“Arrival at Santos” is an interior monologue in which the speaker embodies the experience of arriving in a new, foreign place. The poem captures the mental and physical discomfort of traveling, including the long “suspension” (Line 12) of spending time at sea, and the bureaucratic, unexpected annoyances of going through customs and ports, as well as the psychic challenges of encountering a place one does not know. Above all it is about thwarted expectations, and the disappointment that comes when one pins too high hopes on an external experience. The poem draws attention to this tension by vacillating between the speaker’s outer experience and inner monologue, mimicking the way outer experience influences inner thought and the way a person’s mood or personality impacts the way they see a landscape.

As the poem begins, the speaker seems briefly neutral about seeing the coast of Brazil. “Here is a coast; here is a harbor.” (Line 1) The speaker tells the reader where they are without comment. The second line offers some description of the past eighteen days at sea, where the speaker says they had nothing but a “a meager / diet of horizon” (Lines 2-3), rather than a feast for the eyes.