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Sea Fever -- John Masefield

Borrowing a leaf from Thomas, I'll run a set of three sea poems this week,
beginning with what is doubtless the most famous of them all ...
(Poem #27) Sea Fever
I must go 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 go 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 go 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.
-- John Masefield
Another of those poems that everyone has probably read before, but no less
good for being famous. The simple but beautiful phrases need no commentary,
IMHO, so I'll merely note in passing that the first line is often written
without the 'go' - again, I merely picked the variant I liked better.

Biographical Note:

  MASEFIELD, John (1878-1967). Poet laureate of Great Britain from 1930
  until his death, John Masefield was only 22 years old when he wrote the
  simple and moving lines in his poem 'Sea Fever'. Masefield was born on
  June 1, 1878, in Ledbury, Herefordshire, England. After his father's death
  he was looked after by an uncle. Young Masefield wanted to be a merchant
  marine officer. At 13 he boarded the training ship Conway moored in the
  river Mersey. After two and a half years on the school ship he was
  apprenticed aboard a sailing ship that was bound for Chile by way of Cape
  Horn. In Chile he became ill and had to return to England by steamer. He
  left the sea and spent several years living in the United States, working
  chiefly in a carpet factory.
  [...]
  In 1897 he returned to England determined to succeed as a writer. He
  worked on newspapers at first. But he never forgot his days at sea. He
  returned to them again and again in his poems and stories. He wrote about
  the land too, about typically English things like fox hunting, racing, and
  outdoor life. In 1902 Masefield published his first volume of poems,
  'Salt-Water Ballads'. After that he wrote steadily poems, stories, and
  plays.
        -- Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia

Criticism:

The results of his wanderings showed in his early works, Salt-Water Ballads
(1902), Ballads (1903), frank and often crude poems of sailors written in
their own dialect, and A Mainsail Haul (1905), a collection of short
nautical stories. In these books Masefield possibly overemphasized passion
and brutality but, underneath the violence, he captured that highly-colored
realism which is the poetry of life.

It was not until he published The Everlasting Mercy (1911) that he became
famous. Followed quickly by those remarkable long narrative poems, The Widow
in the Bye Street (1912), Dauber (1912), and The Daffodil Fields (1913),
there is in all of these that peculiar blend of physical exulting and
spiritual exaltation that is so striking, and so typical of Masefield. Their
very rudeness is lifted to a plane of religious intensity. (See Preface.)
Pictorially, Masefield is even more forceful. The finest moment in The Widow
in the Bye Street is the portrayal of the mother alone in her cottage; the
public-house scene and the passage describing the birds following the plough
are the most intense touches in The Everlasting Mercy. Nothing more vigorous
and thrilling than the description of the storm at sea in Dauber[1] has
appeared in current literature.
        -- Untermeyer, Louis, ed. 1920. Modern British Poetry.

[1] Excerpt follows - it's too long a poem to run, but i'm glad of the
chance to quote a bit of it. Anyone interested can find the full text at
<[broken link] http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2012/poems/dauber00.html>

      How long the gale had blown he could not tell,
      Only the world had changed, his life had died.
      A moment now was everlasting hell.
      Nature an onslaught from the weather side,
      A withering rush of death, a frost that cried,
      Shrieked, till he withered at the heart; a hail
      Plastered his oilskins with an icy mail....

      "Up!" yelled the Bosun; "up and clear the wreck!"
      The Dauber followed where he led; below
      He caught one giddy glimpsing of the deck
      Filled with white water, as though heaped with snow.
      He saw the streamers of the rigging blow
      Straight out like pennons from the splintered mast,
      Then, all sense dimmed, all was an icy blast.

      Roaring from nether hell and filled with ice,
      Roaring and crashing on the jerking stage,
      An utter bridle given to utter vice,
      Limitless power mad with endless rage
      Withering the soul; a minute seemed an age.
      He clutched and hacked at ropes, at rags of sail,
      Thinking that comfort was a fairy tale,
          -- Masefield, from 'Dauber'

martin

102 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

T.P. Harvey said...

"Sea Fever"... should the first line read "I must GO down..."? Debatable.
Yes, if we consider the author's own audio recording of the poem to be our
guide, captured in sound with a number of his other works, when he was a
very elderly man; he died in 1967. I have a cassette copy of this recording;
at that great age, to my ear, Masefield sounds very like Gielgud did in his
late years. The "go" is unmissable. However, as a boy in England, I was
taught the version his publishers, Heinemann, originally printed in their
"Collected Works of John Masefield", which I also have; that version omits
the "go". But Masefield certainly recited it, in later years, with the "go"
included. I think the song setting by his contemporary, John Ireland, fixed
the line in the public imagination with the "go" included, [q.v.
[broken link] http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/m/masefield/fever.html].
I commend "The Wanderer" to anyone who likes his sea tales; it's a lusty,
absorbing narrative. I found "The Everlasting Mercy" to be highly
significant to the development of my own belief system, when I encountered
it first at age nineteen, but that was some time ago. It is still a
nostalgic read, evoking a long-gone rustic Englishness.
T. H. []

ADV.DAVE STEPHENS said...

