Neither Out Far Nor In Deep

Frederic Bazille, The Ramparts at Aigues-Mortes, 1867

When searching the Internet for my blog by name, I happened upon this poem by Robert Frost. I've read quite a bit of Frost, but I don't recall this particular poem. In Frost's work, there is often a tension between limitlessness and boundaries, the vast cosmos and the neighbor's fence. This poem describes not only the visual pull of the sea, but its visual limitations. It is a bound surface. In a way, he's describing the allure and limitations of a painting.

Neither Out Far Nor In Deep

The people along the sand

All turn and look one way.

They turn their back on the land.

They look at the sea all day.

As long as it takes to pass

A ship keeps raising its hull;

The wetter ground like glass

Reflects a standing gull

The land may vary more;

But wherever the truth may be--

The water comes ashore,

And the people look at the sea.

They cannot look out far.

They cannot look in deep.

But when was that ever a bar

To any watch they keep?

- Robert Frost

Howard Sochureck,
Poet Robert Frost Standing in Oxford Field with His Hand Over His Face,
1957


We cannot look out for, we cannot look in deep, and yet we keep looking. What keeps us looking?

Robert Henri, Cumulus Clouds, East River, 1902 

Robert Henri, Storm at Sea