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Iryna Bedovska
Professor Dr. John Rodrigue
ENG 241
10 October 2014
Letting the Barnacles Go: Explicating Sidney Lanier’s “Barnacles”
What does our past conceal? The sadness of dreadful mistakes, hidden secrets,
unfulfilled dreams and the precious moments of absolute happiness. Does it ever happen that
we are so passionate about our past that our entire future becomes meaningless compared to
these moments of the past, which draw us back incessantly? The burden of old memories
stretches its cunning tentacles towards us, slowly and imperceptibly, barring our way
forward, dragging us deeper and stronger to the slough of old defeats and victories. Sidney
Lanier sees these memories as barnacles clinging to the ship, drawing it deep in water,
keeping it from moving forward, hindering it, and promising to damage it or to keep it in the
bay forever. However, the ships are supposed to be sailing, moving ahead and discovering
new continents, and, similarly, people are supposed to move ahead towards new defeats and
new victories. By the inventive word choice, metaphorical images and original verse form
Sidney Lanier creates the realistic image of a struggle with the Past.
From just looking at the poem one could see that it is divided in two parts, which are
visually similar to each other. Part one starts with the internal conflict the author expresses:
My soul is sailing through the sea,
But the Past is heavy and hindereth me.
The first line starts with the sailing, which is a metaphorical representation of living and
moving forward, but the Past makes it harder, perhaps even impossible. The next lines only
confirm this assumption, creating the bigger image of the Pasts’ burden, where its impact
becomes more and more significant. Gradually, the fight is coming towards the end, we can
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see it by looking first at line two, where the struggle intensifies (The Past hath crusted
cumbrous shells), and lines six and seven:
The huge waves wash, the high waves roll,
Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole (…)
Similarly to the clung barnacles, the ghosts of the past become stronger, they attach to the
mind, they keep it from moving, and, finally, they are conquering it (And hindereth me from
sailing!) This last line of a part one demonstrates a lost battle between the desire of the soul to
move, and the obstacles, which prevent the movement.
In order to demonstrate the struggle more colorfully, Lanier selects specific words.
The barnacles and shells are cumbrous, the waves are huge and high, the sea-mells are cold –
all whose adjectives create an atmosphere of a ship being pulled down, drowning in deep,
cold water. The word hindereth here is repeated twice, just as the Past stops the ship
repeatedly. The recurrent capitalization of the word Past is also used to show its significant
impact and its power. Past is dominant, it takes over the soul’s desire to sail away. As for the
verbs, they are even more significant in a poem. Their archaic pronunciation and spelling
creates an image of an extended, prolonged struggle (hindereth, clingedth, worketh). They
slow down the path of a poem just as if the barnacles and cold waives slow the sheep on its
way.
As a contrast to the first part, the second part represents the movement, progress, the
opportunity. From the first lines, we can observe the change of mood in the poem:
Old Past let go, and drop i' the sea
Till fathomless waters cover thee!
While the mood in part one is somewhat desperate, the part two is more resolute, promising a
glimmer of hope. Perhaps, the battle is not yet lost. And this assumption is again proved by
the following lines:
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Thou drawest back, I strive ahead
The Day to find.
There is an opportunity to escape from the Past’s traps and move forward, towards the future.
Next line continues the path of release from the barnacles of the past as a symbol of a
liberation (Thy shells unbind). However, they will eventually cling again; therefore, the last
lines are inspiring for the movement:
I needs must hurry with the wind
And trim me best for sailing.
The poem starts with the sailing and ends with the sailing. Striving forward, away from the
barnacles and from the Past, moving, living.
The word choice in the second part is also contrasting with the part one. The verbs are
becoming more sonorous, they represent the movement (strive ahead, unbind, hurry, trim).
The path of the poem also becomes faster, shorter words are used (I needs must hurry with
the wind). Thus, Lanier shows the movement not only by the meaning of words, but also by
the path and sounds. This feeling of moving and escaping is also delivered to the reader by
using exclamation marks (Thy shells unbind! Night comes behind). The exclamation mark
here changes the intonation, increasing the significance of the liberation from the past.
Overall, part two is faster, more emotional, more dynamic.
Finally yet importantly, the poem catches an eye with its unusual verse form. Two
parts looks like the reflection of each other (or projection, to be more correct). Parts consist of
different, even contrasting ideas, but visually they look similar. Part one is divided into three
sentences each corresponding to the same sentence in part two, except for the very last one:
Thy shells unbind! Night comes behind,
I needs must hurry with the wind
And trim me best for sailing.
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However, the first line combines the two sentences into the same idea, so the last sentence of
part one corresponds with last two sentences of part two. The similar lines of each part
logically connect with each other. For instance, first sentence of part one is presented as an
acknowledgement of a problem (My soul is sailing through the sea, But the Past is heavy and
hindereth me.) while the second part starts with an attempt to solve it (Old Past let go, and
drop i' the sea, Till fathomless waters cover thee!). Similarly, the next lines correspond with
each other: the past draws back while the soul fights and the past takes over, while the soul
releases. These parts are confronting, but also imply each other. The soul can fight the Past
and keep moving ahead; however, the barnacles can slow down the ship, or the soul, and drag
it deep in the water. The process of fighting with the Past can repeat instantly, suggesting that
part one and part two are not the first part and the last part. In fact, they are confronting one
another just as the past confronts the soul. The soul must hurry in order to advance as much
as possible, before the Past will take over again.