Despite this being Vaughan Williams’ first symphony, it is nonetheless on an epic scale, with soprano and baritone soloists and a full chorus.

Vaughan Williams began work on it when he was 31, and conducted the première on his 38th birthday. Such was its success that Vaughan Williams, on the strength of this piece, became hailed as the leading figure in the post-Elgar generation.

The work contains settings of the poems of Walt Whitman, and encompasses a huge range of musical experiences, from the visionary full chorus opening through the buoyant and virtuosic description of the wind and the waves to the mystical baritone solo of the nocturne.

This symphony  is not only descriptive of the sea in its many forms but also uses the sea as "a metaphor for a voyage into eternity".