What is the central theme of the poem?

Explanation

The speaker reaches out to a distant, absent beloved.

Note: Passage I is a love poem in the manner of Neruda's 'Leaning into the afternoons' (Twenty Love Poems, no. 7), which is copyrighted and not reproduced. In the afternoons the speaker casts his sad nets toward the beloved's 'oceanic eyes'. His solitude 'stretches and flares' like a drowning man's, and he sends out red signals over her 'absent eyes' that move like the sea near a lighthouse. Night comes on with its stars and dread.