The poem is a short address to the sea, and what stands out is how the speaker names it. It starts warmly, with "my old friend" and "my old acquaintance," as if the sea were someone known for years. Then comes "my strange table," an odd and surprising phrase. A table is flat, familiar and domestic, and the image suggests the sea's wide surface laid out in front of the speaker. It is also something ordinary that has suddenly turned unfamiliar.
The last line shifts the mood: the sea "is white as ice." Nothing else in the poem is so cold or so blank. The title, "Fear of a white planet," suggests the speaker feels uneasy, as if the familiar world is becoming frozen and empty. The poem seems to move from closeness to distance. The speaker still calls the sea a friend, but the sea no longer looks like one. The mood is quiet, uncertain and slightly chilling, and the short lines leave the reader staring at that white surface.