The Full Text of “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean”
The Full Text of “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean”
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“The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean” Introduction
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"The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean" was written by the American poet Robinson Jeffers in 1940, not long after the start of WWII. The poem's speaker, anxious about the state of the world, is wandering along the coast when he comes across a wild boar digging through the dirt for food. Like a creature from a fable, this boar can talk, and he advises the speaker to abandon society altogether and lay low in the mountains for the next "four or five centuries." The boar has no patience for human politics, which the poem implies are destructive and foolish. The poem also repeats the titular image of stars moving across the ocean, conveying that human concerns seem petty and fleeting against the backdrop of a vast, indifferent universe.
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“The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean” Summary
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The speaker, feeling anxious about some distant issues that weren't under his control, was walking along the thin mountain paths by the coast. That night, as he watched the stars traveling across the sky above the lonesome ocean, he encountered a wild, black-bearded boar that was using his nose to dig through the dirt on Mal Paso Mountain.
The elderly beast sniffed and said, "Look at these tasty roots, fat bugs, glossy beetles, and growing acorns. Finland, the best country in Europe, has lost its way, but the stars keep traveling across the sky above the lonesome ocean." This was what the old boar, with his spiky black hair, said while ripping apart the ground of the mountain.
"The world's gone crazy, my friend, and it's only going to get worse before it gets better. You should lay low in these mountains for the next four or five hundred years, while the stars keep traveling across the sky above the lonesome ocean." That's what this old patriach said, while burying his snout in the mountain's uncultivated land.
"Stay away from the numbskulls who go on about democracy and from the fools who keep bringing up revolution; they're intoxicated by smooth talk and ideologues. By contrast, I put my faith in my tusks right in front of me. Embrace freedom and curse the false promises of politics." That's what the wild, black-beared boar said as he prodded at the earth with his tusks on the mountain.
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“The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean” Themes
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Political Crisis and Disillusionment
"The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean" looks at humanity's prospects and comes to a bleak conclusion: it would be best to lay low for a few hundred years while humankind destroys itself through war, self-deception, and conflicting ideologies. Written at the start of World War II, the poem takes solace only in the insignificance of humankind: it gives voice to a "wild boar" who contrasts human foolishness with the vast universe beyond earth (the "stars go[ing] over the lonely ocean"). In short, the poem displays a clear sense of disillusionment with humanity and suggests that people would do well to extricate themselves from politics altogether.
The anxious, wandering speaker encounters a "black-maned wild boar" that articulates everything that's going wrong with civilization—particularly its collapse into ideological conflict. This "old father of wild pigs," roaming freely in the mountains, has some strong opinions about the state of human politics. He explains to the speaker: "The world's in a bad way, my man, / And bound to be worse before it mends." The world is also full of "dupes that talk democracy," "dogs that talk revolution," and "liars and believers." In short, humankind has chained itself in false dogma—the illusory promises of politicians on either side of the political divide.
The terrible consequences of these illusions, the boar suggests, are about to play out. That's why the boar laments the fact that "Finland" has "fallen." Finland initially tried to stay neutral in WWII; when it joined in the conflict, it, too, lost its "freedom" (by picking a side and, thereby, an ideology). In the face of all this violence and folly, the boar thinks it would be better to remove oneself from humanity altogether. Seeing as the world is "bound to be worse before it mends," the boar suggests that the speaker hides out in the mountains for a few centuries. The poem implies that it's not clear whether there will be anything left of humankind after that period.
But the poem never shakes off its atmosphere of tension and danger, because the speaker, of course, can't hide in the mountains. He must walk back down from the ridge and return to humanity. What awaits him, the poem suggests, is a new and terrible chapter in the human story (and given the horrors of the 20th century and beyond, it's hard to argue with this view!). The boar thus seems to validate the speaker's initial anxiety rather than teaching him an unexpected lesson—but unlike wild boars, humans can't avoid human politics so easily. What people can avoid, the poem implies, is getting locked into "ideologies."
