Seascape Comments

Elizabeth I like this one

What a remarkable little piece. I admire it very much. I don't possess the 'Final Truth' with regard to this poem, but I believe it does raise certain questions. It clearly presents a complex hierarchy of nature, very similar to the Church's angelic or celestial hierarchy. However, by comparison, the Church-imposed hierarchy seems stilted and artificial. Could the poem possibly be about the disconnection that has occurred between organized religion and the natural (maybe even celestial) beauty of the seascape? Could there perhaps be some irony in the fact that the 'lighthouse' (something intended to illuminate and protect, as we are all sometimes adrift on a roiling ocean) is more interested in perpetuating a discordant view of things than in celebrating the beauty of it all? Is there any evidence at all that this might be an attack on narrowmindedness and dogmatism? Could it even be an attack on the Catholic church? Nah. Prolly not. We should prolly just talk about its lyricism, a much safer topic.