aker finds little comfort in existence and seeks to become part of nature which she finds attractive by comparison, ôInto that rushing beast of night, / sucked up by that great dragon, to split / from my life with no flag, / no belly, no cryö (Sexton 1961, 1).
FinkelÆs poem is quite similar in a number of ways to The Starry Night. Like Sexton, the poet titles his poem after a famous Japanese painting, The Great Wave: Hokusai. He also prefaces his work with a quite by Herbert Reed that demonstrates human beings are an ôobscure manifestationö in comparison with the awe and power of nature. In FinkelÆs (1959) poem he also uses personification of nature when he says the ôair / is full of writingö (1). Like the speaker in SextonÆs poem seeks the comfort of becoming one with nature, the speaker in The Great Wave asserts that the painting of the wave is more comforting than reality, ôIt is à / à the wave is still that nothing / Will harm these frail strangersö (Finkel 1959, 1).
FinkelÆs poem and speaker are quite different than those of Sexton in an important way. Only the nature of the painting, not the nature of reality, is comforting to the speaker. Whereas SextonÆs speaker wishes to become part of real nature, the speaker in FinkelÆs poem seems to be a fisherman who knows how violent and unforgiving nature can be to something as obscure as one individual. As he maintains, ôIn the painterÆs sea / All fishermen are safe. All anger bends under his unityö (Finkel 1959, 1). Such is not the case in the real world for fisherman who must face the challenges of life at sea. The speaker contrasts the condition of the men in the painting with men in reality. Those in the painting are not fully immersed in life, they ôstand half in and half out of the worldö and ôcannot see below Fujiö (Finkel 1959, 1). This implies that unless one embraces the challenges and unpredictability of reality, one is not fully aliv...