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2
- Lines 10-12
- Lines 15-19
- Lines 22-26
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Nature vs. Humanity
"The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean" contrasts human arrogance and corruption with the power and serenity of nature. Though the poem condemns humankind in its 20th-century state, it does offer an alternative way of framing human existence. Though it doesn't suggest that nature can save humanity, it does present nature as a setting that's free from shortsighted "ideologies"—and so endures forever rather than destroying itself. In other words, it holds up the natural world as an ideal superior to those humanity constructs for itself.
The speaker listens to some words of wisdom from a talking wild boar. The boar represents an intuitive and natural way of being, free from artificial—and inescapably human—ways of framing existence. The boar himself stands in for the natural world, which runs on instinct, free from the "talk, liars, and believers" of human society. The boar "believe[s] in [his] tusks": the earthy, natural reality that's right before his eyes. It's implied that, by contrast, humankind has lost sight of its place in the world. The boar also shows the speaker "sweet roots, / Fat grubs, slick beetles and sprouted acorns." These remind the speaker—and the reader—that humankind is not the only life on earth, nor the center of the universe. Life will continue to thrive, with or without humankind.
Meanwhile, the stars, ocean, and mountain operate on a timescale that makes all human conflict look petty and temporary. Thus, they model a kind of enduring serenity that humans can aspire to, if only they take the long view. The stars moving overhead offer evidence of a world beyond humanity, subtly supporting the boar's view that humanity has gotten lost in its own self-importance. The loneliness of the ocean, in this context, isn't necessarily a negative attribute. It's a kind of freedom from the chaos of the human world.
Nature, ultimately, gets the last word, having demonstrated its wisdom in contrast with the foolishness of humankind. The poem portrays the boar as a kind of wise soothsayer: "the old father of wild pigs." He speaks from a place of deep, inherited, intuitive knowledge that goes beyond the particulars of human politics (such as the start of WWII, which hovers in the poem's background). It's telling, too, that the poem ends with the word "mountain" and focuses so much on the stars. The poem reminds the speaker of what they already know: that, in the grand scheme of time, humankind's activities are "far off things" that need not be the "affair" of someone who communes authentically with nature. To appreciate nature in this way is to find a kind of intellectual and spiritual "freedom."
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-21
- Lines 25-28
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean”
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Lines 1-5
Unhappy about some ...
... the lonely ocean,The poem's speaker goes out for a walk along a mountainous coast one evening in an attempt to clear his head. He's feeling anxious, "[u]nhappy about some far off things / That are not my affair." In other words, he's worried about global events that he has no real control over. (Jeffers wrote this poem at the start of WWII, and the following stanza alludes directly to the conflict.)
As he walks "the lean ridges," or narrow hilltops, the speaker looks out and sees "The stars go over the lonely ocean." This phrase will be repeated throughout the poem, becoming an important refrain. The stars and the ocean contextualize the speaker's situation, as well as that of humanity as a whole: compared to the immensity of the universe, humanity's problems suddenly seem quite small.
The speaker also personifies the ocean here by calling it "lonely." That loneliness suggests that the scene is quiet and empty. At the same time, the speaker is likely projecting his own emotions onto the landscape (an example of pathetic fallacy). That is, the ocean's loneliness reflects the speaker's sense of isolation from the rest of humankind. The long, round assonance of "go over the lonely ocean" evokes a moan or cry of pain, reflecting the speaker's downtrodden attitude.
The poem's formal traits help to further convey the speaker's state of mind. Though each stanza has a similar shape on the page, there's no strict meter here; the poem never quite settles into a regular, predictable rhythm. Enjambment adds to the sense of restlessness, delaying the arrival of the stanza's main verb ("saw") until line 4:
Unhappy about some far off things
That are not my affair, wandering
Along the coast and up the lean ridges,
I saw in the evening
The stars go over the lonely ocean,The poem, like the speaker, seems to "wander" down the page, searching for something without knowing what that something is. The first five lines thus create a quiet, if troubled, atmosphere, luring the reader into the poem's mountainous and almost mythical world. Nothing's really happened yet, but it's out of this hush that the mystical figure of the boar will emerge.
