The poem opens with a sudden cry, "Bleat!", then drops into a stark seascape: a white gull, the sweep of waves, a green sea. The images are sharp and a little cold, and the plant-like language of "stem," "petals," and "bloom" blurs the line between flower, bird, and water. Venus, the goddess of love, seems to be what the speaker is really looking at.
The speaker says "I have seen her" again and again, and the sightings move from the ocean, riding on a pearly shell in the spray of a ship's bow, to ordinary places like schools and stores. She appears across a whole lifetime, from youth to old age. Her hair and features are made of wind and sun, so she feels more like a presence than a person. She is also "blushing with deceit and eloquence," which suggests love is both charming and untrustworthy.
The mood is dreamy and restless, tinged with wonder and a touch of wariness. By the end, she wears gull wings, "white azaleas," and the opening bird has become a blossom.