The Ocean By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Charles W. Morgan, last of the American whaling fleet

I must go down to the seas once more, to the lonely sea and the sky
And all I ask is a tall send and a star to steer her past;
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white canvass's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's confront, and a gray dawn breaking.

That is the kickoff verse of a poem called "Sea-Fever" by John Masefield (1878-1967), who started his working life as a common crewman and ended upwardly as Poet Laureate of England. (See video below for performance)

Seas and ships and sailors have e'er held a fascination for poets like Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Alfred, Lord Tennyson so many others attracted to the mystery and majesty of ocean life.

They recognized that the body of water can be devastatingly savage, even when its almost violent storms are given lovely feminine names; it can be picturesque and playful, as musicalized by Debussy in "La Mer;"' it tin be noble and patriotic as in "Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves," or the Lincoln-era song that refers to America as "Columbia the Jewel of the Ocean." In a higher place all, the sea is e'er inspirational and can call forth poetry like this moving verse from Walt Whitman:

Now finalè to the shore,
Now land and life finalè and cheerio,
Now Voyager depart, (much, much for thee is nonetheless in store,)
Often enough hast thou adventur'd o'er the seas,
Charily cruising, studying the charts,
Duly again to port and hawser's necktie returning;
Merely now obey thy cherish'd secret wish,
Cover thy friends, get out all in order,
To port and hawser's tie no more returning,
Depart upon thy endless cruise former Crewman.

Even poets presumed to exist land-lubbers accept been attracted to the mystery and beauty of the sea. Nathaniel Hawthorne of "The Scarlet Letter of the alphabet" fame, was a long-fourth dimension resident of the Berkshires. But he was born in Salem, Mass., where his father was a body of water-captain. Hawthorne did not write many significant poems, but his "The Sea" is darkly comforting.

The Ocean has its silent caves,
Deep, repose, and alone;
Though there exist fury on the waves,
Below them there is none.

The awful spirits of the deep
Hold their communion there;
And there are those for whom nosotros weep,
The immature, the vivid, the fair.

Calmly the exhausted seamen rest
Below their own blue bounding main.
The ocean solitudes are blest,
For in that location is purity.

The earth has guilt, the earth has care,
Unquiet are its graves;
But peaceful sleep is ever there,
Beneath the dark blueish waves.

Incidentally, Herman Melville dedicated "Moby Dick" to Hawthorne.

* * *

Descriptions of the sea and its voyagers accept played a conspicuous role since the earliest days of poetry. Here is an impressive shipwreck passage from Homer'south "Odyssey" written around 700 B.C. The translation from ancient Greek is by Alexander Pope.

A mighty wave rush'd o'er him every bit he spoke,
The raft is cover'd, and the mast is broke;
Swept from the deck and from the rudder torn,
Far on the swelling surge the chief was borne;
While by the howling tempest hire in twain
Flew sheet and sail-yards rattling o'er the main.

While thus his thoughts an anxious council hold,
The raging god a watery mountain roll'd;
Like a black sail the whelming billows spread,
Burst o'er the float, and thunder'd on his head.
Planks, beams, disparted fly; the scatter'd wood
Rolls diverse, and in fragments strews the flood.

* * *

The first great verse form in English literature (actually Former English language) is "Beowulf" from effectually the 8th century A.D.  Information technology is also a noteworthy body of water verse form, in this instance describing Beowulf'south calm sea and prosperous voyage back to his Geats (early Swede) homeland after slaying the monster Grendel. The translation and modern English version was composed by Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), the Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet.

And then the broad hull was beached on the sand
To be cargoed with treasure, horses and war-gear.
The curved prow motioned; the mast stood high
Above Hrothgar'south riches in the loaded agree.
The guard who had watched the boat was given
A sword with aureate fittings and in futurity days
That present would brand him a respected man
At his identify on the mead-bench.
Then the keel plunged

And shook in the ocean; and they sailed from Kingdom of denmark.
Right away the mast was rigged with its sea-shawl;
Sail ropes were tightened, timbers drummed
And strong winds kept the wave-crosser
Skimming ahead; as she heaved forward,
Her foamy neck was fleet and buoyant,
A lapped prow loping over currents,
Until finally the Geats defenseless sight of coastline
And familiar cliffs. The keel reared up,
Wind lifted it home, information technology hit on the land.

The only existing manuscript of Beowulf. The British Library

Sometimes the bounding main has been personified and used as a metaphor . . . never more strikingly than in this intriguing poem by Emily Dickinson where the sea personifies a lover and suggests a sexual awakening.

I started Early on – Took my Dog –
And visited the Sea –
The Mermaids in the Basement
Came out to wait at me –

And Frigates – in the Upper Floor
Extended Hempen Hands –
Presuming Me to be a Mouse –
Aground – opon the Sands –

Just no Man moved Me – till the Tide
Went past my unproblematic Shoe –
And by my Frock – and my Chugalug
And past my Boddice – too –

And made as He would consume me up –
Every bit wholly every bit a Dew
Opon a Dandelion's Sleeve –
And so – I started – besides –

And He – He followed – close behind –
I felt His Silverish Heel
Opon my Ancle – Then My Shoes
Would overflow with Pearl –

Until We met the Solid Boondocks –
No One He seemed to know –
And bowing – with a Mighty wait –
At me – The Ocean withdrew –

* * *

It might be surprising to speak of the maritime poetry of T.Due south. Eliot, but in the third of his "Four Quartets," he wrote remarkably about the sounds of the sea.

The sea has many voices,
Many gods and many voices.
The salt is on the briar rose,
The fog is in the fir copse
The bounding main howl
And the body of water yelp, are different voices
Ofttimes together heard; the whine in the rigging,
The menace and caress of wave that breaks on water,
The distant rote in the granite teeth,
And the wailing warning from the budgeted headland
Are all sea voices, and the heaving groaner
Rounded homewards, and the seagull:
And nether the oppression of the silent fog . . .
Clangs
The bell.

* * *

A rare get-together. America's 2 most famous sailing ships: the USS Constitution and the Charles W. Morgan

Now as far as playfulness on the ocean is concerned, no one could be more buoyant than W.S. Gilbert when he wrote:

We sail the body of water blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We're sober men and true,
And circumspect to our duty.
When the assurance whistle complimentary
O'er the vivid blue sea,
We stand to our guns all twenty-four hour period;
When at anchor we ride
On the Portsmouth tide,
We accept plenty of time for play.
Ahoy! Ahoy!
The balls whistle free
Ahoy! Ahoy!
O'er the bright bluish sea.

VIDEO. Our video was shot on a misty morning at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. The Seaport is the abode of the Charles Due west. Morgan, the concluding wooden whaleship in the world. The whaling fleet once numbered more than 2,700 vessels.

The members of the Beginning Poetry Quartet, joined by shanty vocalist Stuart Gillespie, perform poems by John Masefield, Alfred Tennyson, Abigail Cresson, Lord Byron, Sidney Dobell, Stephen Vincent Benet and William Allingham.

CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR VIDEO: POEMS OF THE Ocean

The Ocean By Nathaniel Hawthorne,

Source: https://theberkshireedge.com/anyonefortennyson-poems-of-the-sea-roll-on-thou-deep-and-dark-blue-ocean-roll/

Posted by: youngsibrom.blogspot.com

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