At the Sea-Side

Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1913

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Authorial Context

It is important to consider Robert Louis Stevenson’s background while reading “At the Sea-Side” to provide context for the work. As earlier stated in this guide, Stevenson came from a line of lighthouse engineers. Therefore, he had a relationship with the sea from a very young age. However, the ambivalence and ambiguous themes related to the sea in “At the Sea-Side” connect as well to Stevenson’s lukewarm views of his intended profession. Though he initially entered college to be an engineer and enter the family business, he had no desire to pursue his career and turned to studying law to appease his father. This complicated relationship with his family’s heritage and the expectations for his career path imposed upon him by his father could account for Stevenson’s desire to write about the sea. This may also be the reason for the lack of purely joyful or apparent happy emotions in the poem. By the time Stevenson published “At the Sea-Side” in A Child’s Garden of Verses in 1885, he had already traveled extensively: to France, to Switzerland, to the United States, and back to Scotland. Not all these traveling experiences were for pleasure or holiday; on many occasions, Stevenson had to travel due to illness. The combination of these experiences and his family legacy made Stevenson well-versed with the allure of the sea to children and adults alike.

Socio-Historical Context

Stevenson wrote and published “At the Sea-Side” during the “Late Period” (1870 - 1901) of the Victorian era of British literature (1830 - 1901). Even before the Victorian era, all the way back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth in the 16th century, Britain’s naval supremacy was well-known and not often contested. During the Victorian era itself, “Britain was the world’s most powerful nation” and by 1882 was “in the later stages of acquiring the largest empire the world had ever seen” (Evans, Eric. “Overview: Victorian Britain, 1837 - 1901.” BBC). The common adage was that the sun rose and set on the British Empire and close to 1/5 of the Earth’s landmass was purportedly under British control (Evans, Eric. “Overview: Victorian Britain, 1837 - 1901.” BBC). The sea was the primary means of transportation between these British colonies and was therefore the way that the monarchy sent troops and citizens to colonize distant lands and promote British imperialism. Troops were also sent to squash rebellions which cropped up amongst the colonies, including the Indian uprising in 1857, the Jamaica rebellion in 1865, the massacre in Khartoum in 1885, the Anglo-Boer Wars, and the question of Irish independence in the 1880s. Reading Stevenson’s poem within this context of British imperialism provides another view as to why the sea takes centerstage in Stevenson’s text.