Sailing poems

HenrikH

HenrikH

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I am assisting my son in his history and he has to do a poem analysis. This is not my field. But my son selected In Flanders Fields. I am moved. What may be the great poems on sailing?

(+please help me distract my mind of what happens on the other side of the ocean)
 
Dylan Thomas if you want

“I have sailed the seas, I have crossed the seven seas,/And tasted every flower along the shore.”
 
If he wants to disect an historical poem (not necessarily sailing) then the Battle of Lepanto by G K Chesterton gives lots to write about as it covers pieces about the situation across europe at the time as well as the battle.
 
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Thanks for the great flow, bringing distraction from the news. So far, Masefields compressed Sea Fever hits my nerve
 
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Not so much about sailing itself, but oceans and the heavens and Homer’s Odyssey and a sense of wonder all feature in Keats’ sonnet, ‘On first looking into Chapman’s Homer’.

I might be biased. Certainly, my wife thought I was mad when I started declaiming it the first time I ever stood on the shore of the Pacific.
 
It is poetry, but my cut and paste has removed the formatting.

Psalm 107 verses 23-32
Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a Whisper. some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper;
 
The boy stood on the burning deck,
His back against the mast,
Though I doubt I can get away with any more of that on here.

Masefield's Sea Fever is rather dated, so my preference is for Jerry Hickson's 'Electric Fever'; I have a copy somewhere, but can't seem to lay my hands on it. In that's absence, I've also come to appreciate this version, which I'm told was originally published in the Spectator Magazine 60 - 70 years ago:

I Must go down to the seas again, to the lousy sea and the sky
When all I ask is an armchair and a hearth to stick it by
Not the wave's trough and the short chop and the wet pants flapping
In the chill wind, on my beam ends and the tempers snapping.

Must I go down to the sea again, when the call of the yacht club basin
Is a faint call and the drear call of a social obligation
When all I ask is the fireside and my loved ones talking
Not the flung spray and the mal-de-mer and the dam' gulls squawking .

Must I go down to the sea again, to that ghastly vagrant life
When all I ask is the garden and a saunter with my wife
Not the Firefly, nor the cruise ship, nor any tub that floats
Just a good book, Terra Firma and no messing about in boats.
 
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