Once by the Pacific

“Once by the Pacific” describes a gathering storm and ends with a dark vision of the destruction of the world. The speaker sees menace everywhere as the storm approaches. Some deeper, malevolent force is at work; things are not as they should be. In Line 1, for example, the ocean waves are not smooth and calm. Instead, the water is “shattered”; it seems broken and, therefore, disordered. In literal terms, waves "break" when they hit the shore, but the speaker implies a more frightening, dysfunctional shattering here. The use of the word “shattered” as the first significant word in the poem foreshadows what is to follow.

The alarmed speaker also experiences a change in sensory perception. His sight diminishes because of mist or fog; the scene is much noisier than usual too (“misty din,” Line 1). Worst of all, the speaker senses that the incoming waves are actively hostile. They intend to harm the land in a way that has never happened before (Line 4). This personification of the ocean waves gives the poem an apocalyptic tone. These waves are something more than sea water; they are a mighty, irresistible force, and they are not benevolent.

This is the speaker's perception of events. He experiences fear at the looming intensity of the storm and, as a result, attributes conscious agency to an inanimate force. The menace and ill-will he sees in the waves are outward manifestations of inner fears: These are the anxieties of a child as recalled later by an adult. This is especially clear in the speaker's strong personification of the clouds (Lines 5-6). In a flight of childish fancy, the speaker believes he sees faces in the clouds. The “gleam” of their eyes suggests a threatening look (Line 6). The clouds even have “hair” on top (though “hairy,” Line 5, can also mean something scary or alarming).

The conversational tone of Line 7 provides temporary relief from the poem's growing intensity while, at the same time, suggesting that the speaker is observing a battle. He assesses how each side (that is, the ocean versus the land) is faring and guesses at their chances for victory. From his perspective—though he cannot be certain (Line 7)—the shore is fortunate to have both the cliff and the entire continent as support against the ocean. Surely, he implies, this will be sufficient defense. However, beginning at Line 10, an even darker interpretation of the natural scene unfolds. Darkness is coming, not only for a night, but for an entire age. This approaching gloom is the “dark intent” (Line 10) of the ocean. The conversational tone returns in Line 12 (“Someone had better be prepared for rage”), but there is menace in it too, as the next line reveals with its forecast of mayhem: “There would be more than ocean-water broken” (Line 13).The final line introduces a new idea. Up to this point, the speaker characterizes the antagonist as a personified force of nature: Namely, the ocean. Now, however, God Himself seems to command (or permit) the coming destruction. In any case, the chaos will end only when God gives the final word to “Put out the Light” (Line 14); that is, when God extinguishes the entirety of creation in a devastating Last Judgment. The command is an ironic reversal of the creation of the universe by God as described in the Bible's Book of Genesis: “And God said, Let there be light” (Genesis 1.3).