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.
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.
Learnt it by heart at school. Introduced my children and grandchildren to John Masefield .
We must protect deep England and the deep past of the British isles it became; before the left and the media wipe us off the face of the map and out of history
Please can we have more of this kind of article. In the early days of Unherd there was a fascinating mixture of subjects covered. Now we have an almost comprehensive diet of politics and sociology. There is more to life than that.
As a young person I always listened to the BBC radio version of Box of Delights. I so loved it. It’s no longer available. Amazing music by Healy Hutchinson as well.
It’s a beautiful!
Cargoes
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.
Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
John Masefield
OMG yes, I remember that one. It reads like a Gilbert and Sullivan song.
SN
Simon Neale
4 months ago
“The Midnight Folk” is also very good. As a story, it is uncrafted and all over the place, but full of inspired madness that delights. I don’t know the circumstances of its writing, but it reads as if a genial and slightly manic English gentleman had several whiskies before settling down to write.
SG
Susan Grabston
4 months ago
Watched every Christmas in this household, alongside Michael Horden’s renditions of M R James, which can equally take you to a distant world of the fens.
The DVD of this is one of my treasured possessions.
JK
JOHN KANEFSKY
4 months ago
The Midnight Folk, to which the Box of Delights is a kind of sequel, is even better. I thoroughly recommend it.
“Dark doings, Master Kay”
My great fortune is that I have first editions of both – bought cheaply back in the 80s when Masefield was even more unfashionable than today.
This reminds me to dig the Box of Delights out again over Xmas, as I often do.
the villains are wonderful: Sylvia Daisy Pouncer, the governess who dines luxuriously while Kay is punished by being denied dinner for not remembering his Latin conjugations correctly, all his old toys taken away because it is better he forgets his dead parents, Abner Brown, the rat who loves a bit of mouldy cheese and the good and bad cats, Nibbins and Greymalkin(?). Absolutely love that book. I think Sylvia Daisy must be a portrait of Masefield’s aunt who brought him up after his parents died and sent him to see when he was sixteen because he was too much concerned with books.
JN
Jonathan Nash
4 months ago
Lovely piece thank you. Personally every year at about this time I read Eliot’s Silas Marner to reconnect a little with the past, which is one of the points of Christmas.
AB
Ash Bishop
4 months ago
Thank you so much for this beautiful piece. Like many others I found MaseField through the 1984 BBC series of Box of Delights and the poem Sea Fever. I loved the writers concept of deep England which Masefield understood so well, every chalk path or lonely lane of it. Winter Solstice, Yuletide or Christmas does really give the opportunity to ponder it more deeply when we “Bar the door and tell ghost stories”. Thank you again for crystalising its concept for me, it is an human version of deep time, geological time, that Robert Macfarlane speaks of in “Underland”.
I thought I leave with one of my favourite but seldom quoted poem of Masefield.
LIFE
Dunno a heap about the what an’ why, can’t say’s I ever knowed.
Heaven to me’s a fair blue stretch of sky, Earth’s jest a dusty road
Dunno the name of things, nor what that are, can’t say’s I ever will
Dunno about God-He’s jest the nodding star atop the windy hill.
Dunno about life- it’s jest a tramp alone from waking time till doss
Dunno about Death-it’s jest a quiet stone all over grey wi’ moss.
An’ why I live, an why the old world spins are things I never knowed;
My mark’s the Gypsy fires, the lonely inns and jest the dusty road.
PH
Paul Hemphill
4 months ago
Cargoes’
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.
Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
John Masefield
Last edited 4 months ago by Paul Hemphill
FD
Francis Dawson
4 months ago
Another ‘Deep England’ recommendation: Kipling’s Dan and Una books, ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ and ‘Rewards and Fairies’.
KM
Keith Merrick
4 months ago
Strangely, Douglas Murray is also now talking about ‘Deep Britain’. Is it something in the air or did one get the idea from the other. Since I read this article first I’m tempted to think that Alexander got there first ahead of the great Douglas Murray. If so, well done.
CK
Clare Knight
4 months ago
My favorite poem from childhood committed to memory is Masefield’s Sea Fever: “I must go down to the sea 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 sails shaking, and a grey mist on the seas face and a grey dawn breaking”. Perfect!
CH
c hutchinson
4 months ago
I had never heard of The Box of Delights but Mr Poots made it sound so delightful that I have purchased a copy for my grandson. I’m sure we’ll have a wonderful time reading it together. Thank you.
Do, and watch the BBC adaptation too ..!
Oh, and read The Dark is Rising (Susan Cooper’s wonderful Deep Britain novel).
CK
Clare Knight
4 months ago
My favorite poem committed to memory from childhood is Masefield’s The Sea: “I must go down to the sea 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 wheels kick and the winds song and the white sails shaking, and grey mist on the seas face and a grey dawn breaking.” Perfect!
EA
Eidur Alfredsson
4 months ago
s
Last edited 4 months ago by Eidur Alfredsson
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Wow. I had to look this guy up. What an interesting and magnificent free thinker.
Yes, I was impressed by this essay too. And he introduced me to a couple of artists and a poet I hadn’t heard of.
Surely you MUST of heard of SEA FEVER? If not:-
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.
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.
We read this in 7th grade in my small western Massachusetts town. Thanks for the reminder!
Thank you.
I have always like that phrase – “where the wind’s like a whetted knife;”
Much onomatopoeia in that poem.
