating pattern, as does the strictness of the iambic rhythm. The first and third lines of each quatrain are written in iambic tetrameter, meaning there are four iambs on the first and third lines of each stanza. (Tetra means four, so iambic tetrameter is four iambs per line.) The second and fourth lines of each quatrain are written in dimeter, meaning there are two feet on the second and fourth lines of each stanza. (Di means two.) These two feet on the second and fourth lines of each stanza are largely iambic, but they are not as consistently iambic as the four feet on the first and third lines. Instead, on the dimeter lines, the number of stresses seems to count a bit more than the pattern of stresses. So, while there are consistently two stresses per line on the second and fourth line of each stanza, these stresses do not always come in the iambic rhythm of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Instead, the stresses on the dimeter lines are sometimes closer together, sometimes farther apart than a strictly iambic rhythm would allow.
For example, the poem’s first stanza is a four-line stanza, or quatrain, that rhymes ABAB (Lines 1-4). All of the poem’s remaining stanzas, too, will be quatrains and feature the same alternating rhyme pattern. The meter of the first stanza is the following:
It mounts | at sea, | a con- | cave wall
Down-ribbed | with shine,
And push- |es for- |ward, build- | ing tall
Its steep | incline (Lines 1-4).
In the first stanza, the number of feet per line alternates. Lines 1 and 3 are four feet long. Lines 2 and 4 are two feet long. Thus, like the alternating rhyme scheme, the number of feet per line also alternates: four feet, two feet, four feet, two feet. Like the first stanza, all of the poem’s remaining stanzas will feature the same alternating number of feet. Additionally, the first stanza is iambic throughout: The first and third lines are iambic tetrameter (four iambs per line) and the second and fourth lines are iambic dimeter (two iambs per line).
Not all the stanzas of the poem are as consistently iambic on the second and fourth lines, however. For example, the following is the meter of the third stanza:
Their pale | feet curl, | they poise | their weight
With a learn’d | skill.
It is | the wave | they im- | i-tate
Keeps them | so still (Lines 9-12).
Like the first stanza, the first and third lines of the third stanza are strict iambic tetrameter (Lines 9 and 11). Unlike the first stanza, the second and fourth lines of the third stanza are not iambic (Lines 10 and 12). Instead, Lines 10 and 12 both have two feet and two stressed syllables, making them dimeter, but they do not follow the iambic pattern of an unstressed, stressed. Line 10 is two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable, then another stressed syllable. Line 12 is a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, then an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
The poem’s meter is like the wave it describes: “The first and third lines, the longer lines, of each stanza surge forward, while the second and third lines seem to pull back because they’re so much shorter: by virtue of its meter, the stanza creates a sense of the wave’s motion” (Weiner). Additionally, the occasional slight variation of the meter on shorter lines (the second and fourth lines of each stanza) also mimics a wave. These shorter lines always have only two feet, but sometimes these feet are strictly iambic, other times accentual. Ocean waves are natural, not mechanical forces, and feature slight variations.
Finally, the rhyme scheme also mimics a wave. Waves make two sounds—one when they are crashing on the beach, another when they are withdrawing. Similarly, the rhyme pattern of “From the Wave” features two alternating sounds: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MNMN FOFO. The poem’s form thus mirrors the content—it springs forth from the titular wave. The speaker observes how the surfers imitate the wave (Line 11), and the same can be said of the form and meter of the poem.
Near Rhyme
In the first stanza, the end of Line 1 (“wall”) rhymes with the end of Line 3 (“tall”). “[W]all” (Line 1) and “tall” (Line 3) are true rhymes because they end with the same sound: “all.” In the third stanza, the end of Line 10 (“skill”) rhymes with the end of Line 12 (“still”), and Lines 10 and 12 also form near rhymes with the ends of Lines 1 and 3. “[W]all” (Line 1) and “tall” (Line 3) do not form true rhymes with “skill” (Line 10) and “still” (Line 12), because they end with slightly different sounds—Lines 1 and 3 end with the sound “all,” and Lines 10 and 12 end with the sound “ill.” Yet the double L at the end of all four lines (Lines 1, 3, 10, and 12) means they end with very similar sounds. A near rhyme is formed when two words end with very similar—but not the same—sound.
In the last stanza, the end of Line 29 (“still”) rhymes with the end of Line 31 (“until”), and these lines also rhyme with Lines 10 and 12 from the third stanza. In fact, Line 12 from the third stanza and Line 29 from the last stanza both end on the same word: “still.” Within the rhyme scheme of the entire poem (ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MNMN FOFO), this repetition of the end-sounds from the third stanza in the final stanza is the only example of a rhyme repeating in more than one stanza (Lines 10, 12, 29, and 31). However, since the sounds from the third stanza (Lines 10 and 12) form near rhymes with Lines 1 and 3, Lines 29 and 31 (the lines from the last stanza that rhyme with Lines 10 and 12 from the third stanza) also form near rhymes with Lines 1 and 3.
These near rhymes in the first, third, and final stanza (Lines 1, 3, 10, 12, 29, and 31) create continuity between these stanzas. Like the title, the near rhymes suggest that the entire poem springs forth from a single wave.
Ballad
Though not entirely true to the ballad form, “From the Wave” shares several important commonalities with traditional ballads. These commonalities help illuminate the form of the poem, including its meter, general pacing, rhyme scheme, and voice, among others.
First, ballads are written in four-line stanzas, or quatrains, and “From the Wave” also uses quatrains. In traditional ballads, each stanza alternates: a four-stress line, followed by a three-stress line, followed by another four-stress line, and finally another three-stress line. In “From the Wave,” each stanza also alternates, and the first and third lines of every stanza, like a traditional ballad, have four stresses—but unlike a traditional ballad, each stanza’s second and fourth lines have only two stresses. Even so, Gunn’s poem preserves the alternating balladic feel of a longer line followed by a shorter line.
The poem’s metrical pattern in itself does, to an extent, set it apart from ballads. In accentual meter—which traditional ballads employ—only the stressed syllables count, and each line can have as many unstressed syllables as the poet desires. In contrast, Gunn’s poem largely uses a meter that requires an unstressed syllable to be followed by a stressed syllable. Nevertheless, plenty of ballads use an iambic rhythm. For example, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous ballad “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is iambic throughout, so each quatrain features a line of iambic tetrameter, followed by a line of iambic trimeter, followed by iambic tetrameter, followed by iambic trimester.
Second, in traditional ballads, each stanza rhymes ABCB. In “From the Wave,” each stanza rhymes ABAB; nonetheless, Gunn’s poem recalls the alternating ballad-rhyme.
Third, traditional ballads never use the lyric “I.” Instead, the only “I” used in a traditional ballad is in dialogue. In other words, in a traditional ballad, when one character speaks out loud to another, they sometimes use the pronoun “I” in their speech—but there is no first-person speaker who meditates on their feelings or their internal state (this would be the “lyric ‘I’”). Likewise, in Gunn’s poem, there is no lyric “I” or use of the pronoun “I” at all. While the songlike quality of the meter and rhyme scheme resemble a lyric poem, the poem never expresses the speaker’s personal emotions; it is a formal poem balanced finely on the edge of lyric poetry.
Gunn borrowed the meter and rhyme of “From the Wave” from a Renaissance-era songbook (Weiner). This also associates the poem with the ballad form, which also derives from song.
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