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Lines 6-7
And a black-maned ...
... Mal Paso Mountain. -
Lines 8-9
The old monster ...
... and sprouted acorns. -
Lines 10-14
The best nation ...
... Mal Paso Mountain. -
Lines 15-21
"The world's in ...
... Mal Paso Mountain. -
Lines 22-24
"Keep clear of ...
... liars and believers. -
Lines 25-28
I believe in ...
... Mal Paso Mountain.
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“The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean” Symbols
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The Stars and the Ocean
In the poem, the stars and the ocean act as symbols of nature's permanence as well as its utter indifference to human affairs. For the speaker, humankind's flaws, faults, and foibles seem small and petty next to the vastness of the universe. Even a world war fades into insignificance. Finland may have "fallen," but that has no effect on the stars or sea; the earth keeps turning as it always has, unmoved by "talk" of "democracy" or "revolution."The steady presence of the stars and ocean throughout the poem undermines humanity's arrogant belief that people are the center of the world. Civilizations come and go, but the stars and the ocean remain constant.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 5: “The stars go over the lonely ocean,”
- Line 12: “But the stars go over the lonely ocean,"”
- Line 19: “While the stars go over the lonely ocean,"”
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The Boar
The boar symbolizes what, to the speaker, seems like the ideal way life: a humble, independent existence defined by freedom and connection with the earth. The boar is "wild," unbound by human society. He puts his faith in himself and his own "tusks" rather than what he considers misleading, disappointing "ideologies," and he encourages the speaker to join him and lay low for a few hundred years while humanity destroys itself. The poem hints that the boar's got it right, and that people should similarly extricate themselves from humanity's squabbles and politics.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 6-7: “And a black-maned wild boar / Plowing with his snout on Mal Paso Mountain.”
- Lines 13-14: “The old black-bristled boar, / Tearing the sod on Mal Paso Mountain.”
- Lines 20-21: “Said the old father of wild pigs, / Plowing the fallow on Mal Paso Mountain.”
- Lines 27-28: “Said the gamey black-maned boar / Tusking the turf on Mal Paso Mountain.”
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“The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Alliteration fills the poem with rough, rugged music befitting its main character: the wild boar. This alliteration often uses plosive sounds like /b/, /p/, and /t/. Such consonants require the mouth to block and then expel air, and here they make the poem's language more forceful and emphatic.
For example, listen to some of the phrases the speaker uses to describe the boar and his mountain home:
black-maned wild boar
Plowing with his snout on Mal Paso Mountain.
[...]
The old black-bristled boar,
[...]
Said the old father of wild pigs,
Plowing the fallow on Mal Paso Mountain.All those /b/ and /p/ sounds evoke the boar's huffing, grunting effort as he snuffs out food. Towards the poem's end, the spiky /t/ sound in "Tusking the turf" also conveys the sharpness of the boar's tusks.
The boar's actual speech is full of plosive sounds too, making him sound passionate and strong-willed:
"The world's in a bad way, my man,
And bound to be worse before it mends;
Better lie up [...]
[...]
"Keep clear of the dupes that talk democracy
And the dogs that talk revolution,
Drunk with talk [...]The heaving /b/ and /d/ sounds and the sharp /t/ sounds convey the boar's frustration and disappointment with the state of the world. Note, too, how alliteration links "dupes" with "democracy"—that is, people who have been deceived with the ideology that deceives them.
