"Next Please" essay
...ting on. Each ship is “tiny” yet “clear” (4) with “each rope distinct,” (11) emphasizing the point that, even though his dreams are far off, he knows down to every detail what he wants to happen. His beautiful dreams, however, are not quite the same as the reality of what the ships are. The rewards he believes the ships will bring because he waits “so devoutly and long” (18) do not ever appear, leaving him with “wretched stalks” (8) in place of beautiful roses he longs for. Other words describing the ship produce bad connotations, such as the fact that nothing “balks” (9) the approach of the ship and that the figurehead is not described in glory or beauty, only as having “golden tits” (12). The contrast between what the speaker expects and actually occurs is only further increased in the last stanza. The imagery and connotations of the ship in the last stanza point out that it is a ship bringing death, shown most obviously to represent death by the fact that is has black sails, but it also has familiar characteristics of death that the poet brings to life with his imagery. The idea that the ship carries a “huge and birdless silence” (22) reveals that it is not like a normal ship, behind which birds usually follow to eat the fish upturned in its wake. This imagery connotes many aspects of death, such as the solemnity, and the unnaturalness, among other aspects that it provides. The fact that water does not “breed” (23) waves behind it not only further shows that the ship is unnatural, but shows the darkness of it. The wording connotes a lack of reproduction, which is necessary to life. This quite obviously points to the ship as the opposite of life, death. The fact that the ship is “unfamiliar” (21) to the person waiting shows that, becau...