curiouswombat: (Sailing)
[personal profile] curiouswombat
Today is National Poetry Day and the theme is water.

So have a couple of my mother's favourite poems, both by John Masefield. I can remember her being able to recite both off by heart when I was a child. She probably still can!

Cargoes


Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amythysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.



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.

Date: 03/10/2013 05:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cairistiona7.livejournal.com
I love that second one. *sigh*

Date: 03/10/2013 06:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
I think every school child of my mother's generation knew that second one off by heart - I think it is rather elvish. But Tolkien and Masefield were contemporaries so it is easy to see their ideas and words meshing well.

Date: 03/10/2013 06:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] petzipellepingo.livejournal.com
Very nice, especially the second one.

Date: 03/10/2013 06:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
It is such a famous poem - but the fame is well earned.

Date: 03/10/2013 06:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] heartofoshun.livejournal.com
Oh, my goodness. I love those both. I have a chapter for a story about Nerdanel being Betaed at this exact moment entitled "Sea Fever," which is introduced by the first lines of that poem.

Date: 03/10/2013 07:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
It fits Tolkien's world so very well, doesn't it? They were more or less contemporaries, of course.

Date: 03/10/2013 06:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] clodia-metelli.livejournal.com
I love those. The sort of poems where you really have to read it out loud, or at least mouth it, to get the rhythm right. So much more complicated than it looks on the page. And wonderfully Elvish!

Date: 03/10/2013 07:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Oh yes, they really are poems for reading out aloud. I really liked the rhythm and sounds of Cargoes as a child - still do.

And there is a real Elvish feel there.

Date: 03/10/2013 07:17 pm (UTC)
ext_93291: (pn)
From: [identity profile] spiced-wine.livejournal.com
I absolutely love Sea Fever. My nan used to recite it to me when I was young, until I could recite it myself. Beautiful!

Date: 03/10/2013 08:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Sometimes it's just really nice to be reminded of childhood favourites - and realise they were favourites for good reason.

Date: 03/10/2013 07:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zanthinegirl.livejournal.com
I've always loved the second one; my poetry-loving grandfather would recite it too. He's been gone for almost 20 years and you're making me miss him all over again!

Date: 03/10/2013 08:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
It seems to have good memories for a lot of people- I'm really glad I decided to post the two of them.

Date: 03/10/2013 08:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] azalaisdep.livejournal.com
Well, you'll remember from Powers that I love Sea Fever (though its effect on Legolas was rather unfortunate...)

I'd forgotten that Masefield also wrote that first one! I loved its rhythms and imagery as a child.

Date: 03/10/2013 08:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Ah, poor Legolas. Sea Fever has a really Elvish feeling of the sea-longing, doesn't it?

I loved the Quinquireme of Nineveh when I was younger, too, for those very reasons - it is just so good to read aloud.

Date: 03/10/2013 09:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chaotic-binky.livejournal.com
Nostalgia is running through me. We studied those poems in Junior school.

Date: 03/10/2013 09:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
They seem to have made a lot of us nostalgic - I'm really glad that I chose them to share.

Date: 03/10/2013 09:33 pm (UTC)
kathyh: (Default)
From: [personal profile] kathyh
I've always loved both of those. I think we used to sing the first one at school but I can't for the life of me remember the tune.

Date: 03/10/2013 09:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
I've never come across it sung - but it has such good rhythm that I can see it would work well.

Date: 03/10/2013 10:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] estelcontar1.livejournal.com
Lovely poems! Your mom has good taste.
Edited Date: 03/10/2013 10:14 pm (UTC)

Date: 04/10/2013 10:42 am (UTC)

Date: 03/10/2013 10:28 pm (UTC)
ext_47048: (Default)
From: [identity profile] jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com
I love John Masefield, especially those poems. Other favourite poets are Frost, Betjeman, Auden, Kipling, Yeats - but my favourite poem is
'High Flight' by John Gillespie Magee:


Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew;
And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space;
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Date: 03/10/2013 11:10 pm (UTC)
shirebound: (Default)
From: [personal profile] shirebound
Oh my goodness, how magnificent!

