From the Wave

At first glance, the title “From the Wave” seems curious; the title almost implies the poem is a missive from a personified wave. Alternatively, it sounds like the speaker himself must be speaking from the wave. However, upon actually reviewing the poem, the reader sees that the unnamed speaker of the poem is clearly not riding the titular wave, nor is he the wave itself; instead, he is watching a group of surfers ride it (and is presumably watching from the beach). In reality, the “From” means that the “Wave” is the source, or cause, of both the action the poem describes (surfing) and the poem itself. In other words, the surfing is made possible by the wave—as is the poem, since the wave helped inspire the poem. Accordingly, throughout the poem, the speaker will identify with the surfers and draw subtle parallels between their surfing and his own writing process.

“From the Wave” is a formal poem because it employs meter and rhyme. It is written in four-line stanzas, or quatrains, of alternating tetrameter (four iambs per line) and dimeter (two feet per line). The quatrains also have an alternating rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MNMN FOFO (See: Literary Devices).