From the Wave

Surfing is part sport, part play, but the surfers in “From the Wave” appear to be engaging more in the latter. They don’t appear to be competing with each other; there’s no description of anyone judging or evaluating their performance, and no description of any family, friends, or spectators watching (other than the speaker). Perhaps the surfers are practicing for a competition, but it seems more likely they are surfing for pleasure. The speaker does say that “[b]alance is triumph” (Line 19), and the word “triumph” may suggest competition—but, unlike in competitions, no surfer triumphs over another. Instead, all the surfers triumph since they are all able to stand up and ride the wave. Finally, the way two surfers “splash each other” (Line 30) in the last stanza also suggests play. Moreover, since the speaker is presumably thinking about both the surfers riding the wave and himself writing the poem at once and drawing subtle parallels between the surfers and himself (See: Poem Analysis), the implication is that—since riding the wave is play for the surfers—writing this poem about surfers riding the wave is also play for the poet.