Stanza 1 Summary

Lines 1-2

Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,
And the sun looked over the mountain's rim:

• Line 1 picks up where "Meeting at Night" left off with the speaker taking a stroll along the coast as the sun's rising and peeking over the mountains. The speaker has just left his lover after that awesome night, and now he's alone with nature's landscape and his thoughts.
• Notice how we're struck by the suddenness of morning just like the speaker is here. The syntax in "round the cape of a sudden" makes that sudden and kind of startling surprise of morning even more pronounced. It's as if we're rounding a corner and suddenly we're struck by the appearance of the sea. 
• Even the sun in line 2 appears as if it's assessing the new day that's rising. The sun's checking out what's happening over the mountain's rim—kind of like a person who would check out his surroundings after rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 
• We have some personification in line 2 as well. It's making that sun appear like a person checking out his surroundings.
• Notice how the speaker is also blending nature's landscape with his own sudden revelation. It's like we can't distinguish the speaker from nature since the two seem to be doing the same thing in these lines: rising and checking out the new day.
• The alliteration in sudden, sea and sun also helps to connect the different elements of nature. Even though the sea is quite different from the sun, the repeated S sound makes them both sound more similar than we thought. 
• The up-down rhythm of the short syllables in these lines also makes the morning's suddenness all the more noticeable. The speaker isn't wasting any time with words like cape, sudden, sun, sea. Hear all of those short syllables? Check out "Sound Check" for more on these patterns.

Lines 3-4

And straight was a path of gold for him,
And the need of a world of men for me. 

• By the last two lines, the speaker lets us know that both he and the sun are ready for the new day. The sun is projecting a path of gold while the speaker is setting out for the outside world. So both are headed toward their own "path" for the day.
• Notice how the speaker is using "him" as a pronoun for the sun. The sun is often personified as a male, going all the way back to Greek mythology. Apollo, for instance, is a god that's typically associated with the sun. 
• So again we see the speaker blending himself in with nature, as if he and the sun are one and the same in these lines. 
• "The world of men" in line 4 isn't referring to that old eighties song, "It's Raining Men" or anything. Here it simply refers to the outside world with other people, work, responsibilities, etc. 
• But why is the speaker in dire need of a world of men? Maybe we're meant to consider the necessity of individuality in terms of love. It can't be all about feeling unified with the one he loves. He also has his own responsibilities and his own life to account for, hence his pressing need for that outside world. 
• The "path of gold" in line 3 is also synonymous with "a world of men" in terms of work, responsibilities, reward, etc. So the speaker isn't just blending himself in with nature, he's also using nature to reflect the world of men with his use of figurative language.
• Check out the rhyme scheme we have in the poem: ABBA (no, not the band). "Sea" rhymes with "me" and "rim" rhymes with "him," so these perfect rhymes also make the speaker appear as if he's part of the landscape. Check out "Form and Meter" for more. 
• The parallelism in these lines also creates a kind of symmetry between the speaker and the sun. We see a similar use of syntax, which begins each line with "And." 
• So even though the speaker is working with only a few lines here, we notice that he's very careful in the way he structures the lines to ensure his intended effect. Between his use of syntax, rhyme, parallelism, and personification, we get that the speaker is trying to show us that man is part of the natural world but must also walk his own path. 
• The individuality we see stressed here runs parallel to the unification we see in "Meeting at Night." As a pair, both poems really capture the union and separation of love and relationships. Lovers meet, they part, and then meet again, kind of how nature works in terms of day, night, and the union of it all. Even though day is separate from night, you can't have one without the other so they're always unified in the natural world.