“Sea-Fever”, by John Masefield

Perhaps my favorite poem of all time:

I must 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 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 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.

You may wonder whether I have caught sea-fever, to identify so strongly with this poem. I have not caught it; I was born with it. If I was a boy and if I was less informed about what a sailor’s life is like, and, of course, if I lived during the time of sailing ships, I might have run away to become a sailor.

My Other Blog

Some of you may know that I have another blog, http://writersthinkersanddreamers.wordpress.com/. I am no longer using it, but I am going to transport some of my (hopefully better) posts into this blog. When I’m done, I’ll make a post to notify you.

About This Blog

I think an explanation of this blog’s strange URL is in order.

In early January, I finished writing a novel that explores such opposing locations as Boston and California during the 1850′s and 60′s and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in 1988. Even though I’m only editing the novel now, I still have a strong interest in these topics and am continuously trying to learn more about them.

I decided that it would be a good idea to blog about what I’ve learned so far and what I hopefully will learn, because I have found myself seizing any opportunity to tell people about them. (Tip: when the person sitting next to you in history class asks you absentmindedly whether a picture of Andrew Jackson in the textbook is a photograph or a painting, it’s not a good idea to start explaining when the daguerreotype was invented and when ambrotypes were introduced and when tintypes came into popularity. They might just stare at you in shock and ask you how the heck you know that, which will make you mutter something about having looked it up once.) This blog is designed to spare my relatives and classmates.

So, now you know where the “favelas” in the URL come from. “Books” is in there because sometimes I have an urge to review books, and “feminism” is in there because I consider myself a feminist and am very interested in it. Be warned, however; “feminism” also means that I am going to be blogging about Victorians, and probably relatively often. But http://booksfavelasvictoriansandfeminism.wordpress.com/ was just way too long.