Poem Analysis - The Surfer

The Surfer - Judith Wright

The poem by Judith Wright, "The Surfer" is about a young strong surfer who loves going to the beach and living on his surfboard. He is very excited at the thought of surfing and even though it can be painful at times when he surfs and slides under "those long banks of foam".

The poet created this poem to describe the joy of surfing but warn that the ocean can become very dangerous very abruptly. Perhaps she created the poem as a warning to the audience - watch out and stay safe when at the sea. The ocean can get very dangerous as described by in the poem - "the grey wolf sea lies, snarling." Maybe the author has had a bad experience with surfing or the rough ocean before and wishes to warn others. This is apparent through her strong ward choice - eg. "sea crouches on sand." That quote shows how the sea is ready to pounce and attack at passing surfers. I believe the character is represents the poet's joy of surfing but fear of the ocean when the sun goes down. The protagonist is fearless and a little reckless - going out very far into the "green weirs" of water and leaving it to the last minute to surf back home. They are very convincing.

Within in this poem, the mood shifts from one of joy at surfing "as he in water, with delight" to caution "turn home...last leaf of gold vanishes." As the poem ends the mood is much more sombre and illustrates the danger of the ocean "grey-wolf sea lies, snarling."
The structure of the poem is a three stanza free verse. this best conveys the change in mood from one of joy and closeness with the sea to that of caution and danger. Interesting features include the use of emjambent. There is also rhyme in this poem which helps keep the rhythm and beat to the free verse poem.

The language in "The Surfer" poem is appropriate for the genre/subject. She uses the word water many times - "of green through weirs of water!" and words like "beach", "sea", "foam" and "sand" with appropriate adjectives attached to emphasise the imagery and feeling of the beach.

Craftsmanship techniques have been used by the poet to great effects. One very affective imagery technique used includes metaphor. One metaphor used was - "last leaf of gold vanishes" which reinforces the idea that the sun is going down faster and the safety of the sun or the "gold" is now vanishing. It paints a very vivid picture in the reader's mind. Another technique used was the simile "come to the long beach home like a gull diving." It implies that the surfer is fast and swift like a gull and is eager to get back to the shore before the ocean gets rougher. He appears quite a professional surfer as he is smooth and swift - like a gull. If the surfer fell off the surfboard or was not surfing well, the poet would have used a different animal or simile to describe how he moved through the raging ocean to the safe shore.

The rhythm in this poem is at a normal pace for the first 2 stanzas however quickens in pace considerably in the last stanza. By doing this, the poet has created or reinforced the idea that the surfer quickly needs to surf back to the shore before it becomes too dangerous. It creates a type of tension and keeps the audience interested - they want to find out what happens to the surfer.The way it quickens is how the last stanza is comprised of only 2 sentences which creates the effect of a fast pace as the audience read the sentence quicker to finish it due to its length.
In this poem, effective alliteration has been used such as "take the big roller's shoulder, speed and serve". It implies how fast the surfer is. It gives the audience more information about who the protagonist is. There was no direct speech or onomatopoeia used in this poem.

In summary, I found "the Surfer" by Judith Wright very effective and conveyed the message of safety at sea well through the use of metaphor, simile, rhyme and alliteration. I believe the poet successfully conveyed their message.