Question

I must go 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 go 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 go 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. —"Sea Fever,” John Masefield Use the drop-down menus to answer the questions about John Masefield’s poem “Sea Fever.” How many stanzas are in the poem? What is the rhyme scheme of the first stanza? What poetic structure does Masefield use?

Answer 1

Answer:

"Sea Fever" by John Masefield

1. The poem has three stanzas which are similar in structure.  For example, each stanza is a quatrain consisting of two couplets. In addition, the first line of each stanza begins with the same subjective clause "I must go down to the seas again," followed by a prepositional phrase, beginning with "to" or "for".

2. The rhyme scheme of the first stanza follows the structure of AABB: "... sky, ... by; ... shaking, ...breaking.

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of sounds that repeats at the end of a line or stanza. Rhyme schemes can change line by line, stanza by stanza, or can continue throughout a poem. Poems with rhyme schemes are generally written in formal verse, which has a strict meter: a repeating pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Rhyme scheme patterns are formatted in different ways. The patterns are encoded by letters of the alphabet. Lines designated with the same letter rhyme with each other. For example, the rhyme scheme AABB means the first and second lines of a stanza, or the “A’s,” rhyme with each other, and the third line rhymes with the fourth line, or the “B’s” rhyme together.

3. Masefield uses the lyrical poetic structure.  According to wikipedia.com, "Lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person."  The structure of poetry is literature written in stanzas and lines that use rhythms to express feelings and ideas.

Explanation:

“Sea Fever” was written in 1902 by British poet, John Edward Masefield, a trained merchant seaman.  In 1895, he deserted his ship in New York City, according to history, and worked in a carpet factory before returning to London to write poems describing his sea adventures.

“Sea Fever” was a poem about the poet's personal affection with the beautiful sea and its massive creature-makeups. In the poem, the poet desperately longed to return to the lonely sea.  To realize his longing, he urged that a well-built ship be made to sail him through the melancholic sea, praying the star to guide him throughout his journey.