Date: 04/10/2013 10:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Oh, that one is lovely, and completely new to me - thank you.

Date: 03/10/2013 11:10 pm (UTC)
shirebound: (Default)
From: [personal profile] shirebound
"Sea Fever" always gives me chills, whether I hear it or read it. It's such a perfect poem.

Date: 04/10/2013 10:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
It's lovely, isn't it? I'm so glad it has given pleasure to so many of my friends by posting it.

Date: 04/10/2013 02:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sparrow2000.livejournal.com
Sea Fever has always been a favourite, but thank you for reminding me of Cargoes. It was such a favourite of mine at school - I always loved the rhythm and I could recite the whole thing - so I'm horrified that somehow I'd forgotten about it until now. I definitely won't forget it again.

Date: 04/10/2013 10:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
It's the rhythm of Cargoes especially, isn't it? It cries out to be read aloud. I'm so pleased that I posted these as so many people have said 'Oh... I remember...'

Date: 04/10/2013 03:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lady-branwyn.livejournal.com
Thank you for posting a couple of old friends. :)

Date: 04/10/2013 10:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
It is my pleasure. It's so nice to know how many people were glad to see these.

Date: 04/10/2013 04:17 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Not so sure of the first one, though it does seem familiar, Sea Fever I remember from school.

One of our local T.V. stations used to use a recitation of High Flight to end the broadcast day. I think I have it on a book mark somewhere.

All are a little evocative.

Huggs,
Lynda

Date: 04/10/2013 10:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
They really are evocative poems, aren't they? The first one, with the dirty British coaster with the salt-caked smoke stack, is so clearly a poem of the early 20th century.

We still have a lot of coasters - but they are mainly quite clean, and rarely have smoke stacks these days! Apart from which they no longer load coal on the Tyne, so sad in some ways.

Date: 05/10/2013 12:41 pm (UTC)
hhimring: Estel, inscription by D. Salo (Default)
From: [personal profile] hhimring
Thank you!
I would have liked to post something for National Poetry Day as well, but it happened to be not quite that sort of day.
These are lovely.
The first one reminded me of this:



BUNCHES OF GRAPES

by Walter de la Mare


'Bunches of grapes,' says Timothy;

'Pomegranates pink,' says Elaine;

'A junket of cream and a cranberry tart

For me,' says Jane.


'Love-in-a-mist,' says Timothy;

'Primroses pale,' says Elaine;

'A nosegay of pinks and mignonette

For me,' says Jane.


'Chariots of gold,' says Timothy;

'Silvery wings,' says Elaine;

'A bumpity ride in a wagon of hay

For me,' says Jane.

Date: 06/10/2013 09:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
I didn't know that one - thank you! I really rather like it. and yes - it does have the same feel as Cargoes.

Date: 05/10/2013 11:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] myrhiann.livejournal.com
I knew both of those poems well during my school years, and Les has always been enamoured of 'Sea Fever' because he suffers from it himself. I loved both of them, but my imagination was captured by the ships returning from faraway places with exotic cargoes.

I had never come across"High Flight' before, and it is an outstanding evocation of flight.

Date: 06/10/2013 09:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
I loved the sound of a 'Quinquireme of Nineveh' eve before I had any idea what one was.

And I was really pleased that Jay added High Flight - it was new to me, too, and goes so well with the original two.

Date: 06/10/2013 10:01 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Just wondered if a lot of people had not been aware of High Flight because it was written by an American who was not as well know as Masefield?

Just checked Wikipedia and learned that he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force before America entered the 2nd world War, he was killed in a mid air collision over Lincolnshire.

Lynda

Date: 06/10/2013 10:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
I'm sure you are right - he would not even have written it when my mother was at school, whereas Masefield was the Poet Laureate when she was learning poetry.

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