Gabu
by Carlos A. Angeles
The battering restlessness of the sea
Insists a tidal fury upon the beach
At Gabu, and its pure consistency
Havocs the wasteland hard within its reach.
Brutal the daylong bashing of its heart
Against the seascape where, for miles around,
Farther than sight itself, the rock-stones part
And drop into the elemental wound.
The waste of centuries is grey and dead
And neutral where the sea has beached its brine,
Where the split salt of its heart lies spread
Among the dark habiliments of Time.
The vital splendor misses. For here, here
At Gabu where the ageless tide recurs
All things forfeited are most loved and dear.
It is the sea pursues a habit of shores.
ANALYSIS
Overall, the poem is about a beach or island called Gabu, and its relationship
with the sea. However, there is an underlying sexual message that can be
unveiled upon closer examination. The image the poem wishes to convey
refers to an intense period of sexual activity, followed by a long hiatus,
concluding with a reawakening of the desire. With regards to the voice of the
speaker, a romantic is reminiscing about his sexual activities and
rediscovering his drive. The arrangement of the words has allowed the rhyme
to exist; however, it must be read or recited with much practice for the lines
to unite. Otherwise, the succeeding line will not follow the train of thought of
the previous. For instance, if one were to read line three alone: At Gabu, and
its pure consistency, one would notice that its may cause confusion and
lead the reader to believing that it refers to Gabu, when the actual
antecedent, tidal fury is actually in the previous line. Ergo, the poem
cannot be analyzed line-by-line properly, so a stanza-by-stanza approach is
required. These will be explained further as each stanza is explained.
The battering restlessness of the sea
Insists a tidal fury upon the beach
At Gabu, and its pure consistency
Havocs the wasteland hard within its reach.
The first stanza uses strong and consistent words such as battering, fury,
havocs, and hard to establish the ferocity of the beach at the isle of Gabu.
However, words that connote less force such as pure and insists lightens
the mood so as not make the scene look apocalyptic. They all refer to the
ocean component, but the sea is only half a beach. The shore is described as a
wasteland, making the beach a giant desert of sand and some garbage.
Using this balance, the heavy and light words give an image of a desert being
acquiesced to the onslaught of brutal yet non-lethal waters. This
defamiliarization refers to erotica. Notice how a male would typically
dominate a female, imposing upon her a brutal and repeated penetration
without actually annihilating her, the same way the image of a thunderous
waters smash the beach without any reaction. The sea also acts as a metaphor
of ejaculation, causing the female to become wet within.
Brutal the daylong bashing of its heart
Against the seascape where, for miles around,
Farther than sight itself, the rock-stones part
And drop into the elemental wound.
The second stanza now takes the point of view of the female, who typically
receives the onslaught described in the first line. Brutal gives the stanza a
hard start to mark the setting to be the same as of the previous one. However,
the change of view is marked by the phrase of its heart against the
seascape. Since only two objects are in question, and one, the seascape, is
mentioned, its automatically refers to the terrestrial portion of the beach.
Quite obviously, the there are two metaphors for the genitalia of female.
First, the rock-stones part, an obvious indication of the opening of the
uterus to receive the thrusts. Secondly, the elemental wound refers to the
breaking of the hymen by the element of the sea, which is a metaphor for the
penile penetration.
The waste of centuries is grey and dead
And neutral where the sea has beached its brine,
Where the split salt of its heart lies spread
Among the dark habiliments of Time.
The next stanza begins with the words waste, grey, and dead, with Note how loved and dear two very emotional and endearing words,
words neutral and dark to follow. The mood weakens and more
monochromatic as the colorful and strong images produced from the previous
paragraphs are colored grey, making them dull. The image of decaying
excrement fills the shoreline of the now gray scaled beach because of the
other two beginning words. Centuries exists to amplify the quantity of the
waste and the quality of the death. A decline from the point of climax may be
inferred from the word neutral as the intense events begin to normalise
after the sea has breached its brine; the sea once again referring to the male
genitals, and the brine, a saltwater solution, referring to the product of an
ejaculation. However, the word centuries may act as a hyperbole for a large
amount of elapsed time. The author may have grown and matured, leading
the earlier sexual drive to a hiatus among the dark habiliments of Time.
The term split salt appears to refer to the fertility of the man, following the
brine-based metaphor, having been spread or thinned along the progress of
time. Dark contributes to the lack of color or passion in the life in question
while adding connotation of evil to the word habiliment. The word
habiliments is another word for clothing but also refers the function of
clothing as fashion, an evolution from the main purpose of having clothing:
external protection. The same way, Time, personified in the poem, has
developed a fashion of removing the sexual drive when its most basic
purpose is to age an object. This development is seen as evil, and therefore, is
described as dark.
The vital splendor misses. For here, here
At Gabu where the ageless tide recurs
All things forfeited are most loved and dear.
It is the sea pursues a habit of shores
In this final segment, the stanza opens with the words vital and splendor,
resurrecting the earlier image of physical intensity. The verb misses then
describes the image as something gone, since, after all, it is missed. The
beach of Gabu is then brought up again, but the focus is immediately directed
to the sea via the word tide. Calling it ageless renders the previous stated
effect of Time on libido nil. The desire just disappeared temporarily in the
previous lines and is presently recurring because the vital splendor misses.
At Gabu, at the place where the ocean meets the shore, where the male meets
the female, all things that are loved and dear are laid down or forfeited.
denoting an acute attachment to something. The love expressed at the act of
intercourse is therefore tantamount to the love of someone else to such an
extent that the persons are willing to lay down what is held precious to them
in order to achieve the initial passion of before. The poem concludes with the
sea as the subject, pursuing the habit of shores. Pursue connotes more
of a journey from the place of the normal state back to the preferred excited
stage rather than a chase of sorts because the preceding line holds no intense
words, and the format of having a space in between causes a moment of
relaxation for the reader. It evokes a more calm atmosphere, giving pursue
a less intense connotation. Finally, the habit of shores returns us to the
recipient of the manifestations of the thrusts of the waves.