At the Sea-Side

“At the Sea-Side” is a quick snapshot of a child’s experience at the beach. Most critics argue that this is the primary meaning of the poem. Stevenson opens by introducing the reader to their first-person speaker. The poem begins: “When I…” (Line 1). Readers know that they will be getting a firsthand account of whatever experience the speaker is about to relay. The speaker sets the time and place for the reader. The usage of the past tense verb “was” (Line 1) signals to readers that speaker is relating a memory; it has already occurred. In addition to conveying time, the speaker sets the scene of the memory; it takes place “down beside the sea” (Line 1). The directional word “down” gives readers a sense that they are observing a situation from above, from a higher vantage point. “[B]eside the sea” (Line 1) sets the memory along a shoreline.

In the second line, the speaker states that they are given a “wooden spade” (Line 2). A spade is a tool like a shovel typically featuring a squared-off end as opposed to a curved one. The shape is reminiscent of small shovels children use to fill buckets in sandboxes. The syntactic ordering of the words here is surprising. Rather than starting off with the subject—which is the standard way of opening a sentence—the line begins with the direct object, followed by the subject and the verb: “[T]hey gave” (Line 2). The actors are never clarified; readers don’t know who gives the speaker the spade. Rather, the speaker intentionally leaves this ambiguous. The line concludes with the indirect object. The spade is given “to me” (Line 2)—to the speaker. The structure of the line, then, is as follows: direct object, subject, verb, indirect object. This inversion of word order emphasizes the object the speaker is given.

The reader learns the purpose of the spade in the next line. The speaker is meant to use the spade “[t]o dig” (Line 3). The speaker does not give any further explanation as to the purpose behind this digging; they are simply meant to dig along “the sandy shore” (Line 3). The speaker continues to dig as the poem progresses; the following line describes the “holes” (Line 4) that they make with the spade. The usage of the plural implies that this is a continuous process for the speaker, digging one hole after another. When the speaker first digs these holes, they are “empty like a cup” (Line 4). The speaker carves these purposeless holes into the sand on the shore, letting them sit vacant like small abysses.

Yet, the holes do not sit empty for long. As the tide comes in and the surf approaches “every hole” (Line 5), they fill with the ocean water. The speaker describes how “the sea came up” (Line 5) and every hole is saturated. Readers can visualize the water steadily rising and pooling in the small caverns the speaker created with their shovel. It is the ocean that comes to the speaker, not the speaker who goes out into the sea. The waves from the ocean repeatedly fill the holes they “could come no more” (Line 6), meaning the water keeps pooling into the holes until there is no more space for the sea to fill. The water in the holes has reached capacity. Here, the very brief poem concludes.