Sidney Lanier

Marsh Song—At Sunset

III
MARSH SONG—AT SUNSET
Over the monstrous shambling sea,

Shakespeare's Tempest

Lanier uses characters from The Tempest (Ariel, Caliban, Prospero) as metaphorical figures for reconciliation and forgiveness.

Over the Caliban sea,
Bright Ariel-cloud, thou lingerest;
Oh wait, oh wait, in the warm red West,—

Sunset as metaphor

The setting sun represents a moment of transformation and potential redemption, where boundaries dissolve and forgiveness becomes possible.

Thy Prospero I'll be.
Over the humped and fishy sea,

Shakespeare's Tempest

Lanier uses characters from The Tempest (Ariel, Caliban, Prospero) as metaphorical figures for reconciliation and forgiveness.

Over the Caliban sea
O cloud in the West, like a thought in the heart

Pardon as liberation

The cloud represents a messenger of forgiveness, symbolically carrying the possibility of releasing past injuries.

Over the monstrous shambling sea,
Of pardon, loose thy wing, and start,
And do a grace for me.
Over the huge and huddling sea,

Shakespeare's Tempest

Lanier uses characters from The Tempest (Ariel, Caliban, Prospero) as metaphorical figures for reconciliation and forgiveness.

Over the Caliban sea,
Bring hither my brother Antonio,—Man,—
My injurer; night breaks the ban:
Brother, I pardon thee.
Baltimore, 1879–80.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Shakespearean Reconciliation in a Coastal Landscape

Lanier transforms The Tempest's dramatic characters into a metaphysical landscape of forgiveness. By reimagining Prospero's island as a 'Caliban sea', he turns a personal drama of betrayal into a universal meditation on redemption.

The poem's repetitive structure—with its recurring lines about the 'Caliban sea'—creates a rhythmic incantation that mirrors the act of releasing past injuries. Sunset becomes the critical moment of transformation, when 'night breaks the ban' and human limitations dissolve.

Poetic Geography of Forgiveness

[CONTEXT: Written during Reconstruction era, when national reconciliation was a profound social challenge] Lanier uses maritime imagery as a complex psychological landscape. The 'shambling', 'humped', 'fishy' sea represents human complexity—turbulent, unpredictable, yet ultimately capable of grace.

By invoking 'brother Antonio' and declaring 'I pardon thee', Lanier suggests forgiveness is both a personal and collective act, resonating with the post-Civil War context of national healing.