The 18 best Poems about the Sea (from the best authors)

The sea is a recurring theme in poetry and literature. It is a natural phenomenon that many poets have described, since it arouses many sensations, through its waves, its sensation of calm or storm, its colors, its sound, its smell...

In this article We will know the 18 best Poems about the Sea, by the hand of the best authors of all times.

The best poems and verses about the sea

The 18 best Poems about the Sea that we are going to read belong to the best poets of different times; we will find authors like Mario Benedtti, Antonio Machado, Jorge Luis Borges, Federico García Lorca, Guillermo Prieto...

We will see how many of them incorporate in their poems, in addition to the sea, other natural elements (beach, sun, wind...). In addition, we will also see how frequently they personify the sea, attributing to it characteristics and actions typical of the human being.

1. The Sea, by Jorge Luis Borges

Before sleep (or terror) wove

mythologies and cosmogonies,

before time was coined into days,

the sea, the always sea, already was and was.

Who is the sea? who is that violent

and ancient being that gnaws the pillars

of the earth and is one and many seas

and abyss and brightness and chance and wind?

Whoever looks at it sees it for the first time,

always. with the amazement that things

elementals leave, the beautiful

afternoons, the moon, the fire of a bonfire.

Who is the sea, who am I? I will know the day

that follows the agony.

• Comment: In this poem, Jorge Luis Borges speaks of love as something impressive and beautiful; he describes it, and emphasizes how it feels to see it: as if it were always the first time. He also refers to it as something that was before anything, before the universe and the cosmos.

2. The Sea, by Mario Benedetti (excerpt)

what is the sea definitely?

why seduce? why tempt?

usually invades us like a dogma

and forces us to be shore

swimming is a way to embrace it

to ask for revelations again

but the water blows are not magic

there are dark waves that drown the daring

and mists that confuse everything

the sea is an alliance or a sarcophagus

of infinity brings illegible messages

and ignored prints of the abyss

sometimes transmits a disturbing

tense and elemental melancholy

the sea is not ashamed of its castaways

totally lacking in conscience

and yet attracts tempts flame

lick the territories of the suicide

and he tells stories with dark endings

• Comment: Benedetti speaks of the sea as something mysterious full of hidden messages; he describes its waves, its waters and the shore that precedes it. He also describes the sensations that the sea transmits, especially melancholy, and makes a metaphor; he talks about swimming in it as a way to embrace it (in a way he personifies it).

3. I remember the sea, by Pablo Neruda (excerpt)

Chilean, have you been to the sea in this time?

Walk in my name, wet your hands and lift them up

and I from other lands will adore those drops

that fall from the infinite water on your face.

I know, I have lived all my coast,

the thick North Sea, from the moors, to

the stormy weight of the foam on the islands.

I remember the sea, the cracked and iron shores

of Coquimbo, the haughty waters of Tralca,

the lonely waves of the South, which created me.

I remember in Puerto Montt or on the islands, at night,

when returning by the beach, the waiting boat,

and our feet left fire in their footprints,

the mysterious flames of a phosphorescent god.

• Comment: In this poem Pablo Neruda talks about different places near the sea, and the sea itself (Puerto Montt, Coquimbo, Tralca, North Sea...). He describes his passion for the sea and the sensations that it transmits to him. He speaks of its waters, of the sand, of the foam, etc.

4. Sea, by Federico García Lorca (excerpt)

The sea is

the Lucifer of blue.

heaven fallen

for wanting to be the light.

poor damned sea

to eternal movement,

having been before

still in the firmament!

but of your bitterness

Love redeemed you.

Pariste to pure Venus,

and your depth remained

virgin and painless

Your sadness is beautiful

sea ​​of ​​glorious spasms.

More today instead of stars

you have greenish octopuses.

bear your suffering,

formidable Satan.

Christ walked for you

but so did Pan.

• Comment: Federico García Lorca talks about the movement of the sea, its color and the animals that inhabit it (“greenish octopi”). He mentions sadness as something beautiful. He also talks about Christ and Satan, referring to legends from the Bible that took place at sea.

5. Facing the Sea, by Octavio Paz

Does the wave have no shape?

In an instant it sculpts

and in another it crumbles

in which it emerges, round.

Its movement is its form.

the waves recede

hips, backs, necks?

but the waves return

breasts, mouths, foams?

The sea dies of thirst.

He writhes, with no one,

in its bedrock.

He dies of thirst for air.

• Comment: Octavio Paz first describes the waves of the sea; its shape, its movement. He also personifies it, like other poets: "The sea is dying of thirst", making a kind of pun (dying of thirst, water, sea...). How can "something" that is full of water die of thirst? And then he continues: "Die of thirst for air."

