P G Sunilkumar . working as HST ENGLISH at SMHSS PATHARAM, SOORANAD, KOLLAM for the last 20 years. I'm here sending an appreciation of the poem SEA FEAVER from the unit 3 of the 9th revised text book. It will be highly useful for the teachers and students if you publish it in the blog. I assure you that I will send more materials to this blog in the days ahead.
Appreciation of “Sea-Fever” by John Masefield
“Sea-Fever” by John Masefield is a lyrical poem that captures the poet’s deep
yearning for the sea and the adventurous life of a sailor. Each stanzas of the
poem beginning with the refrain “I must go down to the seas again,”
emphasizing the speaker’s irresistible call to the sea.
The poem opens with the speaker longs to return to the vast, lonely sea,
seeking guidance from a “tall ship” and a “star to steer her by.” He vividly
describes the sensations of sailing and the mysterious, new begnning of a
“grey dawn breaking.” The speaker is compelled by the irresistible “call of
the running tide,” the speaker yearns for a windy day with dynamic sea
elements and the cries of sea-gulls, highlighting his deep connection to
nature and freedom. The speaker desires a vagrant gypsy life, following the
“gull’s way and the whale’s way.” He seeks companionship in the form of a
“merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover and, seeks “quiet sleep and a sweet
dream” after the long journey, indicating a sense of fulfillment and peace.
The poem is a masterful blend of various figures of speech which vividly
capture the speaker’s longing for the sea. Alliteration and assonance create a
musical quality, as seen in phrases like “wheel’s kick and the wind’s song”
and “grey mist on the sea’s face.” Imagery is richly used in the expressions
like “the flung spray and the blown spume.” Metaphors and similes personify
the sea and compare the wind to a “whetted knife,” The rhyme scheme is AABB.
The poem mirrors the sea of adventure.
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