The last line of Sea Fever--what does Masefield mean by '' the long trick's over" ?
Appreciate your help.
Dave Stephens

Mishka said...

Hullo!

Just came across your comment while doing a websearch on Masefield's 'Sea
Fever' poem. Don't know how recent it is or whether you've already received
answers, but in case not...

the "trick" he's referring to is a "trick at the helm". On tall ships, the
time one spends steering the ship is called a "trick" and they often lasted
two to four hours. At the end of that "long trick" one would definitely
need a good sleep.

Cheers,

Mishka

LKOONDEL said...

I also learned the poem Sea Fever when I was in grade school. We also left
out the word "GO".

LKOONDEL said...

I love this poem so much and have such great memories of Sea Fever---my
father was a fisherman and now I have a boat named "Sea Fever".

Chris Gosden said...

Hi! Enjoyed my visit to your page. My compliments on your care and dedication.
In a contributory vein, I feel I should draw your attention to a small (but significant) error, possibly a typo, in the first line. It should be 'the sea' (not 'the seas') - as is corroborated in the second line of the same stanza (first and second in your layout, that is - in the printed book original, it's all one and the same line.) Masefield reserves the plural form for the second and third stanzas.
Also, in the third stanza, there should be a hyphen in 'fellow-rover', if it is to mean a companion in roving, as Masefield clearly intended. Without the hyphen it means a fellow who was a rover. (At least, it does to a Brit. I am informed that American usage is coming more and more to dispense with hyphens in compound forms, with ensuing loss of clarity). What was Masefield's spelling, one wonders? US or Brit? Anybody know?)
I've tried in vain to find the text of 'Reynard the Fox' on the Net. Any tips?
Keep up the good work.

Roger Wickins said...

The training ship that Masefield went to, HMS Conway was closed by Margaret
Thatcher for budgetary reasons but the Times reported that it was closed as
it was "far too Spartan."

Old Conways include the manager of the English rugby team which is currently
have some success and William Haig the Leader of the British Conservative
Party who does not appear to be having any success.

When the Conway broke her back in the Menai Straits in the 1953 while being
towed for a refit to Liverpool she was the last floating wooden walled
fighting ship in the British Navy. Thus the last in 800 years of tradition.

Captain Mathew Webb, the first person to swim the English Channel was an Old
Conway.

Roger Wickins HMS Conway 1954 to 1956

Roger Wickins Consulting Pty Ltd

Mobile

Peter Hanson said...

in the last line of sea fever, "the long trick's over". Well, in sea terms a trick a trip or journey, in the poem it means the end of his life. hope this helps!

Surphertoo said...

When Masefield in the original text writes "down to the sea" instead of go
down to the sea,the expression "I must down..."could mean the same as cattle
lowing or humans bowing. Each word relates to the word down.
The first example relates to inherent behavior and the second relates to
respect.
Both examples relay the power the ocean had over Mr. Masefield.

Dennis Hutchison said...

Hello,

Just a little insight from a seaman, only my perspective, if I may.

QUOTE:

"and quiet sleep and sweet dreams
when the long trick is over"

I feel Mr. Masefield was eluding to the his own final journey in life.

"the long trick is over"

Thank You for your time,
Dennis

Ian Mann said...

I have a question too-- What does the "wheel's kick" mean? Thanks so much Ann

biec said...

Love this poem and thanks for the site. I am teaching this poem to my ESOL students and some of the explanations are just what I needed.

Keep up the great work. I think this will become one of my favourite sites.

Kind regards
Liz

Joanna M Debenham said...

I love this poem. I was first introduced to it in the setting by John
Ireland and hear that in my head as I read it. It is so evocative that
you can almost taste the salty air. I read it to my five year old son, and
although he doesn't know what all the words mean, he wanted me to
read it over and over again.

Joanna Debenham

martin rooyakkers said...

Sea Fever

It was one of my dad's favourites. While caring for dad during his last
week I had ample opportunity to study Sea Fever and mainy others. You
see dad had no use for T.V. but there were plenty of books to choose
from.

My father quoted the poem to me when I still had no idea that he was
ill. The poem and especially the last verse made a lot of sense when I
read it later. Dad and I loved to travel. So I did my best for "merry
yarn" for my laughing fellow rover. For Dad has found his "quiet sleep
and sweet dream" now that his "long trip is over".

Catherine Rooyakkers
In memory of my dad - John Dullard March 26, 1926 - January 22, 2006.

