How was the sea unforgiving for the north ship
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Answer:
As the previous response mentioned, this poem, and Larkin's style, relies heavily on metaphors. "The North Ship" is composed entirely of an extended metaphor about ships, and life. In Larkin's book, this poem is also titled "Legend," which leads us to believe that, as with other legends, there is a kind of message or lesson to learn from the story of the three ships. So, I want to discuss an additional summary of the poem in terms of what its metaphors could mean.
The poem's ships could represent life's many paths based on the different choices we make (each of the three ships "chooses" a different direction to sail).
The ship that sails west discovers "a rich country. We could see this ship as representing a life path that leads to wealth and prosperity--perhaps a path that leads to the more traditional ideas of what it means to be successful. The ship that sails east experiences some more tumultuous moments, ends up getting stuck somewhere, and is less successful. Both of these ships return eventually.
The third ship sails north, encounters an "unforgiving sea," and does not return, perhaps because it did not expect to return. Larkin tells us twice that this ship was "rigged for a long journey." Thus, this ship could symbolize the life path that leads us the furthest from our origins and our home, the life path that is perhaps the scariest and most dangerous and unfamiliar, as well as the most mysterious and full of potential.