“the white sail’s shaking / And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and grey dawn breaking”

For Poetry Monday:

Thalassa, Louis Macneice

Run out the boat, my broken comrades;
Let the old seaweed crack, the surge
Burgeon oblivious of the last
Embarkation of feckless men,
Let every adverse force converge—
Here we must needs embark again.

Run up the sail, my heartsick comrades;
Let each horizon tilt and lurch—
You know the worst: your wills are fickle,
Your values blurred, your hearts impure
And your past life a ruined church—
But let your poison be your cure.

Put out to sea, ignoble comrades,
Whose record shall be noble yet;
Butting through scarps of moving marble
The narwhal dares us to be free;
By a high star our course is set,
Our end is Life. Put out to sea.


Thalassa was the Ancient Greek personification of the sea in its feminine aspect (i.e., is also goddess of the sea). Found in his papers after his death in 1963. Thematically, it fits in with his late poems.

---L.

Subject quote from Sea-Fever, John Masefield.