Seal Lullaby

Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1900

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Moon

Within the context of a lullaby poem, the moon’s significance lies mostly in its association with night and sleep. But the moon in poetry can function as a representation of interiority and reflection; in this poem, and in other lullabies, a mother sings to a child about identity and community. The familiar terrain, the identification of deep fears, and the assurance of safety all help the listening child feel a sense of autonomy and belonging. The child feels accepted and safe as the moon looks over them in the third line. The moon also represents the child’s own life cycle from infancy to adulthood; just as a child develops and grows, so does the moon as it progresses through phases. This child, new to the world, will grow as the moon does, both adapting to its environment and influencing it as the moon moves the tides and changes with the seasons.

Waves

For a seal, the waves become all kinds of terrain. In line 2, the “waters that sparkled so green” in daylight stand in for the land that is more familiar to human children. The “combers” (Line 3) over which the moon watches take the place of tall trees or clouds in which the moon nestles from its position in the sky. Kipling places the reader in the seal’s perspective, at water level, looking up at the moon with the points of the curling waves against it. Trees and leaves do not “rustle” (Line 4); instead, the waves do, as they join together to create the “hollows” (Line 4) where the seals rest.

In the way that humans devise more than one term for the objects most important to them, the seal sings of more than one kind of wave, as line 5 brings “where billow meets billow.” Kipling uses the terms that sailors and seaside communities employ to designate the shapes and sizes of waves. The seal baby itself “curls” (Line 6) to rest, mirroring the shape of the waves that break around it.

The “Flipperling”

The term “flipperling” came into more common use after The Jungle Book, and Kipling’s poem “Seal Lullaby” marks the word’s first appearance in print. Kipling often uses real place names in the fantasy story “The White Seal;” it is possible the term “flipperling” might have been a word he heard from sailors or from local people who lived close to the sea. The construction of the word, with the -ling suffix and the “weary wee” (Line 6) preceding it, suggests a Scottish dialect.

As well, Scottish lore provides an antecedent for the connection between seals and human behavior in its selkie tales, in which certain seals, or “selkies,” can come ashore in human form. In these tales, selkies sometimes lure humans under the sea, separating humans from their communities. By invoking selkie lore and Scottish folk traditions at the beginning of this story, Kipling signals the reader that the seal colony lives with established traditions, shared language, and an acknowledged responsibility to one another.