From the Wave

“Black Jackets” by Thom Gunn (1958)

Like “From the Wave,” “Black Jackets” revels in the male form and is written in quatrains that alternate in their metrical length and their rhymes. Unlike “From the Wave,” “Black Jackets” celebrates bikers instead of surfers. Additionally, the second and fourth lines of each stanza in “Black Jackets” are longer than the first and third, while in “From the Wave” the second and fourth lines are shorter.

“Moly” by Thom Gunn (1971)

“Moly” is the title poem from Gunn’s 1971 book that also includes “From the Wave.” “Moly” is a dramatic monologue written from the perspective of one of Odysseus’s unfortunate mariners shortly after that mariner has been turned into a pig by Circe. The sailor who voices “Moly” has a man’s mind but is living in a pig’s body. The surfers in “From the Wave” are part men, part wave; the voice of “Moly” is part man, part pig. Therefore, both poems feature hybrids.

The Man with Night Sweats by Thom Gunn (1992)

This late-career book ends with a sequence of elegies Gunn wrote for his friends who died of AIDS-related illnesses. Like “From the Wave,” these elegies examine male bodies closely and carefully.