Subject

Two people, the speaker and her daughter, provide the comparison and contrast that propels "What My Child Learns of the Sea" along. The themes of motherhood and the cycles of nature interrelate strongly with these two people. What at least partly separates human beings from other animals on Earth is their advanced learning functions and ability to self-reflect. The speaker and her daughter live, nonetheless, in nature and are subject to its mysterious forces from infancy to death. Though the speaker and her daughter are the subjects, the entire poem is restricted to the speaker's point of view, her reflections on the world, and her imagination about the future.

Symbol

Specific aspects of nature, such as weather and seasonal time, represent both themselves and changes in human consciousness. Symbols such as "blood" and "milk" represent specific functions of female human biology, but they also represent maturation and motherhood...