Poem a Day #5
1 min readDec 6, 2019
Sea Fever by John Masefield
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.
After the tumult of the sea and its wildnesses — the ‘flung spray and the blown spume’ — after the cry of the seagulls and the roar of the waves , we are left asking only for ‘merry yarns’ and respite. Sea Fever charts the spirit that drives us to adventure and home again, all the way to the quiet acceptance of an ending. The poem winds these strands together like currents crossing, pulling the reader with it out to the wide expanse of the horizon and then back to the warm lights of the shore.
