Salt-Water Poems and Ballads

Salt-Water Poems and Ballads is a book of poetry on themes of seafaring and maritime history by John Masefield. It was first published in 1916 by Macmillan, with illustrations by Charles Pears.

Many of the poems had been published in Masefield's earlier collections, Salt-Water Ballads (1902), Ballads (1903) and Ballads and Poems (1910). They were included in The Collected Poems of John Masefield published by Heinemann in 1923.

Salt-Water Poems and Ballads includes "Sea-Fever" and "Cargoes", two of Masefield's best known poems.

Contents

"Sea-Fever"

"Sea-Fever" first appeared in Salt-Water Ballads – Masefield's first volume of poetry published in 1902 in London by Grant Richards.[1]

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.

"Sea-Fever" has been set to music by composers including John Ireland.

"Cargoes"

"Cargoes" first appeared in Ballads – Masefield's second volume of poetry, published in 1903 in London by Elkin Mathews.[2]

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.[3]

References

  1. ^ Salt-Water Ballads (1902)at the Internet Archive
  2. ^ Ballads (1903) at the Internet Archive
  3. ^ The reference is to 1 Kings 10,22 in the Bible "For the king [Solomon] had at sea the ships of Tarshish with the ships of Hiram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks". Nineveh, however, was a land-bound city which had no share in such trade.

Further reading

External links