Student Question
Analyze the poem "Cetacean" by Peter Reading.
Quick answer:
On the surface, "Catacean" by Peter Reading is simply a poem about whales. It describes the author's trip to the Farallon Islands to see the whales and admire their beauty. The poem, however, also has a deeper meaning which describes the magnificence of nature and its ability to inspire both the creator and the reader.
"Cetacean" is a poem written in free verse by award-winning English poet Peter Reading. It consists of 23 lines and does not follow a particular rhyme scheme or meter. In fact, the poem has more of a narrative rather than a poetic form, especially the first stanza, which resembles a journalistic entry filled with factual information. The first line reveals the setting of the poem: the poet and his friends decide to visit the Farallones (islands off the coast of San Francisco, California) on an early Sunday morning "to observe the Blue Whales":
Out of Fisherman’s Wharf, San Fransisco, Sunday, early,
our vessel, bow to stern, some sixty-three feet,
to observe Blue Whales—and we did, off the Farallones.
The title of the poem, "Cetacean," refers to a group of aquatic mammals which are commonly known as whales, dolphins. and porpoises. Reading appears to be rather knowledgeable about whales and uses...
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the correct scientific terminology to describe them (dorsals, stocks, flukes, etc.), which alludes to the fact that he truly admires the creatures. Despite his precise, detailed descriptions and somewhat scientific style of writing, he also usesimagery, as well as figures of speech and rhetoric devices, such as simile ("they were grey as slate") and alliteration ("swimming slowly, and rose at a shallow angle," or the "diminutive dorsals showed briefly, after the blows had dispersed"). Reading's use of imagery and figurative language keeps the poem's poetic structure and form.
In the last stanza, Reading uses several contradictions:
Then the flukes were visible just before the creatures vanished,
slipping into the deep again, at a shallow angle.
He doesn't put a specific meaning to these contradictions and only mentions them to remind the readers that the whales are incredible creatures, especially in comparison to humans, and have a unique and mysterious beauty and elegance that will always fascinate the observer.
In this context, Reading reveals the hidden meaning of the poem, or rather allows the readers to come up with the meaning on their own. He alludes to the power and beauty of nature and its ability to inspire everyone. Just like the whales, imagination and creativity are powerful, but fleeting concepts, and all creators should savor them and use them as much as they can, before they vanish like the whales that slip into the deep again.