In the two prose poems The Dead Seal, and Looking into a Tide Pool, Robert Bly tells

two
straightforward stories about nature. In The Dead Seal, Bly goes into a monologue about a time where
he walks upon what he believes to be a deceased seal during one of his beach walks. He spends some
time pondering over the seal, and then comes back the next day to check on the seal again. The poem
narrates his encounter with the seal. In Looking Into A Tide Pool, Bly again tells a story about the
narrators thoughtful brush with nature. In this poem, we follow the narrator and his thoughts while he
looks into a tide pool. Both poems find the reader experiencing a transformation in the author and a
spiritual awakening as well. This transformation happens in two distinct ways in each poem; one with a
drawn out, climactic transformation, and one with an instant yet subtle change.
In The Dead Seal, the transformation is gradual and progressive until the end, In the first section of
this poem, we see that the narrator is quite disconnected from the seal he treats it just like any other
dead animal he may walk upon. His descriptions of the seal are less than glamorous, as we see in the
first line he uses words associated with connotations of death when describing the seal. He describes
the seal looking like, a brown log and the body. Bodies are trophies of death and I believe the idea
behind a brown log is something with finality, the corpse of a tree, and logs just lay there, much like a
corpse. As we read on, the narrator compares the seal to a human body, a connotative reference from
earlier He writes, The flipper near me lies folded over the stomach, looking like an unfinished arm
On and on, the narrator describes this old seal in different ways, even after he startles the seal he
chastises it by saying, I know there can be no teeth in that jaw. At this point and just as suddenly as
the seal leaps at him, the transformation of the narrator begins.
The narrator sees something heart wrenching; the seal starts flopping towards the sea. But he falls
over, on his face. One can almost see the narrator wince as he sees the helpless creature fall. He is
beginning to understand the pain the seal may be feeling in the anxiety of his coming downfall. There
are no more connotations of death, just ones of old age, death is now a fact. He starts to notice that this
is where the seal wants to die and he wants to go in peace, alone, so he goes (Bly). In section 2, the
narrator returns to check on the whale, who he now understands is dying and feels for it. We see
evidence of the ongoing transformation in his choice of words used to describe the seal as old with his
coat that looks like leather. The narrators transformation is on the verge of something big as he takes
everything in, the last look hell get at this seal. He finally has made a complete transformation when he
gets on the inner world, the spiritual level of the seal by referring to it as family, as a brother. He has a
different view of how the animal may have died and even apologizes for mankind if it had anything to do
with it. The narrator then conveys his respect by leaving the seal alone, how it wants to die, and that is
the end of the poem. The narrator is transformed from a passerby to an activist due to the death of the
seal.
In Looking Into A Tide Pool, Bly employs a different technique due to the short length of his poem.
There isnt really time for him to tell a long story and rise to a transformation Kafka style like in the first
poem. This is not really a long story with a plot, but more of an observation. There is no narrator in my
opinion, so no human transformation as in the first poem. There is a personified transformation
however that also incorporates outer/inner world changes. In the first four lines, the author is describing
the physical, literal characteristics of a tide pool. He then transforms this tide pool into a human

environment. He personifies the creatures in the bottom of the tide pool as people and states that
they are asking nothing, not even directions! The final transformation from outer to inner world then
takes place as the author personifies the seaweed using a simile comparing the plant to hands on
fevered bodies, moving back and forth, as the healer sings wildly, shouting to Jesus and his dead
mother. Not only has the seaweed been transformed by personification, but the personified
transformation gets transformed from an outer world to an inner human spirit. Whoa.
Anyways, both of these poems teach us great lessons about the human spirit. In one, we can learn that
the human spirit is ever changeable and can adapt to its surroundings. This is important to happiness.
The other poem teaches us that one must look way deeper than just what is on the surface in order to
actually see our own inner human spirit. These are obviously just my opinions, but ones that were
formed by the ideas of these poems.