Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

John Frederick Nims’ "Tide Turning" is a richly textured poem that captures the dynamic relationship between the ocean, its rhythms, and human perception. Through a structure reminiscent of a sestina, with recurring words and shifting patterns, the poem mirrors the cyclical nature of tides and the way experience fluctuates between exhilaration, danger, and relief. Nims employs vivid imagery, playful language, and an undercurrent of classical allusion to explore themes of uncertainty, adventure, and the interplay between nature and human presence.

The poem opens in a setting of salt marsh, grassy channel, with a boat navigating the tidal waters. The shark’s / A rumor suggests an underlying menace, a lurking danger that remains unseen but imagined. The scene is idyllic yet slightly uneasy; the group is off with picnic-things and wine, enjoying a leisurely outing, but the natural world around them hints at unpredictability. The repetition of pluff, a term for the marshy mudflats, establishes a sensory richness, emphasizing both the texture of the environment and the instability of the ground beneath them. The phrase sun on the ocean tingles like a kiss introduces a motif of touch and intimacy that recurs throughout the poem, where the sea’s movements are described in terms of physical contact.

The structure of the poem reinforces the cyclical motion of the tide. The six-hour-falling, six-hour-rising tide is both a literal observation and a symbolic framework for the experience of the boaters. The tide transforms the landscape, turning heron-haunts to alleys for the shark, shifting the balance of power in the ecosystem. The juxtaposition of the graceful heron with the predatory shark underscores the duality of the ocean’s nature—both serene and potentially dangerous. The description of the tide-waters kiss and loosen; loosen, kiss mimics the pulse of the sea and suggests a rhythmic inevitability, an embrace and release that governs both water and time.

As the tide recedes, the boaters’ initial ease is disrupted. The poem moves from passive observation to direct physical involvement when their boat becomes grounded: His nose-cone, grin unsmiling, Cr-ush! The boat / Shocks, shudders—grounded. An abrupt tough kiss. The sudden shift in tone from languorous appreciation to abrupt impact reinforces the unpredictability of nature. The tough kiss contrasts with earlier, gentler images of tingling and loosening kisses, emphasizing the ocean’s power. The mention of wine- / Dark blood alludes to Homer’s wine-dark sea, linking the experience to an older, mythic tradition where the sea is both a site of beauty and peril.

The interplay between reality and perception continues with the misidentification of shark fins. The initial panic gives way to delight when the three dolphins appear, behaving as they do on TV. This moment reflects the human tendency to frame nature through familiar images, reducing the unpredictability of real experience into something already mediated and understood. The dolphins’ coquettish behavior stands in contrast to the imagined shark, replacing fear with playfulness. The toasting of the dolphins—Cup of wine / To you, slaphappy sidekicks!—suggests a return to ease, but also a recognition that the ocean offers experiences beyond human control.

The turning of the tide becomes the poem’s central metaphor for both physical release and renewal. The description of the tide’s gradual return—The first hour, poky, picks away at pluff. / The second, though, swirls currents. Then the tide’s / Third, fourth—abundance!—builds momentum, much like the poem itself. The progression from stagnation to abundance mirrors the narrative arc of tension, disruption, and resolution. The phrase The great ocean’s kiss marks a climactic moment where nature reasserts its force, liberating the boat and restoring movement.

The final stanza celebrates this release. The shark, a no-show suggests both relief and perhaps a lingering question—was the threat ever real, or was it merely the imagination projecting fear onto the unknown? The shift from concern to celebration is marked by the phrase Glory floats our boat, a lighthearted conclusion that underscores the triumph of the group’s return to comfort. The last line—Carouse on the affluent kisses of the tide—returns to the motif of the ocean’s touch, now transformed from a tough kiss into something lavish and pleasurable. The word affluent suggests both material abundance and a fluid motion, reinforcing the poem’s theme of cyclical generosity.

"Tide Turning" is ultimately a meditation on movement and uncertainty, on how human experience is shaped by the rhythms of the natural world. The recurring images of pluff, tide, kiss, and wine establish a sensual, immersive landscape that shifts between apprehension and exhilaration. The poem’s near-sestina structure mimics the inevitability of tidal motion, as key words resurface with altered meanings, much like the changing sea. Nims captures both the thrill and the vulnerability of human presence in a vast and indifferent ocean, crafting a poem that is at once playful, lyrical, and deeply attuned to the forces that govern land, water, and time.

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