This Les Silhouettes summary begins by a stormy bay. The French title means “The Silhouettes,” and in twelve lines Oscar Wilde sketches a seaside evening of grey sea, black boat and dark figures against the sky, like a painting made almost entirely of outlines. Read the full text of Les Silhouettes on Poetry Catalog.
Les Silhouettes Summary
Stanza 1: the storm. “The sea is flecked with bars of grey, / The dull dead wind is out of tune.” The moon is blown “like a withered leaf” across “the stormy bay.” The scene is gloomy and unsettled.
Stanza 2: the boy. “Etched clear upon the pallid sand / Lies the black boat.” A sailor boy climbs aboard “in careless joy / With laughing face and gleaming hand.” Suddenly there is life and brightness in the grey.
Stanza 3: the reapers. Curlews cry overhead. In the upland grass, “The young brown-throated reapers pass, / Like silhouettes against the sky.”
Key Facts
- Poet: Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
- Published: Poems (1881), in the group “Impressions”
- Setting: a bay at dusk, with fields above
- Form: three quatrains in iambic tetrameter, rhyming ABBA
- Influence: Impressionist and Whistler-style painting
- Tone: moody, then lightly hopeful
Themes
Light and dark. The poem is built from contrasts: grey sea, pale sand, black boat, gleaming hand, figures dark against the sky.
Youth. Both human figures are young: the “sailor boy” and the “young brown-throated reapers.” Their energy pushes back against the “dull dead” weather.
Work and nature. Sailors and reapers belong to sea and land. People fit into the landscape like shapes in a picture.
The moment. Nothing happens except what is seen. The poem captures an impression, then stops.
Key Lines Explained
The dull dead wind is out of tune,
The wind is treated like music gone wrong. The heavy “d” sounds make it drag.
And like a withered leaf the moon
Is blown across the stormy bay.
A surprising simile: the moon, usually steady, becomes light and helpless.
Etched clear upon the pallid sand
“Etched” is an artist’s word. Wilde sees the scene as a print or drawing.
Like silhouettes against the sky.
The title line comes last. Everything in the poem turns into outline.
Form, Meter and Rhyme
Three quatrains in iambic tetrameter, rhyming ABBA, the same frame-like pattern Wilde uses in Symphony in Yellow and Impression du Matin. Each stanza is one picture: sea, shore, field.
Les Silhouettes FAQ
What does Les Silhouettes mean?
French for “The Silhouettes,” dark shapes seen against light.
What is the poem about?
A stormy evening by the sea, with a sailor boy and reapers seen as outlines.
What is the mood?
Gloomy at first, then lifted by the cheerful young figures.
Which poems are similar?
Wilde’s Symphony in Yellow and Impression du Matin, which also paint scenes in color and outline.