"No one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame, / But each for the joy of the working"

[larryhammer]

For Poetry Monday:

D'Avalos' Prayer, John Masefield

When the last sea is sailed and the last shallow charted,
    When the last field is reaped and the last harvest stored,
When the last fire is out and the last guest departed,
    Grant the last prayer that I shall pray, Be good to me, O Lord!

And let me pass in a night at sea, a night of storm and thunder,
    In the loud crying of the wind through sail and rope and spar;
Send me a ninth great peaceful wave to drown and roll me under
    To the cold tunny-fishes’ home where the drowned galleons are.

And in the dim green quiet place far out of sight and hearing,
    Grant I may hear at whiles the wash and thresh of the sea-foam
About the fine keen bows of the stately clippers steering
    Towards the lone northern star and the fair ports of home.

Masefield is IMHO underappreciated these days, but he was tucked into the Poet Laureateship (1930-1967) for good reason. This is from his first collection, Salt-Water Ballads, which also included "Sea-Fever."

---L.

Subject quote from "When Earth's Last Picture is Painted," Rudyard Kipling, which this greatly reminded me of.

Comments

[negothick.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this--long ago I heard a musical setting of it at a sea music gathering, and have not heard it since.

[larryhammer]

!!

I want to hear that!

[sovay]

--long ago I heard a musical setting of it at a sea music gathering, and have not heard it since.

I've seen it set as an art song, but I doubt very much that was what you heard. This is a recent singer-songwriter version I like.

[edit] I don't think this is the version I was thinking of, either, but I'm enjoying it. The composer, Leo Sowerby, appears to have been known as "the Handel of Lake Michigan."

[sovay]

Send me a ninth great peaceful wave to drown and roll me under
To the cold tunny-fishes’ home where the drowned galleons are.

Prrt.

I think I would like Masefield better if I had not encountered (except for "Sea-Fever," which I first heard as a lullaby; this explains why I had it mixed in my head with "John o' Dreams" for years) all of Kipling's sea-poetry first, but I do like him. He's not consistent for me, but he has lines and images which flash out. I love "Cargoes."

[larryhammer]

He *is* inconsistent in his sea poetry -- I'm reading his first collection slowly, and it definitely has misses at a much higher rate than Kipling. Oddly enough, given his success at book-length narrative poems, the shorter the generally better.

Have you met Kris Delmhorst's setting of "Sea-Fever"? Or is that the lullaby you're thinking of?

[sovay]

Oddly enough, given his success at book-length narrative poems, the shorter the generally better.

It makes sense to me: the fewer lines, the more you have to make every one count. Not all poets work that way, but I think Masefield must have.

Have you met Kris Delmhorst's setting of "Sea-Fever"? Or is that the lullaby you're thinking of?

I was raised on the setting by Andy Taylor (I have it on my computer sung by John Roberts, although I didn't hear his specific version until 2010), but I have heard Delmhorst's, thanks to ladymondegreen.