There's some sibilant alliteration in the poem as well. Listen to lines 8-9:
The old monster snuffled, "Here are sweet roots,
Fat grubs, slick beetles and sprouted acorns.These sounds evoke the very "snuffling" described, making the poem's imagery more striking for readers.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 6: “black-maned,” “boar”
- Line 7: “Plowing,” “Mal,” “Paso,” “Mountain”
- Line 8: “snuffled,” “sweet”
- Line 9: “slick,” “sprouted”
- Line 10: “fallen”
- Line 11: “Finland”
- Line 13: “black-bristled boar”
- Line 14: “Mal,” “Mountain”
- Line 15: “bad,” “my man”
- Line 16: “bound,” “be,” “before”
- Line 17: “Better”
- Line 18: “Four,” “five”
- Line 20: “father,” “pigs”
- Line 21: “Plowing,” “fallow,” “Mal,” “Paso,” “Mountain”
- Line 22: “dupes,” “democracy”
- Line 23: “dogs”
- Line 24: “Drunk,” “talk”
- Line 25: “tusks”
- Line 26: “Long live”
- Line 27: “black-maned boar”
- Line 28: “Tusking,” “turf,” “Mal,” “Mountain”
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Enjambment
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Anthropomorphism
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Repetition
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Pathetic Fallacy
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"The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- My affair
- Ridges
- Plowing
- Fat grubs
- Sod
- Fallow
- Dupes
- Tusking the turf
- Gamey
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(Location in poem: Lines 1-2: “Unhappy about some far off things / That are not my affair”)
My concern.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean”
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Form
"The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean" can be considered a fable: it features a talking animal who imparts wisdom. Structurally, the poem consists of four seven-line stanzas (a.k.a septets). This regular stanza shape gives this free verse poem some steadiness and consistency. Despite featuring a talking boar, the poem still feels serious and measured.
The poem is also very repetitive, thanks to its use of a refrain. Some variation of the phrase "the stars go over the lonely ocean" repeats in the fifth line of stanzas 1 to 3. The last two lines of each stanza are also very repetitive, each pair featuring a description of the boar and its search for food on the mountain. They all say pretty much the same thing, just in slightly different ways. For example:
And a black-maned wild boar
Plowing with his snout on Mal Paso Mountain. (lines 6-7)[...]
Said the gamey black-maned boar
Tusking the turf on Mal Paso Mountain. (lines 27-28)Repetition like this weaves a hypnotic spell, the poem continually cycling back to the boar and centering his philosophy.
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Meter
"The Stars Go Over the Lonely "Ocean" is written using free verse, meaning there's no regular meter. That said, the repetitive nature of the poem creates some familiar rhythms throughout. The last three lines of each stanza are all very similar, apart from line 26 ("Long live freedom and damn the ideologies,").
Note, too, that all stanzas have a pretty uniform shape on the page. The fourth line of each stanza is always shorter than the rest, as though the stanza is being squeezed in the middle. It's subtle, but this creates a gentle wave-like pattern from long to short to long again, perhaps gently mimicking the movements of the ocean.
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Rhyme Scheme
Aside from a few half rhymes here and there, there's not much rhyming going on in "The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean." "Ocean" and "Mountain" chime together in each stanza except for the last, this is very subtle.
The lack of rhyme seems to capture the speaker's wandering (both physical and mental) and provides the poem with a ruggedness that fits its star character: the wild boar. A full rhyme scheme might make the poem feel sillier or more childish, given the presence of a talking animal.
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“The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean” Speaker
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"The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean" has a first-person male speaker (at least, this is what's implied by the boar's use of the phrase "my man" in line 15), who is probably meant to represent Jeffers himself. The speaker comes across as restless, worried about "far off things" that he has no control over. He calls the ocean "lonesome," but he might just be projecting his own sense of isolation onto his surroundings. Meanwhile, the anthropomorphized wild boar the speaker encounters does most of the talking in the poem.
This boar relishes the bounty of the earth, quickly pointing out all the yummy grubs and roots ripe for the taking, and though he somehow is well-versed in human politics, he has no patience for them. He laments the fall of "Finland" and advises the human speaker to hide out in the mountains for the next few centuries. The boar condemns democracy and revolution, believing instead, as he says, only "in my tusks."
