Watching for Dolphins

David Constantine

In the summer months on every crossing to Piraeus

One noticed that certain passengers soon rose
From seats in the packed saloon and with serious
Looks and no acknowledgement of a common purpose
Passed forward through the small door into the bows
To watch for dolphins. One saw them lose

Every other wish. Even the lovers

Turned their desires on the sea, and a fat man
Hung with equipment to photograph the occasion
Stared like a saint, through sad bi-focals; others,
Hopeless themselves, looked to the children for they
Would see dolphins if anyone would. Day after day

Or on their last opportunity all gazed

Undecided whether a flat calm were favourable
Or a sea the sun and the wind between them raised
To a likeness of dolphins. Were gulls a sign, that fell
Screeching from the sky or over an unremarkable place
Sat in a silent school? Every face

After its character implored the sea.

All, unaccustomed, wanted epiphany,
Praying the sky would clang and the abused Aegean
Reverberate with cymbal, gong and drum.
We could not imagine more prayer, and had they then
On the waves, on the climax of our longing come

Smiling, snub-nosed, domed like satyrs, oh

We should have laughed and lifted the children up
Stranger to stranger, pointing how with a leap
They left their element, three or four times, centred
On grace, and heavily and warm re-entered,
Looping the keel. We should have felt them go

Further and further into the deep parts. But soon

We were among the great tankers, under their chains
 In black water. We had not seen the dolphins
But woke, blinking. Eyes cast down
With no admission of disappointment the company
Dispersed and prepared to land in the city.

● Structure and economy:

○ Enjambment, sentence never ending until the next line represents seemingly
unreachable and elusive joy
○ Irregular lines but always six-lined stanzas (sestet)
■ Shows the unexpectedness and irregularity of life.

● Rhythm and rhyme:

○ Each stanza doesn’t conform to a single pattern of rhymes
■ Keeps the reader on their toes. Life is unexpected, and we should not fall into
regularity and complacency.
■ Links back to the economy of the poem, and the irregularity and
unexpectedness of life.

● Metaphor: dolphins as a substitute for hope and happiness

● ‘One noticed… One saw them lose’

○ Anaphora accentuates their diligence in “finding dolphins” or finding hope

● ‘Certain passengers soon rose… no acknowledgement of a common purpose’

○ Movements reveal a simpleminded purpose to move towards the deck → extremely
focused, and bound by their quest for dolphins/hope
○ Enjambment builds a sense of anticipation and surging forward motion that reflects the
passengers' own anticipation, and how they are pulled by an unnamed longing towards
the bows of the ship.
○ We don’t realise we’re all in the same boat
○ Sibilance: hushed, reverential, spiritual tone parallels search for hope and spirituality

● ‘One saw them lose every other wish’

○ Thirst for hope/happiness overtakes everything else

● ‘Even the lovers turned their desires on the sea’

○ Symbolic of how some might give up love in their fervent quest for pure hope and joy

● ‘A fat man hung with equipment to photograph the occasion… sad bi-focals’
 ○ Even the most assiduously prepared person might not find what they’re looking for,
because life is unpredictable
○ Has poor eyesight, and might not be able to see the dolphins

● ‘Others, hopeless themselves, looked to the children, because they would see dolphins if no one
else could’
○ Children are our hope - they see joy and optimism and view the world with a sense of
wonderment vs jaded adults

● ‘Undecided whether a flat calm were favourable / Or a sea the sun and the wind between them
raised / To a likeness of dolphins.’
○ Doubts about their observations; the first faltering of hope
○ Harsh discordant sounds parallel the fading of their wish to see the dolphins/experience
hope and joy (/f/, /c/)

● Religious allusions add an element of fevered, reverential fervour to their quest to find the
dolphins - to fill the drudgery of life, to replace their emptiness.
○ ‘Stared like a saint’
■ Sibilance creates a hushed, reverential tone that emphasises their religious
fervour to find hope
● ‘Were gulls a sign’ → omen
○ Hoping for any signal that could even faintly imply that dolphins/hope could be
found → accentuates their desperation
● ‘Wanted epiphany’
● ‘Praying’ ‘prayer

● ‘Every face after its character implored the sea’

○ Diction: “implored” // fevered yearning → desperate pleading

● ‘the abused Aegean / Reverberate with cymbal, gong and drum’

○ Abused Aegean → vivid imagery of polluted waters
■ Diction of “abused”: suggesting
○ Auditory imagery → hyperbole → suggests speaker’s mocking tone as they survey the
comical scene of their vain hopes → exaggerates the importance of the dolphins

● ‘Smiling, snub-nosed, domed like satyrs, oh’

○ Speaker imagines how everyone would act if they had seen the dolphins
○ Emphasises the joy that the dolphins would have brought the people
○ Sibilance → hushed, reverential tone → emphasises the importance of the dolphin
○ ‘Oh’ - sigh, expresses wistfulness

● ‘We should have laughed and lifted the children up’

 ○ Ideal scenario of happiness juxtaposed with the harsh reality accentuates their
disappointment
○ Alliteration of ‘l’: light, lilting sound that is analogous to how carefree the “audience”
would be had the playful dolphins showed up
○ However, the dolphins never came; joy never arrived.

● ‘Black water… woke, blinking’ and ‘We had not seen the dolphins’
○ Reality is sinking in: their efforts were for naught
○ Black // imagery of light and dark, could be representative of how they have lost hope
○ Alliteration of plosive bilabial /b/: harsh physical sound, creates sense of abruptness →
like how their hope to see the dolphins was lost
○ ‘Woke’: recovered from their trance, suggests that their wish to find hope and joy was
always a pipe dream

● People were disappointed in stanza 6: “Among the great tankers, under their chains”
○ It sets the scene of a port. The journey is over, no dolphins were seen.
○ Dolphins under chains signifies chained joy and hope, which further drives home to the
reader that the people are disappointed

● ‘No admission of disappointment’

○ Is this a sign of pride and faded hope?
○ They had no one to comfort them in their dismay

● ‘Land in the city’

○ Urban blah blah juxtapose with nature joy vs man made stuff aklsjdhfklas

Ms Sie’s cool moving forward conclusion: what is the significance of the dolphins not being seen? Are we
too caught up in our goal to not notice the journey?

What does Constantine’s writing make you feel about the people in Watching for Dolphins?

Paragraph 1: admiring of their seriousness

Paragraph 2: their hopefulness to see dolphins creates an air of anticipation

Paragraph 3: their disappointment orchestrates a melancholy atmosphere

How does Constantine convey his thoughts about life in his poem?

Paragraph 1: joy’s unattainability

Paragraph 2: how to go about finding joy in life

Paragraph 3: how to deal with our disappointment in life