A sandpiper is a bird native to American (both North and South) beaches. It feeds by running down the beach when the waves recede and picking out the filter-feeding shells and crabs that live there. It then flees from the waves to avoid getting its feathers wet, which would prevent it from flying to escape predators. This back-and-forth sprint up and down the beach is the subject of the poem. Bishop uses a third-person speaker and refers to the sandpiper using the pronoun “he.”

In the first stanza, the speaker establishes the relationship between the Atlantic Ocean and the sandpiper. The ocean is a vast force that the bird experiences through the senses of sound and touch. While the ocean roars and shakes the ground, the sandpiper takes its powerful presence “for granted” (Line 1). The Atlantic is familiar.

This familiarity is juxtaposed (placed alongside) with the bird’s frantic actions. He runs, and the speaker repeats the word “run” twice in Line 3 to emphasize the speedy action of the bird’s feet. In addition to several adjectives describing how he runs, the speaker includes an allusion, or reference, to William Blake. The bird is “a student of Blake” (Line 4).