The poem begins as a celebration of sunrise over the ocean. The speaker watches clouds catch the light, stars linger overhead, and the night open like a pair of doors. In the second stanza the sun becomes a painter who wakes up and gets to work, turning black water blue and touching the foam with red. The third stanza brings in a human figure: a tattooed sailor singing in the ropes of the ship, his hat tilted, greeting the day while thinking of home and bed.
That last detail prepares for the twist. After all the beauty, the closing three lines break into a plea. The speaker asks to be taken away from the dawn and the sea, to a meadow where he can be "set free." The mood shifts from admiring and bright to homesick and restless. The poem suggests that even a gorgeous view cannot replace the place where the heart belongs.