Literary Criticism about the poem “The Sea” by Natividad Marquez

The poem “The Sea” by Natividad Marquez talks about the feature of a
sea likened to human and human emotions. The poem is in the interrogative and
responsive form of conversation of a child to her mother. Each stanza talks over
different emotions such as happiness, sadness and peacefulness. And these
emotions were associated to the features of a sea.

There is a little information about Natividad Marquez. She is the sister of

Paz Marquez-Benitez, the Matriarch of the Philippine Literature. Natividad had a
short literary career and she opted to enter the convent after publishing few
poems. There were only five poems known to be written by her, entitled, “The
Sampaguita”, “Raquiem”, “Stranger at the Door”, “The Sea”, and “The Angelus”.

She is also known as “Naty”. She was born in February 1901 in Lucena,
Tayabas. She was a lay missionary, writer and an educator. At the age of 55, she
died (1956).

Questions: Prompt:
What is the poem’s structure and The poem has a rhyme scheme of
form? abcd, aefe, aghg.
Who “tells” the poem? The child and the mother
What is the mood and tone of the The mood is amazement and awe.
poem. The tone is curiosity.
What is the theme of the poem? The theme is about emotions in
human life.
What forces are motivating the The curiosity and the scenery
characters?
especially the sea.

Does the poem give any clues about Yes.

the speaker’s personality, age, and
gender?
What moral values can we extract Someone’s perspective in life, either
from the poem?
we view it positively or negatively
 The poem “The Sea” by Natividad Marquez talks about the feature of a
sea likened to human and human emotions. The poem is in the interrogative and
responsive form of conversation of a child to her mother. Each stanza talks over
different emotions such as happiness, sadness and peacefulness. And these
emotions were associated to the features of a sea.

The poem has a rhyme scheme of abcd, aefe, aghg. The form is in
concrete form where the poem is shaped to look like its subject, the sea. The
poet arranges the lines to create a picture. For example, “As it glints beneath the
sun”, “As it breaks on the on the rocky shore”, “As if it were fast asleep…the
comfort of the deep”. The poem is composed of 3 stanzas with 4 lines each.

There are two personas in the poem, thus poem’s tellers were two in a
way of question and answer form. There is a child asking her mother about a
certain feature of a sea and the mother answers it with the idea associated to the
human emotions. The mood of the poem is amazement and awe. The choice of
words of the author indicates amazement and awe of the 1 st persona (the child)
through asking questions. For example, “Why does the sea laugh, Mother?”,
“Why does the sea sob so, Mother?”, “Why is the sea so peaceful, Mother?”.
From the given example, it can be concluded that the tone is curiosity, curiosity
of the child.

The forces that motivates the character are the curiosity and the scenery
especially the sea. This is referred to the child asking her mother the feature of
the sea. The child was curious of the feature of the sea, why it laughs, why it
sobs, and why it is peaceful?

The poem gives clues about the speaker’s personality, age, and gender.
The first person is a child. The way she talks shows she is a child with full of
curiosity. She is addressing her questions to her mother. And therefore, can be
concluded that she is a child. The second person is a mother. The mother
answers her child with the concept of human emotions. She compares the
feature of the sea to a human.

The moral value of this poem is about someone’s perspective in life, either
we view it positively or negatively. In the famous line of Rafiki, “Oh, yes, the past
can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it”.

Submitted by:

DIVINE F. SANZ
Student