Classic and Contemporary Poetry
534, by JOHN MASEFIELD Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: For ages you were rock, far below light Last Line: Of those who speed your launching come to be. Alternate Author Name(s): Masefield, John Edward Subject(s): Depressions, Economic; Great Britain - Commonwealth & Colonies; Queen Mary (ship); Sea; Unemployment; Recessions; British Empire; England - Empire; Ocean | ||||||||
For ages you were rock, far below light, Crushed, without shape, earth's unregarded bone. Then Man in all the marvel of his might Quarried you out and burned you from the stone. Then, being pured to essence, you were naught But weight and hardness, body without nerve; Then Man in all the marvel of his thought Smithied you into form of leap and curve; And took you, so, and bent you to his vast, Intense great world of passionate design, Curve after changing curving, braced and mast To stand all tumult that can tumble brine, And left you, this, a rampart of a ship, Long as a street and lofty as a tower, Ready to glide in thunder from the slip And shear the water with majesty of power. I long to see you leaping to the urge Of the great engines, rolling as you go, Parting the seas in sunder in a surge, Shredding a trackway like a mile of snow. With all the wester streaming from your hull And all gear twanging shrilly as you race, And effortless above your stern a gull Leaning upon the blast and keeping pace. May shipwreck and collision, fog and fire, Rock, shoal and other evils of the sea, Be kept from you; and may the heart's desire Of those who speed your launching come to be. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HALL OF OCEAN LIFE by JOHN HOLLANDER JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS BOATS IN A FOG by ROBINSON JEFFERS CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE FIGUREHEAD by LEONIE ADAMS |
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