Symbol Analysis
The poem is full of deities and heroes, all just causin' trouble. Or, at least, they're doing what they do best: ruling the earth. Lowell relies on these allusions to Greek mythology to connect the fate of man at sea to the myths of man fighting various deities. It's all about humanity coming up against the un-beatable. Do we ever win? (Hint: nope, never.)
- Line 22: The "earth shaker" is Poseidon, god of the sea and earthquakes. In the line before, he's addressing the sailors, whom he calls "powerless" against such a force. That's why they drowned.
- Line 23: The speaker tells the drowned sailor to ask for no "Orphean lute" to save him from death. Orpheus was a Greek hero who travelled to the underworld to save his wife. He was able to charm Hades, god of the underworld, by using his musical skills. Hades allowed Orpheus and his wife to leave, but as Lowell warns, there's no such lucky trick to keep the sailor from death. The drowned sailor has no way to stop the gods from taking his life.
- Lines 45-46: If the sailor did learn something from Poseidon, those things died with him. While the drowned sailor was surely skilled at sea, Lowell is saying that these skills ultimately didn't save him; the sea won, anyway. Bummer.