The Poem In The Calm By Sean O Brien

“The Calm” by Sean O’Brien is a four part metaphor representing the infinite serenity of the ocean and the stars as well as the revolving of a lighthouse in comparison to the people who have fallen from the light. In the first three stanzas we see beautiful metaphors comparing the rolling of the waves to the movement of the stars and, the revolving of the lighthouse to the tilt of the harbor. The poem continues to describe the inhabitants of a nearby bar who have fallen from stardom, sharing a moment with the “saved” before having to cross back with neither a ship nor a captain. Mechanically speaking the poem lacks a meter as well as a rhyme scheme meaning that the poem is written in free verse. This choice is deliberate as it contrasts the …show more content…
One can see this in the speaker remarking, “the singer / has fallen from stardom and grace.” Here we see two examples of connotations in the words stardom and grace. The singer has fallen from stardom in the sense that she has lost her fame, however, one can also relate stardom to the earlier descriptions of the stars and assume that she has fallen from the consistency and beauty that the stars mentioned earlier represent. Next, “grace” has a double meaning in which the speaker states that the singer has fallen from beauty and God’s love. In many ways this is a religious poem stating that the singer is now secular yet still references the angels, and she has fallen from God’s grace no longer receiving the unconditional love from God. Also, the speaker states that, “we share / A moment with the saved,” referring to those who are still beautiful and loved by God like the stars, lighthouse, and the ocean. Finally, the poem ends with the speaker leaving, “to make the crossing. / No captain, no ferry.” This crossing seems to be a reference to the afterlife and essentially crossing the border between heaven and hell, the “saved” and those who have fallen from grace. The fact that they are crossing without a captain shows that they do not have God to guide them and a ferry could be an allusion to the Ancient Greek myth of Charon who ferried the undead into the underworld. Finally, the last line of the poem, “Cross we shall, believe you me,” has very interesting diction and syntax with the phrase “believe you me.” It seems that the reasoning for the nonsensical word order is to put emphasis on the “you” which could mean that it is our choice to be one of the “saved” or to fall from stardom. All of these references to fallen angels and the afterlife could be alluding to the dichotomy of God and Satan, a fallen