Water as an imaginative source environment / Beyond the sea

Lately, my days revolved restlessly around the ocean from a dozen directions.Ever since starting the Sea and Society master’s programme, water has become both a subject and a source of curiosity for me, at the heart of everything I write for Strange Seas Magazine. Each time I sit down to write new content, I stumble across another description, another feeling, another old-world symbolism about water’s versatility and ancient resonance echo through storytelling from Greek myth to the Ganges in India, from Native American visions to Egyptian dreams of renewal and purification.

When I first glimpsed at a course in my studies titled “Water as an Imaginative Source,” I pictured analogies of flow, vastness, the ever changing tide. But I hadn’t imagined searching for water’s presence in Shakespeare’s scenes or diving deep with Jules Verne’s twenty thousand leagues. The course opened up new waters, leading me to explore symbolisms and depictions, to wade into water’s layered and shifting meanings, and to wonder at its enduring role in the stories we tell ourselves and each other.

You might recall some Shakespeare lines you read in school now searching for water related ones? 

Shakespeare’s works are saturated with water, not just as setting, but as a living imaginative source that shapes emotion, fate, and transformation in his worlds. “His literary and theatrical career shows deep fascination with the sea and maritime culture“, as Steven Mentz describes. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet’s love is unlimited, like the vast ocean, and giving love doesn’t reduce it but makes it even stronger.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

(Rom., II.ii.133–5)

In King Lear, Edgar leads his blind father Gloucester to the cliffs of Dover, but it’s only an illusion, they stand on solid ground. Edgar’s vivid description of the cliff’s height, the distant sea, and tiny ships creates a powerful image that reflects Gloucester’s despair. This speech uses water as a vast, overwhelming force that makes human troubles seem small, marking a boundary between safety and the unknown. The image mirrors the play’s themes of confusion and loss. For Lear, water symbolizes not only renewal but also the vastness and fragility of human understanding.

“Come on, sir, here’s the place. Stand still: how fearful
And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low.
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles. Half-way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade;
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
Diminish’d to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,
That on the unnumber’d idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more,
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.”

(King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6)

As the last glimpse Shakespeare uses water in The Tempest as an imaginative source of magic, transformation, and mystery. Ariel’s song leads Ferdinand over “yellow sands” and through the “wild waves,” creating a mystical, otherworldly atmosphere where the sea is alive with sprites and spirits. The famous “Full fathom five” verse imagines Ferdinand’s drowned father transformed underwater into coral and pearls, symbolizing death’s strange beauty and change. This “sea change” shows water as a site of metamorphosis and renewal, both eerie and enchanting, guiding characters through loss toward something new and “rich and strange.” Water here can be seen as a bridge between worlds and states of being.

ARIEL [Sings.]:
Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands.
Curtsied when you have and kissed, The wild waves whist,
Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
Hark, hark!
Burden, dispersedly.
Bow-wow.
The watchdogs bark.
Burden, dispersedly.
Bow-wow.
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry cock-a-diddle-dow.

FERDINAND
Where should this music be? I’ th’ air or th’ earth?
It sounds no more; and sure it waits upon Some god o’ th’ island. Sitting on a bank, Weeping again the king my father’s wrack, This music crept by me upon the waters, Allaying both their fury and my passion With its sweet air. Thence I have followed it,

ARIEL [Sings.]
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Burden.
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them – Ding-dong bell.

FERDINAND
The ditty does remember my drowned father.This is no mortal business, nor no sound That the earth owes. I hear it now above me.

(The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2, lines 150–198)

As Steven Mentz puts it “Shakespeare explores the intimate physical and conceptual overlap between water and life. His writing imagines salt water as lure and threat, tragic instability and redemptive power.“ During the Renaissance and early modern period, many others used water as a powerful symbol. Female Renaissance authors such as Mary Sidney and Lady Mary Wroth often use water as a metaphor for creative inspiration and renewal. Mary Sidney’s poetic adaptations often use water as a metaphor for creative inspiration and renewal, echoing Shakespeare’s use of water to signify emotional depth and spiritual flux.Lady Mary Wroth’s writings invoke water imagery to express feminine desire and emotional longing, enriching the Renaissance discourse on water as both a life-giving and destabilizing force.

“Lost, shipwrackt, spoyl’d, debar’d of smallest hope,
Nothing of pleasure left; save thoughts have scope,
Which wander may…”

(Lady Mary Wroth, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, Sonnet 68)

From the 16th to the 19th century, metaphors of water evolved significantly, shifting from primarily emotional and symbolic uses such as love’s dualism, life-giving nourishment, and destructive forces to embrace a more expansive, magical, and scientific understanding of water’s vastness. By the 19th century the rise of scientific inquiry, water metaphors began to capture the ocean’s immensity, mystery, and material presence. 

Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea transforms water symbolism into a blend of wonder, science, and adventure. The vast ocean is no longer a mysterious or emotional space but a frontier for human exploration. Through Captain Nemo’s submarine Nautilus, the sea becomes both a challenge and a realm to be mastered, reflecting 19th-century curiosity about nature’s immensity and mankind’s drive to understand and control it.

“So let me tell you that you will not regret the time spent on board my vessel. You are going to travel through a wonderland. Astonishment and stupefaction will probably be your normal state of mind. You will not easily become blasé about the sights continually offered to your eyes. I am going to embark on a new underwater tour of the world—who knows, perhaps the last?—and revisit everything I have studied on my many travels; and you will be my study companion. Starting today, you will enter a new element, you will see what no man has ever seen before (for my men and I no longer count); and our planet, through my efforts, will deliver up its last secrets.”

(Part 1, Chapter 10)

Complementing Verne’s adventurous spirit is Amelia Edwards, whose travel writings like A Thousand Miles up the Nile celebrate rivers not only as natural wonders but as threads weaving history, culture, and life. Edwards’ poetic yet scientific descriptions bring a female perspective to water as a dynamic force of continuity and discovery.

Together, their works mark a shift from Renaissance water metaphors of emotional flux when water became both a site of curiosity and scientific study, and increasingly a separate domain from human experience to water as a tangible, imaginative source where science, culture, and creativity converge.

I acknowledge the Eurocentric focus of this article, it is important to recognize the rich diversity of water symbolism in literature worldwide. Future research can explore how non-European cultures engage with water as a source of imagination. Additionally, this exploration must remain conscious of water as a vital resource that many communities still lack equitable access to, underscoring the imperative of recognizing water not only as a symbolic and imaginative force but also as an essential right and communal good.

Resources:

Mentz, Steven. (2019). Shakespeare and the Blue Humanities. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 59(2), 383–392.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595), The Tempest (c. 1610), King Lear (c. 1605). Exploration of water symbolism in love, transformation, and fate.

Sidney, Mary. Sidney Psalms. (16th century). Adaptation and analysis in Renaissance poetry scholarship.

Wroth, Lady Mary. Pamphilia to Amphilanthus. (1621). Sonnet sequence exploring water metaphors in Renaissance literature.

Verne, Jules. (1870). Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Exploration of oceanic water symbolism in 19th-century science fiction.

Edwards, Amelia. (1877). A Thousand Miles up the Nile. Travel narrative blending poetic and scientific depictions of rivers.