Poem I Must Down to the Sea Again

Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" was yesterday's poem selection. Its master image is of sailing on the bounding main; its main theme is of dealing with decease. Today's poem choice could, of course, become either way. I considered John Donne's "Death Be Not Proud", some other of my favorite poems from teenage years. I quite accidentally memorized the offset ii lines all those years ago, and I have them still: "Death exist not proud, though some have called thee/mighty and dreadful, for 1000 art not then." Instead, I decided to get with something sea-related. And three poems came to heed at once, so here is the one that sang loudest to me this morning (mayhap because docstymie posted it just the other day):

Ocean-Fever

past John Masefield

I must downwardly to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I enquire is a tall send and a star to steer her past,
And the bike's kick and the current of air's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the ocean's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must downward to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a articulate phone call that may non be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the body of water-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again to the vagrant gypsy life.
To the dupe'due south way and the whale'southward way where the wind's like a whetted pocketknife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet slumber and a sweet dream when the long play tricks's* over.

*flim-flam: a plow at the ship'south bicycle

First up, the story. The primary reason I know and love this poem is that my maternal grandmother had memorized it as a school girl in the early on 1900s. She learned information technology in the form that it's printed here, as "I must downwards to the seas again", and because I learnt it that way too, I've put that version (which comes from the first printed edition of the poem) here. You should know that it's often printed equally "I must go downwardly to the bounding main again", and there's a recording of Masefield chanting his piece of work in which he quite clearly uses the discussion "become" throughout (Note - someone has "animated" a portrait of Masefield to accompany the text, which is mildly disturbing, but you lot can listen to Masefield'southward 1941 recitation of his poem this way). I have nevertheless kept with the version I associate with my grandmother. Simply so you know.

The verse form is written to be read or performed aloud, and information technology is essentially in a version of heptameter, which is to say that it uses accentual metre and has seven stressed syllables per line. Each line has a break (actual or implied) roughly in the middle, with four stressed syllables in the starting time part of the line, and iii in the second part. So, "I must DOWN to the SEAS once again,/ to the LONEly Sea and the Heaven//and ALL i Ask is a Alpine SHIP/ and a STAR to STEER her Past" gives you an idea what I'm on about, I think. I added a slash to show where the break (real or implied) falls mid-line, and the double slash is the bodily line break. Capitalized words get emphasis.

The lines do non fit into a specific, stock-still metre, instead mixing iambs and spondees and dactyls and all manner of other technically-named feet in order to attain a rolling sort of feel throughout the lines. In addition to the metre, the verse form is written in rhymed couplets (AABB CCDD EEFF), and it uses a lot of alliteration and assonance. For instance, look at the second and tertiary lines of the poem for the fashion he uses multiple types of alliteration within his lines: "And all I ask is a tall ship and the st ardue south to st eer her by/And the due west heel'due south gick and the w ind'south song and the w hite sail's shaking". (Lamentable if I confused you with so many italics - it'southward just that Masefield has deliberately echoed repeated sounds throughout his lines, and sometimes they come in a row, and sometimes they interlock.) He uses assonance (repetition of like vowel sounds) equally well. The use of alliteration and assonance is decidedly witting, and lends itself to memorization and recitation.

Read on a literal level, the poem is about a yearning for risk, or a form of wanderlust. The speaker wants to be on lath a ship, take his turn at the helm, and earn a good dark's sleep. On a metaphorical level, the verse form is often read to mean that the speaker wants to lead a meaningful life, in which case the terminal line ("And serenity sleep and a sweet dream when the long fob's over") is read as referring to death. I remember information technology non unfair to read information technology as a deliberate reference to Hamlet and his soliloquy in Act III, sc. 1, by the way ("to sleep: perchance to dream").

Masefield fix to ocean at the age of 15, and wrote quite a number of poems about sailors and the sea. "Sea-Fever" first appeared in print in 1902 in a collection entitled Salt-Water Ballads. He became Poet Laureate of England in 1930, and served in that position until his death in 1967. In 2005, "Sea-Fever" was selected every bit the favorite body of water poem in United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland by Magma magazine. Information technology was the winner by "a nautical mile."

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Source: https://kellyrfineman.livejournal.com/406114.html

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