Oppen and the Ocean

I couldn’t help but notice the reoccurring image of the “Edge of the Ocean” in George Oppen’s poems.  The ocean ending is a curious concept because, in a way, the ocean never ends, it just surrounds.  I feel as though perhaps the ocean is being used throughout Oppen’s work to symbolize a constant stigmatism.  In other words, I think it represents Oppen’s curiosity towards an object that cannot be contained or focused in on.  As an Objectivist, Oppen was trying to create a poem that could be treated as an object, a work of art so sincere and direct it was impossible to not understand.  “Myself I Sing” must have been an extremely difficult poem to write as an Objectivist poet because he was trying to identify himself in the most substantial and focused nature.  Oppen chose to use nature to describe his feelings and I think that he relates to the ocean because it is hard to describe and therefore reflects the things that he has difficulty relating in his poems.  In “Myself I Sing” he writes, “A man marooned/No longer looks for ships, imagines/Anything on the horizon. On the beach/The ocean ends in water.”  The “ocean” stands for the unfocused and unintentional things that cannot and refuse to be sincere and poignant in someone’s life.    In “The Edge of the Ocean,” Oppen tries to attack this large matter directly, but eventually comes to terms that it is indescribable and will therefore represent those things that he cannot directly express.  Oppen cannot contain the “ocean” like he can contain his poetry and therefore he enjoys challenging its wildness.  It ensures the complexity of describing something so massive and subjective and Oppen uses it to its full extent.  I think it was hard for Oppen to describe something that was difficult to objectify.  Even though the ocean is a constant, it represents largely, the unknown and the inability to grasp or own.  This is reflected when Oppen recognizes that the ocean is essentially in “somebody’s lawn,” yet it remains mysterious and open-ended.  By trying to create a end to the ocean, Oppen is exploring the idea that some things in the world and his life, may be open-ended and indirect.