Sea Fever and Cargoes

Both Sea Fever and Cargoes were included (at Nos 23 and 27) in The Nation's Favourite Poems – a collection published by the BBC in 1996, the result of a poll conducted in the previous year. They came respectively from Masefield's first and second collections – Salt–Water Ballads (1902) and Ballads (1903).

Both are short and concise, with much repetition and alliteration, each having just three verses. Although the opening lines are (understandably) the most famous in each case, every line is (IMHO) eminently quotable. For that reason, I think it's worth reproducing them in full here:

Sea Fever

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.

In Collected Poems of John Masefield (1923), the first line of each verse was changed to the more familiar "I must go down to the sea again ... "

Cargoes

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm–green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt–caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road–rails, pig–lead,
Firewood, iron–ware, and cheap tin trays.