Blessing the Boats

Boats transport bodies and cargo over water, often used in poetry as symbols for the body, which carries the soul through the world. In this way, the boat metaphor implies that the body is transient, while the soul is a temporary passenger. In “blessing the boats” Clifton says the “tide” (Line 1) is coming over the “lip of our understanding” (Line 3). This makes the boat a metaphor for not just the body but the mind. It is implied that the “you” (Line 4) who rides inside the boat is beyond the mind and body - the soul. The boat is only what carries it.

Water suggests tears, fluidity, cleanliness, mystery, and/or uncertainty. The speaker does not specify if these boats are on the ocean or on fresh water. She does not specify exactly where they are going. This ambiguity may very well be the point. Addressing an illness, changes in life, aging, and mortality is itself an experience of facing the unknown. In this instance she adds, “water waving forever” (Line 11). This further enhances the feeling that the water is something eternal and eternally shifting. It seems to personify the water as friendly, almost greeting and welcoming “you” as “you” enters it.