HobleyHeljon said...

A poem that encapsulates everything about someone who loves the sea.
Especially remembering a marine life at its end or near its end.
John Hobley

seshaw0206 said...

"Sea Fever" - I remember this poem from my school days,about the age of nine or ten.Only recently did it resurface [I had thought it was lost to me forever] when I saw a quote at a wind farm[!] and inspired me to resurrect it.It has such a powerful feel that one has to have such a feeling for the sea to truly grasp the imagery that Masefield himself must have felt at the time.
To have this poem back at my fingertips means such a lot to me.Thank you.
Marshall Willan,
227 William Street,
Northbridge,
Western Australia 6003
Australia

Mckinnon Ivan A said...

Hi, Have been familiar with this poem for a long time but it now really
lives after hearing it sung by the Eltham East Primary School choir.

Don't use the internet much. Great to come across such a great site.
Thankyou. Ivan.

p.s. EEPS choir will be making a recording soon. You should catch a
copy- beautiful.

SYLVIA SHARPLES said...

As far as I'm aware, as I was married to an 'ancient' mariner who passed away 14 years ago aged 78. He always referred to 'a trick at the wheel' i.e your time spent steering the vessel. So the rest is self-explanatory. Hope this helps. All the best.

Nancy Harper said...

Hello Dave,

The line before "trick's over" Masefield is talking about sleep. The trick he alludes to suggests the "trick" of being alive.

In "Ode to a Nightingale" (Keats) he, too, speaks of a "drowsy dullness" or lack of energy, as though of hemlock I had drunk." He is talking about the beauty of seeing the Nightingale in a tree. Both poets use metaphor or simile to express a feeling.

Hope this helps a bit.

Cheers!

Nancy

Lawrence J Kirkpatrick said...

Hi,

Sea Fever has been my favorite poem since I was a child. It became
more meaningful once I joined the Navy and spent the better part of 20
years at sea. I know all the meanings of all the things in the poem
and I treasure it.

I wrote a melody to the poem which I now sing as a folk singer. I am
curious to know what the other melody is like as I cannot access that
on myspace. Is there any info you can give me to find this song? I
think mine is very much a seaman's style, slow and respectful put
putting emphasis on the fact that once the sea gets in your blood you
cannot escape her call. I intend for my ashes to be scattered at sea
and someone recite the poem upon the scattering.

I would appreciate whatever help you can give me.

Larry Kirkpatrick, YN1, USN, Ret.

Jeneece Lake said...

Can you tell me the meter of Mansfields poem "I must go down to the sea"?
Thank you. Don Lake

Rob Nilla said...

I have a copy of one of one of the last interviews with John Masefield,conducted not long berfore his death.In it he clearly states that the 'go' was always in the poem,but was omitted accidently during editing for U.S publication. I was surprised to see that version, and thought it was a modern mistake, but it began a long time ago.I am Robert Masefield McCall, a Great-nephew. I never met the man, being only five when he died and living in N.Z, but I feel his legacy,having a great love for the sea,and words.

Rob Nilla said...

Re; Sea-Fever, i have a signed copy of the poem in front of me, my elderly mother may have the original, I will find out.The title is hyphenated, in the first line there is the 'go' and it is 'seas',not sea.In the final stanza there is a hyphen in the "fellow-rover" I saw that some-one thought the last stanza alluded to the poet pondering his last days, I doubt this though,as he wrote this when he was 22! More likely he was trying to express the feeling you get after a hard sail, I should know, it's been blowing 20 knots on the Hauraki Gulf today!So more a sense of tired exultation, and a beer with your ship-mates afterwards, and then the best kind of sleep.

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Anonymous said...

Someone asked about the 'wheel's kick'. When you're at the helm of a sailing ship, any change in the direction of the wind or current causes an immediate reaction at the rudder and you feel the kick as she reacts to the new conditions.

In heavy weather you are always fighting the helm, and a 2-4 hour turn at the helm is a long trick.

Cal Emmett said...

I never had the experience of tall ships he had; my time at sea was spent on aircraft carriers, and I loved it. I have since spent much time on cruise ships, but these tarted-up floating hotels are only the palest imitations of ships. The older I get--and that is now very old--the more I long for the ring of honest steel under my feet and the honest heave of a ship untrammeled by stabilizers.

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Bob said...

Re the last line, "the long trick's over", "your trick at the helm" or simply "your trick" is how the sailors would say it and still do in the Navy. I read this as a metaphor for life and death, ie looking forward to peace after the hardships and struggles of life are finished. In heavy weather a trick at the wheel of a sailing ship would be exhausting, with no power assistance two men would often be required. For a little more insight read Joseph Conrad's "The Nigger of The Narcissus", one of the best storm scenes in a sailing ship written.

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