The poem's narrator is a meditative individual who feels profoundly isolated from the industrialized society of his time. He watches his peers waste their energy on commerce and yearns for a deeper connection with his environment. Frustrated by this collective emotional numbness, he imagines abandoning his modern worldview to embrace an ancient, pagan perspective.

An ancient, semi-divine presence personified heavily throughout the poem, primarily as the sea. She possesses vital energy, actively attempting to interact with the world by baring her bosom to the moon and raising howling winds. Despite her continuous offerings and physical beauty, she functions as a jilted lover ignored by a materialistic population.

The collective population of industrialized society, driven entirely by commercialism. They act as a passive, weak collective that squanders its innate abilities on meaningless economic pursuits. Blind to the physical world around them, they are entirely out of tune with spiritual or emotional experiences.

A primordial, shape-shifting Greek sea god. He symbolizes the original matter of the world and the established power of the oceans. The speaker imagines him as a living, divine presence that existed long before modern industrial civilization.

A Greek sea god known as the messenger and herald of Poseidon. Wielding a large seashell that doubles as a trumpet, he represents the communicating voice and moral instruction of the waters. The speaker desperately wishes to hear his call to feel connected to the universe.