You Will Know When You Get There

Allen Curnow
Nobody comes up from the sea as late as this
in the day and the season, and nobody else goes down

the last steep kilometre, wet-metalled where

a shower passed shredding the light which keeps

pouring out of its tank in the sky, through summits,

trees, vapours thickening and thinning. Too

credibly by half celestial, the dammed

reservoir up there keeps emptying while the light lasts

over the sea where ‘it gathers the gold against

it’. The light is bits of crushed rock randomly

glinting underfoot, wetted by the short

shower, and down you go and so in its way does

the sun which gets there first. Boys, two of them,

turn campfirelit faces, a hesitancy to speak

is a hesitancy of the earth rolling back and away

behind this man going down to the sea with a bag

to pick mussels, having an arrangement with the tide,

the ocean to be shallowed three point seven meters,

one hour’s light to be left, and there’s the excrescent

moon sponging off the last of it. A door

slams, a heavy wave, a door, the sea-floor shudders.

Down you go alone, so late, into the surge-black
fissure.

Quote Significance

Structure (enjambment, caesura) Lines similar in length, giving poem a visual unity and structure

● Enjambments and caesuras (pauses) → rhythm of rising and falling tides

and drawing parallels to the movement of the waves
● Continuous, unrelenting sea
Title: You will Know When You Get Laden with agnostic philosophical context, hinting at Curnow’s own beliefs as an
There Anglican priest turned agnostic.

● The modal verb of certainty, ‘will’, tells us that everyone gets there, or
dies. Along with the spine-chilling imagery, this paints a mysterious
atmosphere.

● Vague wording fills the reader with a sense of foreboding.

○ Introduces the reader into the poem - thrusting them into this
scene creates an atmosphere of uncertainty, hesitancy, and
anxiety.

‘Nobody comes up from the sea as Sets the scene of a deserted desolate beach
late as this // in the day and the ● Darkness of the night and absence of people // spine-chilling scene
season, and nobody else goes down’ ● Uses parallelism

“Else”: someone is defying logic and going down to the sea, introducing an
undercurrent of unease and fear

Prompts the question: What is wrong with this particular sea, this particular time,
this particular season?
● Vague language adds to the foreboding feeling

“the last steep kilometre, wet- Describes a dangerous and dreary setting where rain has blanketed the beach
metalled where // a shower passed ● Anyone who dares step there is placed in a precarious position
shredding the light which keeps”
Sibilance: giving the idea that the light of day is being forcefully ripped from the
sky

“pouring out of its tank in the sky, Warmth of the sun contrasts with the foreboding atmosphere set in the first few
through summits, // trees, vapours stanzas
thickening and thinning. “
“Th” sound emphasises the thickening of vapours in the sky → ominous and
foreboding scene, gloomy and desolate

“Too credibly by half celestial, the Light drains from the sky despite its best efforts to keep lit
dammed // reservoir up there keeps
emptying while the light lasts” ● “Dammed reservoir” (sun) keeps emptying while the “light lasts”
● Draining of light is a gripping process, since light has always been
associated with joy, vitality, and life’s beauties.
● Adds to dreary atmosphere as light is sucked out of the scene

“Boys, two of them, // turn campfirelit ‘Boys’ → children = picture of innocence and carefree natures → exuberant,
faces, a hesitancy to speak” adventurous, the pure embodiments of life.
 ● Diction: campfirelit faces accentuates the innocence and
adventurousness of the boys
● Juxtaposed to their hesitancy to speak
○ Unusual for children, the picture of youthful rowdiness, to be
hesitant to speak
○ Slightly ominous foreboding - what could have caused this?

● They watch the man picking mussels meet his impending death at the
sea, making the reader feel a creeping fear

“behind this man going down to the ● Night-time isn’t an opportune time to pick mussels but the man seems
sea with a bag // to pick mussels, to intuitively sense that his mortal life is about to end and therefore
having an arrangement with the approaches the sea to meet his watery end.
tide, // the ocean to be shallowed ● The contrast between the expectations and reality of these boys adds to
three point seven meters” the eeriness of the poem.
○ The boys’ reticence could be due to their fear for the man who
is entering the sea, or their realisation that one day they too
will die.
○ Their hesitancy is echoed by the “hesitancy of the earth rolling
back and away”, as the land draws back when the man
approaches the ocean.
■ The repetition of the word “hesitancy” amplifies this
intrigue.
● Despite their innocence and lack of experience with death, the boys
could discern a creeping sense of its nearness. Thus, the inexplicable
actions of the boys and the man accentuate the mysteriousness of the
poem.

“(a door) // slams, a heavy wave, a A cacophony is created:

door, the sea-floor shudders. // Down
you go alone, so late, into the surge- ● Enjambment after “door” and onomatopoeia “slams” emphasise the
black // forcefulness of the door shutting, and increases suspense.
fissure.”
● Crashing of the “heavy wave” contrasts the calmness in the couplets
before
● Personification of the sea-floor quivering with fear suggests that even
nature dreads this momentous event: a man is at death’s door.
○ And when death comes, it will shake earth’s foundations and
sweep a person off in the swift movement of a “heavy wave”.
● The sheer power of death is also echoed in the alliterative fricative /f/ in
“floor” and “fissure”.
○ Curnow directly addresses the reader and announces, “[d]own
you go alone”, repeating the words “down you go” from an
earlier stanza when he describes the sun “which gets there
first”.
○ Switching to the second-person pronoun “you” // like the
exuberant sun that dissolves into the sea, entering the pitch-
black “fissure” into the chasm of the unknown is a universal
 experience.

● The man’s sudden exit from the world and the final tercet of three lines
in contrast to the couplets preceding it gives the poem a note of finality.

● Last word of the poem – “fissure” – stands in one single line, suggesting
that death itself is a frighteningly lonely journey

In what ways does Curnow create a mysterious atmosphere in this poem?

Paragraph 1: describes the foreboding, vacant seascape

Paragraph 2: uses the seriousness of the boys to bring out the brooding atmosphere of the beach

Paragraph 3: abrupt ending creates an ominous atmosphere