At the Sea-Side

Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1913

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Contentment Easily Comes in Childhood

Nowhere in the poem does the speaker explicitly identify themself as a child. However, various contextual clues can lead the reader to such a conclusion. The situation the speaker relates is one of submission or inferiority. The speaker states how an unidentified “they” give them “[a] wooden spade” (Line 2) in order “[t]o dig the sandy shore” (Line 3). It seems from this context that the speaker is being given direction by this other party, which places the speaker in a position of deference or obedience to the one(s) who provided the spade. It is easy to presume “they” (Line 2) is the speaker’s parents, guardians, or other older, more mature figures who would have taken the speaker to the beach.

As the poem continues, readers begin to put the pieces together. Images of spades used to dig holes on the beach typically involve children playing in the sand with shovels and pails. This imagery and the context of the authoritative figure(s) providing the speaker with their digging tools leads readers to view the speaker as a grown individual reminiscing about childhood memories. The age of the speaker at the time of the digging correlates to their contentment which permeates from the very act of digging. The speaker refers to their “holes” (Line 4) on the shore, implying that they dug not one but many holes. The holes themselves are “empty like a cup” (Line 4). There doesn’t seem to be any purpose to the holes in the sand other than their continuous creation.

Further, with “every hole” (Line 5) that the speaker digs, the “sea came up” (Line 6) to fill each one. The poem ends with the filling of the holes with water, and the speaker exhibits neither sadness nor frustration at seeing their handiwork submerged by the sea. They rather seem content to dig and watch, dig and watch. This satisfaction and contentment that comes from such a simplistic task evokes a sense of childish innocence in readers. Children find pleasure in the simplest of acts and can be mesmerized for long stretches of time by something which seems basic to older individuals—just as the speaker is apparently content with their mere digging in the sand.

All Human Handiwork Is Transitory

The imagery the speaker evokes is common for most readers, as most readers have likely had the experience of digging in the sand as a child (or even as an adult), or watching family members or friends play in the sand. Therefore, the imagery of the “holes” being “empty like a cup” (Line 4) would be familiar . Readers are encouraged to picture various craters created in the “sandy shore” (Line 3). Readers would also be familiar with the vacillating, undulating motion of the sea, of its rhythmic outward reach and inward pull. If the sea were to come far enough onto the beach, it would fill in the speaker’s holes. This is exactly what happens, as the speaker describes, “[i]n every hole the sea came up” (Line 5). This is not a minor filling of the holes, either. The holes are completely submerged in the water, “[t]ill [the water] could come no more” (Line 6). Anyone who has worked with sand before knows the destruction water causes to structures or designs made or built into it. Water filling the “empty […] cup[s],” or the “holes”(Line 4), would cause them to cave in upon themselves. Their shapes would disintegrate, and the holes would be no more by the time the waves pull back. All the speaker’s work would therefore be for naught. Their digging would be erased by the waves without any trace the holes were ever even there.

The poem highlights the transitory nature of physical work: how effort can be poured into a task and the fruits of that labor can be literally wiped out in an instant. While describing a child’s seemingly meaningless endeavors at the shore, readers can derive this larger, overarching theme from Stevenson’s brief poem.

Nature Will Not Be Imposed Upon by Humans

The setting of the poem is made quite clear in the title of the work: “At the Sea-Side.” If the speaker is indeed a child as discussed (or an adult reminiscing about their childhood), then readers can also infer that the child could be on vacation at the seashore with their family. The setting is apparent as the speaker states they are “down beside the sea” (Line 1). They dig their holes on the beach on “the sandy shore” (Line 3). Yet, the work which the speaker attempts to accomplish with their digging is contrary to the nature of the sea. There is no chance that the hole can remain on the shoreline, for it is the nature of the sea to wash everything away. This is just what the sea does, as “[i]n every hole the sea came up / [t]ill it could come no more” (Lines 5-6). The sea will not concede its possession over the shore. Rather, the sea continues reaching out and pulling in, regardless of the human endeavors which has been done and the holes which have been carved into it.

The sea, possibly more broadly representing nature at large, is set against the work of the human individual. The poem shows how humans will constantly enter the sphere of nature and strive to leave their mark on it, and how nature will constantly attempt to remove these marks. Nature and humans are intertwined in an endless dance but in the end, nature always prevails.