6. They say: The sea is sad, by Marià Manent

They say: the sea is sad. what a sign

makes every wave, when bankrupt!

And I see a sad sea, but in the middle

you like a pearl

They say: the earth is sad.

What a sign the leaf makes!

hardly dare

See the sad land, but in between

you like a rose

• Comment: The poet Marià Manent talks about the sadness transmitted (or what is/are) the sea and the land. And it introduces -surely- a person, in the middle of the sea, like a marine pearl, and in the middle of the earth, like a blooming rose. That is to say, it unites the human being and natural phenomena, mixes them, incorporating the first in the second.

7. How will the sea be, by Guillermo Prieto (excerpt)

Your name oh sea! it resonates inside me;

wake up my tired fantasy:

moves, magnifies my soul,

with fervid enthusiasm fills her.

Nothing limited compresses me,

when I imagine contemplating your breast;

allude, melancholic and serene,

or august front; your sublime lowing

You will be oh sea! magnificent and great

when you sleep smiling and calm;

when to your quiet and dilated breast

cherish the delicious atmosphere?

• Comment: Guillermo Prieto talks about what hearing the word “sea” causes him; the commotion, the sensation of "exalting the soul", the enthusiasm... he Personifies the sea, and speaks of its "bosom" and its sounds. For him the sea is something magnificent and splendid, which transmits many emotions.

8. The sad sea, by Antonio Machado

A steel sea of ​​gray waves beats

inside the rude gnawed walls

from the old port. the north wind blows

and ripples the sea.

The sad sea lulls

a bitter illusion with its gray waves.

The north wind ruffles the sea, and the sea whips

the port wall.

The horizon closes the afternoon

clouded over the sea of ​​steel

there is a sky of lead

The red brig is a ghost

bloody, on the sea, that the sea shakes...

The north wind hums gloomily and whistles sadly

in the sour lyre of the strong rigging.

The red brig is a ghost

that the wind shakes and rocks the curly sea,

the rough rippled sea of ​​gray waves.

• Comment: Antonio Machado describes the sea and also personifies it, like most authors: he talks about it throbbing, he talks about the colors of him (he names several), of the wind that accompanies him, of the waves (which are “grey”)… he also attributes other actions to him: "lull". He talks about him as if he felt, as if he had emotions like us. On the other hand, he describes other phenomena, such as the sky (“lead sky”).

9. The sea is happy, by José Gorostiza (excerpt)

we will go looking

banana leaves to the banana plantation.

He rejoices the sea.

We will go looking for them along the way,

father of skeins of flax.

He rejoices the sea.

Because the moon (turns fifteen to shame)

she turns white, blue, red, brown.

He rejoices the sea.

Because the moon learns advice from the sea,

in tuberose perfume he wants to move.

He rejoices the sea.

I will detach seven rods of spikenard

for my girlfriend with a pretty foot.

• Comment: José Gorostiza also personifies the sea, attributing human actions or characteristics to it. Throughout the poem he repeats several times that "the sea rejoices." He also mentions a banana plantation, a road, the moon... that is, different phenomena of nature as well.

10. Your screams and my screams at dawn, by Gabriel Celaya

Your screams and my screams at dawn.

Our white horses running

with a dust of light on the beach.

Your lips and my saltpeter lips.

Our blond swooning heads.

Your eyes and my eyes

your hands and my hands

Our bodies

algae slippers.

O love, love!

Dawn beaches.

• Comment: This poem is a little different, it does not make such a direct allusion to the sea, but rather to the beach. Thus, Gabriel Celaya begins by talking about dawn and the beach. It incorporates marine elements but focuses on him and another person ("your eyes and my eyes, your hands and my hands"...). He talks about love and mentions the beaches at dawn as something romantic.

11. Calm, by Eliseo Diego

this silence,

white Unlimited,

this silence

of the calm, motionless sea,

that suddenly

break the light snails

by an impulse of the breeze,

does it extend

from afternoon to night, it calms down

maybe because of the grit

of fire,

the infinite

deserted beach,

by way of

that does not end,

maybe,

this silence,

Never?

• Comment: Eliseo Diego, more than defining the sea, speaks of its silence, which is broken by the sound of the breeze. He talks about how this silence spreads along the beach, the shore, and even in the evening and at night.

12. By the sea, by José Hierro

If I die, let them put me naked,

naked by the sea

The gray waters will be my shield

and there will be no fighting.

If I die, leave me alone.

The sea is my garden.

Can't, who loved the waves,

wish another end.

I will hear the melody of the wind,

the mysterious voice

The moment will finally be overcome

that reaps like a sickle.

