Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Sea-Fever

Sea-Fever

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not 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 sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

By John Masefield (1878-1967).
(English Poet Laureate, 1930-1967.)

3 comments:

Carol Anne said...

My edition of Masefield starts each stanza "I must go down to the seas again" and uses the British spelling "gray" in the last line of the first verse.

But this is one of my favorite poems, and I especially love the way Masefield uses rhythm, not sticking to iambs the way so many poets do, but making great use of the spondee to imitate the surging of the waves.

Masefield regretted the end of the age of sail, and much of his work shows that sadness for a passing era.

Tim Coleman said...

I must go down to th e sea again
to the lonely sea and sky
I lefct my vest and socks there
I wonder if thet're dry?

http://isailrace.com said...

iSailRace offers event

online result for sail race

regatta scoring with real-

time analytics specially

designed for sailors by

sailors worldwide.



Event organizers looking for

sail race event regatta

scoring with real-time

analytics online result

anywhere in the world?

Signup now at

http://isailrace.com for

free!



iSailRace is a free web

based application designed

to make the results from

sailing races more

accessible. We do this by

making the setup and scoring

of the event easier for the

organizer, allowing them to

get off the water and score

the even faster than ever

before. Combined with a

login for each sailor,

providing a profile with

links to all the events they

have raced in. All this

within one website...for

FREE.


iSailRace was built by

sailors, for sailors. We are

the kind of sailors who

spend the "drifters" in-

front of a computer screen

writing code. We were tired

of waiting for our results,

and then trying to decipher

trends in our sailing

performance. We love

sailing, we love software,

and we thought others would

enjoy seeing what we've

built. So go ahead, enjoy!