The speaker is someone (maybe a former sailor or a reaper) who observes nature in action – the stormy sea and the evening sky. He is lonely and in old age as he has time for himself and out of all images he specially marks careless joy of a sailor boy (stanza 2) and silhouettes of the young brown-throated reapers (stanza 3). As we read along we can tell he is talking to anyone who might appreciate this contrast of depressive weather with lively joy of youth enjoying it.

The specific details of the poem clearly indicate exact time – late evening ( "the moon is blown across the stormy bay) and place (the seashore of the stormy bay). He could be watching the sea, the sky, the boat and the boy, the reapers from some spot nearby where he sees how "the sea is flecked with bars of grey", he hears how "the dull wind" blows "out of tune and "the curlews cry"", he can observe a sailor boy clambering aboard "the black boat" and the young brown-throated reapers" passing by like "silhouettes against the sky".

The purpose of the poem might be to communicate the idea that even the darkest moments in our life will pass "like silhouettes against the sky", and they can be turned into joyful happy events similarly to the way how clambering aboard the black boat by the stormy wild sea can bring careless joy and happiness to the boy in the poem. Hope and optimism will help survive even when life if full of hardships and difficulties – like the life of reapers. One more idea is that the best remedy for loneliness is the company of other people and the healing power of nature – even being stormy and grey.

Oscar Wilde creates an impressionistic sketch of a stormy bay with the sea in grey and gloomy colours accompanied by the music of a dead dull wind. The image of the flowing moon across the stormy sky adds to the feeling of loneliness and creates the depressive mood in stanza 1. But this picture changes with the appearance of the sailor boy who immensely enjoys the storm and turns it into an object of careless joy. The silhouettes of the reapers going back home after a hard day at work balance the mood by bringing the idea of reapers as c continuum of nature itself.

The language of “Les Silhouettes” is expressive and effective, it is not simple. The French word in its title obviously invites the reader to look for some connections with French art. The choice of verbs is limited; and they (in their corresponding forms) are of Anglo-Saxon origin mostly of one syllable, and they describe the sea and the boy and the reapers – fleck, blow, etch, clamber, cry, pass. The use of adjectives is more excessive - dull, withered, stormy, pallid, black, careless, laughing, gleaming, dusky, upland, young, brown-throated - and more important for the creation of the contrastive image of the threatening storm and the careless joy of the boy and the power and beauty of hard-working reapers. The most effective for the description of nature words are – the dull dead wind; a withered leaf ; the pallid sand, dusky grass; and for the description of the people – careless joy, laughing face, gleaming hand, brown-throated.

Colour: grey, pallid, black, gleaming, dusky, brown-throated
Sound: out of tune, blown across, stormy, laughing, cry, pass
Visual: flecked, withered, etched clear upon, silhouettes

The poem is rich in figurative language.
Similes: like a withered leaf; Like silhouettes against the sky.
Metaphors: the sea is flecked with bars of grey; etched clear upon;
Personification: dull dead wind is out of tune; curfew cry
Epithets: dull dead, stormy, withered, pallid, careless, laughing, gleaming, dusky, brown-throated (metonymic)

Oscar Wilde uses alliteration and consonance with voice consonants "d" and "b" to create the dull but powerful, dominating and beating image of the storm; and he uses voiceless consonants "c" and "s" for crying and carelessly enjoying life images of the boy, birds and reapers.

Consonance/ alliteration:

The dull dead wind is out of tune,

The black boat lies: a sailor boy

Clambers aboard in careless joy

And overhead the curlews cry,

Like silhouettes against the sky.

There are several significant details which suggest the reference to French impressionistic poetry. The title of the poem "Les silhouettes" is a French word; the poem describes a stormy bay with an excessive use of epithets but it lacks a detailed description – instead, it offers sketches and glimpses of the scene. The poem is like a painting by a French impressionistic artist: the image is like a silhouette.