That reaps sorrows. And when

the night starts to burn

Dreaming, sobbing, singing, I will be born again.

• Comment: José Hierro talks in this poem about the only thing he wants when he dies: to be by the sea. Everything else doesn't matter. He also mentions other elements: the waves (“he loved the waves”) and the wind (“the melody of the wind”).

13. Sunset, by Manuel Machado

It was a languid and sonorous sigh

the voice of the sea that afternoon... The day,

not wanting to die, with golden claws

of the cliffs was lit.

But in its bosom the sea rose powerful,

and the sun, at last, as in a superb bed,

He plunged his golden brow into the waves,

in an ember cardena undone.

For my poor aching body,

for my sad lacerated soul,

for my stiff wounded heart,

for my bitter fatigued life...

The beloved sea, the coveted sea,

the sea, the sea, and not think about anything…!

• Comment: Manuel Machado also personifies the sea in this poem (“the voice of the sea”, “its bosom the sea”, etc.). Like many other poets, he includes other elements of nature, such as the sun, the waves... In the end he speaks of her sadness and his pain, and how the sea is the only thing he needs (“the sea, and not think about anything…!”).

14. Beach, by Manuel Altolaguirre

To Federico Garcia Lorca.

The boats two by two,

like sandals of the wind

laid out to dry in the sun.

Me and my shadow, right angle.

Me and my shadow, open book.

lying on the sand

like spoil from the sea

a sleeping child is found.

Me and my shadow, right angle.

Me and my shadow, open book.

And beyond, fishermen

pulling the ropes

yellow and salty.

Me and my shadow, right angle.

Me and my shadow, open book.

• Comment: This is a poem by Manuel Altolaguirre dedicated to Federico García Lorca. He mentions fishermen, the beach, the sand… and repeats the following verses several times: “Me and my shadow, right angle. Me and my shadow, open book." You imagine a scene of someone on the beach, quietly and peacefully reading a book.

15. The Black Sea, by Nicolás Guillén

purple night dreams

over the sea;

the voice of the fishermen

wet in the sea;

the moon comes out dripping

from sea.

The black sea

through the night a sound,

it empties into the bay;

through the night a sound.

The boats watch him go by,

through the night a sound,

turning on the cold water.

through the night a sound,

through the night a sound,

through the night a sound.... The black sea

-Oh, my mulatto of fine gold,

oh my mulatto

of gold and silver,

with her poppy and her orange blossom,

at the foot of the hungry and masculine sea,

at the foot of the sea

• Comment: Nicolás Guillén refers to the sea in this poem as “the black sea”. From what he says, we can easily imagine a scene at night. At the end he introduces a female figure, a person who looks like the loved one: “my fine gold mulata, my gold and silver mulata”.

16. The Girl Who Goes to the Sea, by Rafael Alberti

How white is the skirt

the girl who goes to the sea!

Oh girl, don't stain it

squid ink!

How white your hands, girl,

that you leave without sighing!

Oh girl, don't stain them

squid ink!

how white your heart

and how white your look!

Oh girl, don't stain them

squid ink!

• Comment: In this poem, the protagonist, more than the sea, is a girl. With the words of Rafael Alberti we can imagine a small, innocent girl (“How white your hands, girl!”, “How white your heart”). She talks about squid ink as if it were something that could corrupt her innocence, her childhood (“don't let squid ink stain you!”).

17. Beauty, by Miguel de Unamuno (excerpt)

sleeping waters,

Dense vegetable.

gold stones,

Silver heaven!

From the water arises the dense greenery;

From the vegetable

Like giant spikes, the towers

that in the sky they grind

In silver his gold.

There are four strips:

The one with the river, above it the boulevard.

the tower citizen

And the sky in which it rests.

And all resting on the water,

fluid foundation,

water of centuries,

Beauty mirror.

[...]

• Comment: Miguel de Unamuno alludes to gold, to silver... ("golden stones", "silver sky"), when he describes the sea. He describes the sea as something beautiful, hence the title of the poem "beauty".

18. Very serene is the sea, by Gil Vicente

The sea is very serene

to the oars, rowers!

This is the ship of loves!

To the beat of the serenas

they will sing new songs,

you will row with sad sorrows

rowing flights of sorrows;

you will have sighs in pairs

and in pairs the pains:

this is the ship of loves.

And rowing tormented,

you will find other storms

with desperate seas

and disastrous insults;

you will have happy lives

with major pains:

this is the ship of loves.

• Comment: In this poem Gil Vicente speaks of the serenity of the sea, of its tranquility, which can be interrupted. He also mentions the rowers or navigators who circulate in the sea; he talks about what can be found: love, storms, troubled waters... Thus, he continually refers to the "ship of love".