SAMPLE: Poetry

Title: Gee, The Ocean can Be So Poetic!

Background: Science is just one way of trying to understand and describe the world around us. Poets have a keen eye and nature poetry often presents accurate images of the workings of nature.

Process: Read the following poem and answer the questions.

Reference: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/Sea.html

ON THE SEA
By John Keats

It keeps eternal whisperings around

Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell
Gluts twice ten thousand Caverns, till the spell
Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.

5 Often 'tis in such gentle temper found,
That scarcely will the very smallest shell
Be moved for days from where it sometime fell.
When last the winds of Heaven were unbound.
Oh, ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and tired,

10 Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;
Oh ye! whose ears are dinned with uproar rude,
Or fed too much with cloying melody---
Sit ye near some old Cavern's Mouth and brood,
Until ye start, as if the sea nymphs quired!

1817

Questions:

1. Lines 1, 2: a) What are the ocean's eternal whisperings?

b) Why does the poet tell us they can be heard specifically on desolate beaches?

c) What wave behavior often occurs as waves move from deep to shallow water?

2. Lines 2, 3: a) Describe how the sea creates coastal Caverns.

b) Hecate's spell controlling the level of water in the caves is a romantic idea but what is the scientific explanation?

c) And why are the caverns glutted with ocean water twice daily?

3. Lines 5-7: What would be the wave height in this situation?

4. Line 8: What does wind have to do with waves?

5. This poem ties in with what specific type of wave?