Learnt it by heart at school. Introduced my children and grandchildren to John Masefield .
We must protect deep England and the deep past of the British isles it became; before the left and the media wipe us off the face of the map and out of history
Almost time for the annual reading of The Dark Is Rising, too …
Before Islam takes over and wipes out the culture and history.
I remember that poem from school. The author also recommended the poetry of Geoffrey Hill who is new to me.
CHARLES!!!!
“Surely you must of heard of ‘Sea Fever”
Must HAVE – never must OF.
I am genuinely shocked and disapponted. You have let yourself down.
Mea maxima culpa!
I let him off in the hope it was just a typo!
Oo thank you I had forgotten this. It’s one to read out loud ….
Fantastic!
i must go down to th3cseaxagaon
to the lonely sea abd sky
i left my pants and socks there
i wonder if they’re dry
Spike M, late of Woy Woy
Charles, I knew you were my kind of man! That’s my favorite poem. I know it by heart.
‘This guy’ is Alexander Poots or John Masefield?
Please can we have more of this kind of article. In the early days of Unherd there was a fascinating mixture of subjects covered. Now we have an almost comprehensive diet of politics and sociology. There is more to life than that.
Here, here. And the readers all seem to have fond memories of John Masefield. It’s a lovely feeling to share the experience.
I can’t recall all of it (it is only 3 verses) but I do still remember:
As a young person I always listened to the BBC radio version of Box of Delights. I so loved it. It’s no longer available. Amazing music by Healy Hutchinson as well.
Is this it? I hope so!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGTqEZcTKMI&feature=youtu.be
Just what I was going to say
It’s a beautiful!
Cargoes
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.
Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
John Masefield
It’s really a song, such rhythm.
OMG yes, I remember that one!
OMG yes, I remember that one. It reads like a Gilbert and Sullivan song.
“The Midnight Folk” is also very good. As a story, it is uncrafted and all over the place, but full of inspired madness that delights. I don’t know the circumstances of its writing, but it reads as if a genial and slightly manic English gentleman had several whiskies before settling down to write.
Watched every Christmas in this household, alongside Michael Horden’s renditions of M R James, which can equally take you to a distant world of the fens.
The DVD of this is one of my treasured possessions.
The Midnight Folk, to which the Box of Delights is a kind of sequel, is even better. I thoroughly recommend it.
“Dark doings, Master Kay”
My great fortune is that I have first editions of both – bought cheaply back in the 80s when Masefield was even more unfashionable than today.
This reminds me to dig the Box of Delights out again over Xmas, as I often do.
the villains are wonderful: Sylvia Daisy Pouncer, the governess who dines luxuriously while Kay is punished by being denied dinner for not remembering his Latin conjugations correctly, all his old toys taken away because it is better he forgets his dead parents, Abner Brown, the rat who loves a bit of mouldy cheese and the good and bad cats, Nibbins and Greymalkin(?). Absolutely love that book. I think Sylvia Daisy must be a portrait of Masefield’s aunt who brought him up after his parents died and sent him to see when he was sixteen because he was too much concerned with books.
Lovely piece thank you. Personally every year at about this time I read Eliot’s Silas Marner to reconnect a little with the past, which is one of the points of Christmas.
Thank you so much for this beautiful piece. Like many others I found MaseField through the 1984 BBC series of Box of Delights and the poem Sea Fever. I loved the writers concept of deep England which Masefield understood so well, every chalk path or lonely lane of it. Winter Solstice, Yuletide or Christmas does really give the opportunity to ponder it more deeply when we “Bar the door and tell ghost stories”. Thank you again for crystalising its concept for me, it is an human version of deep time, geological time, that Robert Macfarlane speaks of in “Underland”.
I thought I leave with one of my favourite but seldom quoted poem of Masefield.
LIFE
Dunno a heap about the what an’ why, can’t say’s I ever knowed.
Heaven to me’s a fair blue stretch of sky, Earth’s jest a dusty road
Dunno the name of things, nor what that are, can’t say’s I ever will
Dunno about God-He’s jest the nodding star atop the windy hill.
Dunno about life- it’s jest a tramp alone from waking time till doss
Dunno about Death-it’s jest a quiet stone all over grey wi’ moss.
An’ why I live, an why the old world spins are things I never knowed;
My mark’s the Gypsy fires, the lonely inns and jest the dusty road.
Cargoes’
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.
Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
John Masefield
Another ‘Deep England’ recommendation: Kipling’s Dan and Una books, ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ and ‘Rewards and Fairies’.
Strangely, Douglas Murray is also now talking about ‘Deep Britain’. Is it something in the air or did one get the idea from the other. Since I read this article first I’m tempted to think that Alexander got there first ahead of the great Douglas Murray. If so, well done.
My favorite poem from childhood committed to memory is Masefield’s Sea Fever: “I must go down to the sea 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 sails shaking, and a grey mist on the seas face and a grey dawn breaking”. Perfect!
I had never heard of The Box of Delights but Mr Poots made it sound so delightful that I have purchased a copy for my grandson. I’m sure we’ll have a wonderful time reading it together. Thank you.
Do, and watch the BBC adaptation too ..!
Oh, and read The Dark is Rising (Susan Cooper’s wonderful Deep Britain novel).
My favorite poem committed to memory from childhood is Masefield’s The Sea: “I must go down to the sea 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 wheels kick and the winds song and the white sails shaking, and grey mist on the seas face and a grey dawn breaking.” Perfect!
s