Just like bank in "bank of the river", I want a word for an ocean's bank. I don't like "bank of the ocean" -- so is there any better word?
I am writing a literary essay -- and in that article, by "bank of the ocean", I mean happiness compared to an ocean of sorrows and misery.
It's not idiomatic to say the "bank of an ocean", only of a river or stream, but the word is used to describe one aspect of the ocean: "a broad elevation of the sea floor around which the water is relatively shallow but not a hazard to surface navigation." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bank
Thesaurus.com says, for example: http://thesaurus.com/browse/strand?s=b "strand "noun "Definition: sandy area by body of water "Synonyms: bank, coast, lakeshore, lakeside, littoral, margin, oceanfront, seaboard, seafront, seashore, seaside, shingle, shore, strand , waterfront"
Besides shore, shoreline, beach, coast as mentioned in comments, plage is often used, and I have sometimes seen margin for land along a coastline. More specific terms like landfall, bayside, or shallows might work too (the latter for ocean near a shore).
In addition to the shore, beach and coast related suggestions, the term strand is sometimes used, but it is not very common in US usage. Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines it as
the shore of a sea, lake, or large river
The term banks is used to refer to certain sections of ocean that are actually shallow water, such as the Grand Banks and the Georges Banks.
If you are interested in shallow water areas of ocean near the shore, the term shoals might be of interest. Collins defines it as
1.a stretch of shallow water
2.a sandbank or rocky area in a stretch of water, esp one that is visible at low water
Beach, shore, shoreline, coast, coastline, embankment, etc., depending on its context and appearance.
In Daffodils, Wordsworth said...
along the margin of a bay
