The Sea
“The Wave” is one of the author’s most anthologized and well-known stories. It is remarkably short—almost a sketch—and devoid of human characters and plot. One could literally pick any spot in the story at random and find an example of imagery. One of the best comes early, however, as it situates the sea as an element of nature possessed with some semblance of sentient design:
“The waves came towering into the cove across both reefs, confusedly, meeting midway in the cove, chasing one another, climbing over one another's backs, spitting savage columns of green and white water vertically, when their arched manes clashed. In one monstrous stride they crossed the flat rock. Then the wave's head curved outwards, arched like the neck of an angry swan. That curved head was a fathom deep, of a transparent green, with a rim of milky white. And to the rear, great lumps of water buttressed it, thousands of tons of water in each lump.”
Darkness
“Poor People” is another story in which the sea plays a major role, but in this case it is not really about the waves, but the people. And the imagery is not really about the water, but the darkness. And the darkness is not really about the literal absence of light:
“The sound of the sea grumbled through the calm darkness of the dawn, a long broken sound wallowing on the white sand of the beach; the poisonous cold of a February morning was in the dark air; the sandbank by the road above the beach was shrouded with mighty black ghosts; the form of the earth slept, covered in darkness.”
People
O’Flaherty can turn his attention to describing people as well. He is far from limited to literary landscapes; he can turn in quite the portraiture when required. A good example is the eccentric imagery used to describe Julia Rogers at the opening of “The Sinner.”
“She had a little round face, quite plump, with a slightly darkened upper lip, which gave the impression of a faint moustache. It was, however, devoid of hair. The lip curved upwards and the nose was rather broad at the tip, thus darkening the intervening space, which was unusually short by reason of the lady’s excellent breeding.”
Human versus Nature
Many stories by the author pit humans against the forces of nature and that provides ample opportunity for displaying a flair for imagery on both accounts. Then there little passages like that found “The Landing” where it can be difficult determining where the imagery related to one ends and the other begins and people and the forces of nature collide and collude:
“They gathered together on the wall of boulders with the two old women. Soon there was a cluster of red petticoats and heads hooded in little black shawls…The sea was getting rougher with every wave that broke along the rocky beach. It began to growl and toss about and make noises as if monstrous teeth were being ground. It became alive and spoke with a multitude of different yells that inspired the listeners with horror and hypnotized them into feeling mad with the sea. Their faces set in a deep frown and their eyes had a distant fiery look in them.”
