Token of all brave captains and all intrepid sailors and mates, And all that went down doing their duty, Reminiscent of them, twined from all intrepid captains young or old, A pennant universal, subtly waving all time, o'er all brave sailors, All seas, all ships. Walt Whitman [1819-1892] STANZAS From The Triumph of Time" I WILL go back to the great sweet mother,— I will go down to her, I and none other, Close with her, kiss her, and mix her with me; O fair green-girdled mother of mine, Sea, that art clothed with the sun and the rain, Thy large embraces are keen like pain. I shall sleep, and move with the moving ships, I shall rise with thy rising, with thee subside; With splendid summer and perfume and pride. Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form Calm or convulsed,-in breeze, or gale, or storm, Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made; each zone Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy And trusted to thy billows far and near, And laid my hand upon thy mane, as I do here. George Gordon Byron [1788-1824] ON THE SEA It keeps eternal whisperings around Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell Gluts twice ten thousand caverns, till the spell Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound. Often 'tis in such gentle temper found, That scarcely will the very smallest shell Be moved for days from whence it sometime fell, When last the winds of heaven were unbound. Oh ye! who have your eye-balls vexed and tired, Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea; Oh ye! whose ears are dinned with uproar rude, Or fed too much with cloying melody, Sit ye near some old cavern's mouth, and brood Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quired! John Keats [1795-1821] A Song of Desire 1589 "WITH SHIPS THE SEA WAS SPRINKLED" WITH Ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh, Some veering up and down, one knew not why. Come like a giant from a haven broad; This ship was naught to me, nor I to her, This ship to all the rest did I prefer: When will she turn, and whither? She will brook A SONG OF DESIRE THOU dreamer with the million moods, Of restless heart like me, Lay thy white hands against my breast O wanderer of the unseen paths, Blow hither, from thy caves of blue, O treader of the fiery way, With passionate heart like mine, O countless watchers of the night, O sea, O sun, O' wind and stars, Feed my starved lips with life, with love, Frederic Lawrence Knowles [1869-1905] THE PINES AND THE SEA BEYOND the low marsh-meadows and the beach, And waves and pines make answer, each to each. O melancholy soul, whom far and near, In life, faith, hope, the same sad undertone Pursues from thought to thought! thou needs must hear An old refrain, too much, too long thine own: 'Tis thy mortality infects thine ear; The mournful strain was in thyself alone. Christopher Pearse Cranch [1813-1892] 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 gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking. I must go down to the scas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; Hastings Mill 1591 I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gipsy 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 [1874 HASTINGS MILL As I went down by Hastings Mill I lingered in my going To smell the smell of piled-up deals and feel the salt wind blowing, To hear the cables fret and creak and the ropes stir and sigh (Shipmate, my shipmate!) as in days gone by. As I went down by Hastings Mill I saw a ship there lying, As I went down by Hastings Mill I saw while I stood dreaming The flicker of her riding light along the ripples streaming, The bollards where we made her fast and the berth where she did lie (Shipmate, my shipmate!) in the days gone by. As I went down by Hastings Mill I heard a fellow singing, Chipping off the deep sea rust above the tide a-swinging, And well I knew the queer old tune and well the song he sung (Shipmate, my shipmate!) when the world was young. And past the rowdy Union Wharf, and by the still tide sleeping, To a randy dandy deep sea tune my heart in time was keep ing, To the thin far sound of a shadowy watch a-hauling, And the voice of one I knew across the high tide calling (Shipmate, my shipmate!) and the late dusk falling! Cecily Fox-Smith (1882 |