Laura's poem puts us inside the experience of being swallowed by the sea. The water is treated like a living animal: it is hungry, its mouth is open, and it seems to call the speaker by name. Sand, wind and rain batter her on the shore, while the rocks look on calmly, untroubled by her struggle.
Then the sea takes over. A glimpse of sky vanishes almost at once, and the wave becomes a strange mix of beauty and threat, "ice blue and valley green" like a painting, but with a foaming mouth like a lace doily. As the speaker is pulled under, the poem moves from fear to something closer to surrender. The salt water becomes part of her, and her breath freezes inside her.
The mood is frightening but also oddly tender. The ending turns to someone she loves, asking not to be forgotten, and suggesting that if she is, it will be because they are together. The drowning may be literal, or it may stand for being overwhelmed by loss or grief.