Section 1 Summary

Lines 1-4

A brackish reach of shoal off Madaket—
The sea was still breaking violently and night
Had steamed into our North Atlantic Fleet,
When the drowned sailor clutched the drag-net. Light

• Geography note, Shmoopers: Madaket is on the east side of Nantucket, a smallish island just off of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. It has a long history of whaling (Herman Melville even uses it in Moby Dick, the most famous book about whaling ever—we'll see way more references to that famous novel soon). 
• Our poem opens with some pretty turbulent and dangerous conditions for a sailor. "Brackish" water is a mixture of both sea and fresh water, which can create turbulence, and the shoal is where the water meets the sand. There's not a lot of room for a boat to move around safely.
• It's such bad conditions, in fact, that a sailor has already drowned, and the sailors of the North Atlantic Fleet discover his body stuck in the net. Could he represent Warren Winslow? Perhaps, but he may just be one of many sailors lost over the years.
• Notice the last words in each line: "night" (line 2) and "light" (line 4) rhyme, while "Madaket" (line 1) and "Fleet" (line 3) don't.
• This is an example of a rhyme scheme and the uneven pattern gives the reader the sensation of bobbing back and forth, unevenly, on the water. 
• That seems pretty appropriate for a stanza set at sea, huh? The meter (the rhythm of the words in each line) also helps give the poem this sensation (read the first line aloud and you'll see what we mean). 
• Check out the "Form and Meter" section as you notice how the rhymes and rhythm continue throughout the poem. Oh, and try not to get too motion sick.

Lines 5-7

Flashed from his matted head and marble feet,
He grappled at the net
With the coiled, hurdling muscles of his thighs:

• Another note on Lowell's style before we dive into these next lines: notice how many of his phrases carry over into the next line.
• This is called enjambment and it's another effect that helps the poem feel like it's part of the rhythm of the water. As you read, pay attention to which lines flow into the next, and which ones stop abruptly.
• Okay, back to our speaker's imagery here. Notice his descriptions of the sailor. He is described as "grappling" and "hurdling," though we know he is drowned. It's the sea that moves him, kind of like he's a puppet. Wow, Lowell, morbid much?
• In fact, he's so dead that his skin looks like marble, all pale and vein-ey. The speaker is using a metaphor to compare the appearance of a corpse to something cold and inanimate. Nope, it doesn't get much more dead than that.
• The speaker also emphasizes the sailor's big thigh muscles here to show his strength. He apparently didn't drown out of weakness; it's testament to the sea's strength and power that even a big muscle-y sailor can be overtaken by the violent waters.

Lines 8-10

The corpse was bloodless, a botch of reds and whites,
Its open, staring eyes
Were lustreless dead-lights

• So… yep, he's definitely dead. 
• The speaker compares the sailor's eyes to the shutters that go over a ship's portholes (windows). It's another metaphor; this time, the eyes are as motionless and empty as a window with a cover over it. You can't see inside. 
• Also, this description is taken from Henry Thoreau's Cape Cod, which is rich with descriptions of the area and the sea nearby. We wonder if Lowell has any more lines he plans on reworking. Let's read on…

Lines 11-13

Or cabin-windows on a stranded hulk
Heavy with sand. We weight the body, close
Its eyes and heave it seaward whence it came, 

• Now the speaker's comparing the corpse's eyes to the windows on a ship no longer moving and empty of any passengers or crew.
• This metaphor follows the last one: nothing is going on behind those eyes, even if you could see inside them.
• So they decide to weigh the body down so it won't float back up, and the crew throws it back in the water—no gravestone for this guy. Cheery, eh?

Lines 14-16

Where the heel-headed dogfish barks its nose
On Ahab's void and forehead; and the name
Is blocked in yellow chalk.

• According to Lowell himself, "bark" here means "take the bark or skin off." The fish is knocking his nose against Ahab, the captain in Moby Dick who dies in pursuit of a whale. So it looks like he's down at the bottom of the sea, too. 
• But Ahab was killed by the whale, which contrasts with the epigraph about how man should have dominion over all the beasts of the earth. 
• The sailor's name is written on a coffin in yellow chalk (but we know where his body is). And the bummers keep on coming.

Lines 17-19

Sailors, who pitch this portent at the sea
Where dreadnaughts shall confess
Its hell-bent deity,

• The sea is pretty much as powerful as a god here; even the warships can't win against it. This is the first time the speaker uses personification to give the sea a personality—and it ain't pretty.
• In fact, he calls the sea "hell-bent." Basically, it's no friendly place, even for experienced sailors or a giant warship.
• Remember the epigraph, which gives human power over all living things? By comparing the sea to a god, the speaker is saying that it is one thing we definitely don't have control over.

Lines 20-23

When you are powerless
To sand-bag this Atlantic bulwark, faced
By the earth-shaker, green, unwearied, chaste
In his steel scales: ask for no Orphean lute

• The "earth-shaker" is Poseidon, Greek god of the sea and earthquakes, who makes the ground tremble. It's another reference to a divine being against whom humans are "powerless." 
• The sand bags usually used to keep water back don't even work against this much power. A "bulwark" is usually something that offers protection, but this "Atlantic bulwark" is no match for the sea.
• Our speaker calls the sailors "green," basically inexperienced, in the face of such power, but he doesn't necessarily mean that literally. Even the most seasoned sailor isn't experienced enough to defeat the water, and neither is the most well-travelled ship. 
• The speaker also references Orpheus's lute. Whopheus? In Greek mythology, Orpheus travelled to the underworld to save his wife and used his lute (an instrument similar to a flute) to charm Hades, god of the underworld. He was allowed to bring his wife out of the underworld under the condition that he never look back. 
• The speaker warns that there's no way to charm the sea the way Orpheus charmed Hades. Once someone has been taken by the waves, they're gone for good. This is the first time that the speaker has addressed the reader directly. It's not just an elegy, it's also a warning. Whether it's a warning meant for us, or someone else, remains to be seen.

Lines 24-26

To pluck life back. The guns of the steeled fleet
Recoil and then repeat
The hoarse salute.

• The guns being fired are those used to salute and recognize those lost at sea. 
• They've been fired so often, though, that they've grown hoarse, like when you lose your voice after talking too much. Lowell isn't being literal (as we know, guns don't have voices); he's using figurative language to comment on how many people have drowned at sea. 
• He ends the first section with this image. We began with one drowned sailor, and now we are hearing the guns saluting countless drowned sailors. The poem's scope is broadening. Wondering if that will continue? Only one way to find out…