Sea-Fever
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.
In English poet John Masefield's "Sea Fever," a speaker passionately insists that he must return to a sailor's life in order to be happy. The freedom of the open sea and a life of travel and adventure call to him, and he wants nothing more than to live out his days on a ship, roaming the ocean. This poem first appeared in Masefield's 1902 collection Salt-Water Ballads.
Summary
I have to return to the ocean, to the wide-open, empty waters and skies. All I want is a sailing ship and a star I can use to navigate; the strong pull of the helm, the sound of the wind, and the trembling of the white sail; and the silvery fog on the water's surface as the sun rises in the gray morning.
I have to return to the ocean because I can't ignore the seductive call of the tides. All I want is a wild, windy day, the foaming ocean waters, and the shrieks of seagulls.
I have to return to the ocean, to a roaming, itinerant life following seabirds and whales to places where the wind is sharp as a blade. And all I need is some cheerful tall tales from a fellow wanderer, and peaceful, dreamy sleep when my turn at the helm is finally done.
Themes
Freedom and Nature
“Sea Fever” is about living life on one’s own terms. For the speaker, seafaring represents a life of complete freedom; a ship allows him to go wherever he pleases and never be tied down to one place. And the sea itself is an endless source of inspiration, an image of boundless possibilities and exhilarating independence. A life on the ocean both satisfies and symbolizes this speaker’s desire to roam free.
The speaker loves being a sailor because it grants him total freedom: with a ship, he can go anywhere he wants, and doesn’t need to follow anyone’s rules but his own. He says he wants nothing more than a “tall ship and a star to steer her by.” In other words, he loves getting to chart his own path.
His vivid imagery of “the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking” suggests the joy he takes in this kind of wild, independent travel. And although not everyone could stomach weeks and months of “the lonely sea,” such a life calls to the speaker with a “wild” voice “that may not be denied.” Part of this “wild[ness] is the promise of “vagran[cy],” or constant travel from place to place. He likes not being tied down; he is hungry for the freedom and adventure that seafaring offers.
The sea itself symbolizes the speaker’s love of freedom, its wide-open, untamed spaces a constant reminder of the life he wants. Describing “a windy day with the white clouds flying,” and the constant motion of the “flung spray and the blown spume,” the speaker makes it clear he’s drawn to the ocean’s wildness: the wind, the clouds, and the water go wherever they may, and that’s just what he wants, too. Even the creatures of the ocean reflect the speaker’s desire for independence. When the speaker says he wants to go “to the gull’s way and the whale’s way,” he’s imagining choosing his own instinctive “way” in life, just like these roaming creatures.
Both the freedom of seafaring and the wildness of the ocean itself thus fulfill the speaker’s desire for independence in a way that nothing else can. The speaker plans to devote his whole life to freedom on the high seas: only when “the long trick’s over” (a “trick” in this context being a sailor’s turn at the helm of a ship—but also a metaphor for life itself) will he settle down for a “quiet sleep and a sweet dream.” In other words, the speaker intends to devote himself to freedom and adventure until the day he dies.
Adventure and Wanderlust
This poem explores wanderlust and the desire for new adventures. Again and again the speaker expresses his need to return to the sea as a sailor. Having been to sea at least once before, he can think of nothing but getting back out there on the open water and seeing new sights. A taste of seafaring has not satisfied his desire for travel and exploration, but stoked it. This poem suggests that, once a relish for the unknown gets its hooks in someone, it is difficult for that person to ever return to ordinary life.
Having sailed before, the speaker is practically gushing with desire to return to the sea for his next adventure. Past journeys haven’t sated him; in fact, memories of his travels only make him hungrier to get back out there. He says over and over again that he “must down to the seas again.” It’s all he can think about; he is obsessed with traveling and nothing else can hold his attention. A life at sea is “all [he] ask[s]” for: his desire for another adventure is more important to him than anything else. The “call of the running tide” even seems to speak to him directly, like a siren luring him back to the water. Now that he has an inkling of all the exciting places that tide may take him, he simply can’t resist the urge to follow it once more.
The speaker’s experience suggests that once someone has gotten a taste for adventure, it’s difficult to accept a life without it. The speaker isn’t the only person who itches to travel and explore. He thinks of other sailors as “laughing fellow-rover[s],” suggesting that the thing that brings them all together is their mutual love of roaming the world. In other words, the lure of adventure can make a lifelong “rover” of all kinds of people. While not everyone would be compelled by weeks and months on a “lonely sea,” it’s clear that for some people, the promise of adventure is infinitely alluring. After a little adventuring, one will never again be able to settle for the comforts of an ordinary life.
바다 열병
난 다시 바다로 나가야겠네, 그 외로운 바다, 그 하늘로
필요한 건 오직 높은 배 한 척과 길잡이 별 하나
타륜의 반동과 바람의 노래, 펄럭이는 흰 돛
그리고 바다 위 뿌연 안개, 동터 오는 뿌연 새벽뿐
난 다시 바다로 나가야겠네, 뛰노는 물결이 부르는 소리
너무 세차게 또렷이 들려와 차마 저버릴 수 없어라
필요한 건 오직 바람 이는 날의 날아가는 흰 구름
튀는 물보라와 날리는 물거품, 울어대는 바다 갈매기뿐
난 다시 바다로 나가야겠네, 유랑의 집시 생활로
벼린 칼 같은 바람 불어대는 갈매기의 길, 고래의 길로
필요한 건 오직 떠돌이 동무의 흥겹고 신명난 이야기
오랜 근무 시간 끝난 뒤의 아늑한 잠과 달콤한 꿈뿐
sea fever : 바다를 간절히 그리워하는 마음. 바다 열병
a star to steer her by : 배를 조종할 길잡이가 되는 별 하나
the wheel's kick : 타륜의 반동
the gull's way = the whale's way : '바다'를 나타내는 옛 시인들의 표현 방식
존 메이스필드는 영국 헤러퍼드셔의 레드버리에서 태어난 시인이며, 그의 작품으로는 바다를 소재로 한 시집 <Salt-Water Ballads, 1902>와 장편 이야기 시 <The Everlasting Mercy, 1911>가 가장 잘 알려져 있다. 워릭의 킹즈 스쿨에서 교육받은 뒤 13세에 케이프 혼을 도는 상선을 타고 선원 훈련을 받았다. 여행을 끝낸 뒤에는 미국에 머물면서 여러 해 동안 떠돌이 생활을 했다. 영국에 돌아와서는 맨체스턱 가디언 지의 기자 노릇을 하다가 런던에 정착했다.
1930년에 로버트 브릿지스Robert Bridges를 이어받아 계관시인이 된다. 그가 남긴 시집으로는 물질주의를 반대하는 이야기 시 <Dauber, 1913>, 잉글랜드의 전원생활을 다룬 <Reynard the Fox, 1919> 등이 있고, 몇몇 소설과 시극 등도 남겼다. 1935년에 메리트 훈위 the Order of Merit를 받았다. 그의 대표시라 할 만한 <Sea Fever>는 <Salt Water Ballads>에 실려 있다.