In his embrace of individual freedom, his appreciation of nature, and his rejection of politics, the boar's attitude reflects that of Jeffers himself. Jeffers was a staunch environmentalist who criticized what he viewed as humanity's selfishness and arrogance, and he also (quite controversially) opposed U.S. involvement in World War II.
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“The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean” Setting
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Though there are other Mal Paso mountains in the world (including the most famous in Tenerife, Spain), it's likely that Jeffers intended this poem to be set on the California coast. He's probably referring to Malpaso Creek or Canyon, which is not far from the coastal town of Carmel, California, where Jeffers spent much of his life.
In any case, this setting is presented as a quiet, lonely, contemplative place. The speaker, plagued with anxiety about world events, has come up there by himself to do some thinking. For him, the vast, star-filled sky above and the ocean below help to put humanity's human foibles in perspective: war and politics seem insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe.
This setting is also home to a wild boar who seems totally at home in his environment, and there's plenty of other life there too: "sweet roots/ Fat grubs, slick beetles and sprouted acorns" to name a (tasty) few. The natural world in the poem comes across as a richer, wiser, and more peaceful place than the human world.
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean”
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Literary Context
Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) was an American poet and environmentalist known both for his narrative, epic poetry and his shorter, more lyrical verse. An avid outdoorsman, Jeffers also wrote often about the beauty and power of the natural world. He lived for a long time on the California coast, which features in this and many other poems. Indeed, "Mal Paso Mountain" here likely refers to Malpaso Creek/Canyon near Carmel, California, where Jeffers spent the latter half of his life.
"The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean" was first published in an April 1940 edition of Poetry magazine, alongside Jeffers's poems "9, 19, 1939," "Finland is Down," "Great Men," and "The Bloody Sire." All of these poems were inspired by World War II, which is also what the "far off things" in line 1 of this poem refers to.
The poem also showcases a worldview that Jeffers called inhumanism, which he said involves "a shifting of emphasis from man to not man; the rejection of human solipsism and recognition of the transhuman magnificence. [...] It offers a reasonable detachment as a rule of conduct, instead of love, hate, and envy." In other words, it values the non-human, natural world and rejects the anthropocentric view that human beings are the most important creatures on earth.
Jeffers's philosophical views infused his writing and earned him both praise and condemnation. Though he was for a while a bestselling poet, popular opinion turned against him when he opposed U.S. involvement in WWII. Jeffers's anti-war stance was construed by his critics as anti-patriotic.
Historical Context
The poem alludes directly to its historical context in lines 10-11:
The best nation in Europe has fallen,
And that is Finland,This was written, and is set, at the beginning of World War II—the second conflict to cause unfathomable death, despair, and destruction during the 20th century. World War II began in 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany following Hitler's invasion of Poland. By the time the war ended in 1945, 40 to 60 million people had died. Though humankind had made huge technological advancements in the previous decades, for many these two brutal wars undermined the sense that this constituted actual progress. From this poem's perspective, civilization is a kind of lie that humanity sells to itself—and that's why the boar thinks it's better to lie low for a few hundred years in the mountains.
The poem published alongside "The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean," "Finland is Down," makes clear that the boar here refers to the Moscow Peace Treaty, signed by Finland following an invasion of its territory by Soviet Forces. Finland maintained its independence but was also forced to surrender nine percent of its territory to the USSR.
Though World War Two is undoubtedly a key focus in the poem, the true targets are wider than just that one conflict. Jeffers—and the boar in the poem—argues that all politics tends towards lies, corruption, and mindless partisanship.
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More “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean” Resources
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External Resources
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A Short History of the "Winter War" — Check out a brief overview of the conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union that Jeffers alludes to in this poem.
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Jeffers and Inhumanism — Learn more about an essential concept in Jeffers's work.
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Jeffers's Biography — Learn more about the poet in this biography from the Poetry Foundation.
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Tor House — Check out the history behind a special stone house—built by Jeffers's own hand!
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Robinson Jeffers Podcast — Tune into a Lit Matters episode dedicated to Jeffers's life and work.
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