As I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life Man and the Natural World Quotes

Here again the speaker addresses nature as "you." Is nature the true addressee of this poem? Later, in line 40, he addresses a "father." It's hard to tell, in fact, whom he intends the poem to address, and that's probably on purpose. After all, most of the poem emphasizes our unity with nature. Perhaps, then, the speaker's addressing everyone (and everything).

This hopeful line comes after several stanzas of intense self-doubt. Now, the speaker imparts hope to us. Life is like an ocean, he says; the flow goes in and out, just like hope and despair take turns in our lives. So, when the ocean is ebbing, he doesn't despair. He knows the tide will return.

Here the speaker unites himself with things in nature not usually associated with the living, like fields, corpses, and froth on the water. He even calls himself "dead" and describes his decay as "prismatic" and beautiful. By uniting himself with nature, he's part of the living and the dead, since nature comprises both.