what is the summary of the poem sea fever
Answers
Masefield Sea-Fever by John Masefield
John Masefield’s Sea-Fever is perhaps his most well-known work and describes the poet’s longing to go to sea. Despite its first-person poetic voice, the principal theme of wanderlust is one that transcends the speaker and can be identified with by many. Masefield spent time as a sailor aboard different ships and therefore can effortlessly demonstrate his love for and affinity with this lifestyle. The poem is brief and simple, yet it’s lyrical composition, repeated refrain and poetic devices render it a perfect poem to be both read aloud or reflected upon in solitude.
Sea-Fever is formed of three quatrains; the first and second lines always rhyming to form one couplet, and the third and fourth rhyming to form a second couplet. The meter is heptameter but the types of feet are varied throughout the work and so the stresses on each syllable can change from line to line. However, despite its varying feet, it nonetheless seems to flow like music, and we may regard the irregular stresses as an attempt to mirror the uneven rhythms of the sea. Interestingly, although in the original version of the poem – published in 1902 – the first line of each stanza is “I must down to the seas again”, in later versions Masefield inserted the word “go”, altering both the verb and the meter of the refrain. You can find a link to the poem here.
Sea-Fever Analysis
First Stanza
The first stanza begins with the refrain “I must down to the seas again”, which is repeated at the beginning of each stanza and gives immediate sense to the title. Although we may identify the poem’s theme as the desire to go to sea, it also deals with the very human yearning to connect with one of the most powerful natural forces on earth. A hugely common theme in poetry, the sea has always been a fascinating source of inspiration for many. Masefield demonstrates an obvious adoration for this wild and beautiful entity, and seems to almost compare it to a person, referring to it as “her” and describing her “face”.
The desire to connect with the sea is shown through the pursuit of a sailor’s life as he asks for a ship to sail. He does not describe the sea in the most classically beautiful terms, here she is “grey” and “lonely”, giving more mysterious and melancholic connotations, yet enchanting nonetheless.
The use of alliteration in the first stanza contributes to the musical tone with expressions like “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”. This also serves to render the poem more appealing to the ear, and we can imagine it like a sea-chanty, being sung by lonely sailors.
Second Stanza
The second stanza appeals to all five senses. Masefield’s descriptions allow the reader to feel like we are standing on the shore; listening to the “sea-gulls crying”, watching the “white clouds flying”, feeling the coldness of the “windy day”, and the saltiness of the “flung spray and the
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