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larryhammerIt's time for another Sea Poetry Monday:
The Sea and the Hills, Rudyard Kipling
Who hath desired the Sea?—the sight of salt water unbounded—
The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded?
The sleek-barrelled swell before storm, grey, foamless, enormous, and growing—
Stark calm on the lap of the Line or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing—
His Sea in no showing the same—his Sea and the same ’neath each showing—
His Sea as she slackens or thrills?
So and no otherwise—so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills!
Who hath desired the Sea?—the immense and contemptuous surges?
The shudder, the stumble, the swerve, as the star-stabbing bowsprit emerges?
The orderly clouds of the Trades, and the ridged, roaring sapphire thereunder—
Unheralded cliff-haunting flaws and the headsail’s low-volleying thunder—
His Sea in no wonder the same—his Sea and the same through each wonder—
His Sea as she rages or stills?
So and no otherwise—so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills.
Who hath desired the Sea? Her menaces swift as her mercies,
The in-rolling walls of the fog and the silver-winged breeze that disperses?
The unstable mined berg going South and the calvings and groans that declare it;
White water half-guessed overside and the moon breaking timely to bear it;
His Sea as his fathers have dared—his Sea as his children shall dare it—
His Sea as she serves him or kills?
So and no otherwise—so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills.
Who hath desired the Sea? Her excellent loneliness rather
Than forecourts of kings, and her outermost pits than the streets where men gather
Inland, among dust, under trees—inland where the slayer may slay him
Inland, out of reach of her arms, and the bosom whereon he must lay him—
His Sea at the first that betrayed—at the last that shall never betray him—
His Sea that his being fulfils?
So and no otherwise—so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills.
The first two verses appeared separately as chapter epigraphs in Kim, where the Himalayan context emphasized the refrain; the whole was first published two years later as the first poem of The Five Nations, leading off a series of sea poems. Context affects how you read. I long ago imprinted on this as my favorite Kipling work after "Rikki-tikki-tavi"—so and no otherwise. (This, dispite the disruption of rhythm from the enjambments of the last stanza.)
---L.
Subject quote from The Lotos-eaters, Alfred the Tennyson.
The Sea and the Hills, Rudyard Kipling
Who hath desired the Sea?—the sight of salt water unbounded—
The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded?
The sleek-barrelled swell before storm, grey, foamless, enormous, and growing—
Stark calm on the lap of the Line or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing—
His Sea in no showing the same—his Sea and the same ’neath each showing—
His Sea as she slackens or thrills?
So and no otherwise—so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills!
Who hath desired the Sea?—the immense and contemptuous surges?
The shudder, the stumble, the swerve, as the star-stabbing bowsprit emerges?
The orderly clouds of the Trades, and the ridged, roaring sapphire thereunder—
Unheralded cliff-haunting flaws and the headsail’s low-volleying thunder—
His Sea in no wonder the same—his Sea and the same through each wonder—
His Sea as she rages or stills?
So and no otherwise—so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills.
Who hath desired the Sea? Her menaces swift as her mercies,
The in-rolling walls of the fog and the silver-winged breeze that disperses?
The unstable mined berg going South and the calvings and groans that declare it;
White water half-guessed overside and the moon breaking timely to bear it;
His Sea as his fathers have dared—his Sea as his children shall dare it—
His Sea as she serves him or kills?
So and no otherwise—so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills.
Who hath desired the Sea? Her excellent loneliness rather
Than forecourts of kings, and her outermost pits than the streets where men gather
Inland, among dust, under trees—inland where the slayer may slay him
Inland, out of reach of her arms, and the bosom whereon he must lay him—
His Sea at the first that betrayed—at the last that shall never betray him—
His Sea that his being fulfils?
So and no otherwise—so and no otherwise hillmen desire their Hills.
The first two verses appeared separately as chapter epigraphs in Kim, where the Himalayan context emphasized the refrain; the whole was first published two years later as the first poem of The Five Nations, leading off a series of sea poems. Context affects how you read. I long ago imprinted on this as my favorite Kipling work after "Rikki-tikki-tavi"—so and no otherwise. (This, dispite the disruption of rhythm from the enjambments of the last stanza.)
---L.
Subject quote from The Lotos-eaters, Alfred the Tennyson.
no subject
Date: 9 April 2018 10:00 pm (UTC)I encountered it first in Kim, so I never think of it as a sea-poem, even though I love lines like "Stark calm on the lap of the Line or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing." Oh, well.
I don't know what my favorite Kipling is. I suspect I don't have a single one. Different things he's written are important for different reasons to me.
no subject
Date: 9 April 2018 10:05 pm (UTC)Fair enough!
no subject
Date: 16 April 2018 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 16 April 2018 07:46 pm (UTC)Yessssss. Kipling's command of his craft is at its peak with that line.