John Masefield: Sea-Fever

Gustave Courbet, La Vague
oil on canvas, c. 1869
(courtesy of Southampton City Art Gallery)

Gustave Courbet: I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me, he belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.

(video by Michael Hogg)

Sea-Fever, from John Masefield's Salt-Water Poems and Ballads

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 seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy 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.

(http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sea-fever/)

I dedicate this post to Andy Stinson who brought the verses of Masefield on his Facebook page.

(A Life in Books)

(Courbet)