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Comments from the archive
- From guest Dr Leslie Dobinson (contact)
"Quinquireme of Nineveh" and the whole of the third verse stand out in my memory from my primary schooldays in 1932, and helped me to Google this website. Thank you!
MOD MESSAGE
You're most welcome.
You might also like this http://oldpoetry.com/column/show/53
Jim
Read more →"Quinquireme of Nineveh" and the whole of the third verse stand out in my memory from my primary schooldays in 1932, and helped me to Google this website. Thank you!
MOD MESSAGE
You're most welcome.
You might also like this http://oldpoetry.com/column/show/53
Jim
I-Like-Rhymes - You make an interesting point that has eluded me in the past.
When I have read this poem I have concentrated on the idea of good things come in good packages. The stately almost regal wooden ships carrying the exotic cargoes and the squalid little tin ships carrying squalid little tin goods.
Masefield is bemoaning the ever increasing triviality of what we ferry around the world.
However he is also pointing out whether by chance or by design, the ecological disaster we are contributing too with this constant desire for only marginally different imports rather than settling for what we can grow and make ourselves.
Thanks FT
Jim
Read more →When I have read this poem I have concentrated on the idea of good things come in good packages. The stately almost regal wooden ships carrying the exotic cargoes and the squalid little tin ships carrying squalid little tin goods.
Masefield is bemoaning the ever increasing triviality of what we ferry around the world.
However he is also pointing out whether by chance or by design, the ecological disaster we are contributing too with this constant desire for only marginally different imports rather than settling for what we can grow and make ourselves.
Thanks FT
Jim
- From guest Female Thinker (contact)
Hmmm. I be but 18 and know little compared to some...but this poem just makes me feel like it was a story who's ending was ripped out. Doesnt it leave you all kinda feeling...depressed and melancholy? I mean I recognize the beautiful craftsmanship but it leaves me feeling ashamed and sad to realize that Masefield's efforts at writting this poem and sending a message to us was....disregarded, for look where we are at now...dont you feel a bit ashamed to feel so much joy from a poem that was crafted so that YOU would try and change the darkening path which our world follows? I hear all of ou say how this poem was a parcel in your past...and hearing all you say this saddens me...a man crafts a magnificent poem trying to get a warning out...thousands read it...and yet we are exactly where Masefield warned us we would be...It makes you wonder what does it take for a being to actually influence change without literally screaming at someone...or even more so is it simply a waste of time to try? hmmm...but maybe I am wrong...Masefield's abrupt stop at the british suggest the oncoming of modernization but maybe it was too much for Masefield to go any further...to fantasize the possibilities of our world today....im ashmaed to think at how Masefield would cringe at the sight of what our cargo ships bring overseas now. Alas, this is a momument of a poem.
Read more →Hmmm. I be but 18 and know little compared to some...but this poem just makes me feel like it was a story who's ending was ripped out. Doesnt it leave you all kinda feeling...depressed and melancholy? I mean I recognize the beautiful craftsmanship but it leaves me feeling ashamed and sad to realize that Masefield's efforts at writting this poem and sending a message to us was....disregarded, for look where we are at now...dont you feel a bit ashamed to feel so much joy from a poem that was crafted so that YOU would try and change the darkening path which our world follows? I hear all of ou say how this poem was a parcel in your past...and hearing all you say this saddens me...a man crafts a magnificent poem trying to get a warning out...thousands read it...and yet we are exactly where Masefield warned us we would be...It makes you wonder what does it take for a being to actually influence change without literally screaming at someone...or even more so is it simply a waste of time to try? hmmm...but maybe I am wrong...Masefield's abrupt stop at the british suggest the oncoming of modernization but maybe it was too much for Masefield to go any further...to fantasize the possibilities of our world today....im ashmaed to think at how Masefield would cringe at the sight of what our cargo ships bring overseas now. Alas, this is a momument of a poem.
- From guest Kevin Westerman (contact)
What an evocative piece of poetry this is as far as I am concerned. Not just because of it's subject imagery but also because of the images and memories it evokes for me of school days and memories of sunshine and gazing out of the high classroom windows at the wide blue sky and . . . . well . . . dreaming. Does any one of a certain age . . . those of us born at a more comfortable distance from the apocalypse, shall we say . . . recall listening to poetry being broadcast over a huge communal radio which was listened to by all the school in the assembly hall? Oh! and we all used to dance around to "Music and Movement" programmes . . ."Now children imagine you are being blown about by the wind" . . . . .
Read more →What an evocative piece of poetry this is as far as I am concerned. Not just because of it's subject imagery but also because of the images and memories it evokes for me of school days and memories of sunshine and gazing out of the high classroom windows at the wide blue sky and . . . . well . . . dreaming. Does any one of a certain age . . . those of us born at a more comfortable distance from the apocalypse, shall we say . . . recall listening to poetry being broadcast over a huge communal radio which was listened to by all the school in the assembly hall? Oh! and we all used to dance around to "Music and Movement" programmes . . ."Now children imagine you are being blown about by the wind" . . . . .
- From guest Bob Johns (contact)
Talking to my grand childen and my daughter (A Teacher) in Harrogate. They asked me to recall the words of Alice in Wonderland, The owl and the Pussy cat and various old songs, Window cleaner-George Formby and Stanley Holloway with Marriott Edgar's Albert and the Lion. Suddenly dirty british coaster and smokestacks came into my head as a poem we were "encouraged" to learn at school. Devonport High School actually in Plymouth. We too were to make the leap to galleons in the Channel, (Sir Francis Drake)the Armada and the numeroys other ships that ply their trade in the English Channel. I'm 62 now but still remember those days with fondness while I look forward to retirement here in Philadelphia, USA. Thank you,
Read more →Talking to my grand childen and my daughter (A Teacher) in Harrogate. They asked me to recall the words of Alice in Wonderland, The owl and the Pussy cat and various old songs, Window cleaner-George Formby and Stanley Holloway with Marriott Edgar's Albert and the Lion. Suddenly dirty british coaster and smokestacks came into my head as a poem we were "encouraged" to learn at school. Devonport High School actually in Plymouth. We too were to make the leap to galleons in the Channel, (Sir Francis Drake)the Armada and the numeroys other ships that ply their trade in the English Channel. I'm 62 now but still remember those days with fondness while I look forward to retirement here in Philadelphia, USA. Thank you,
- From guest Ian Billington (contact)
Alas, unlike most of the comments, I never had poetry introduced and read to me at school, some decicated chaucerian scholars and new age sci -fi afficionados - Ray Bradbury etc. I read just a two line exerpt in The Saturday Telegraph magazine some c. 9 yrs ago, and the words salt-caked smoke stack(like you Irene) have stuck with me since, how joyful to find the complete piece and to once again fit the Dirty British Coaster... Butting through the channel in the mad March days(Mad? -L. Carrol March Hares influence for fit - jumping seas ..presumably?) Thank you search engines.....
Read more →Alas, unlike most of the comments, I never had poetry introduced and read to me at school, some decicated chaucerian scholars and new age sci -fi afficionados - Ray Bradbury etc. I read just a two line exerpt in The Saturday Telegraph magazine some c. 9 yrs ago, and the words salt-caked smoke stack(like you Irene) have stuck with me since, how joyful to find the complete piece and to once again fit the Dirty British Coaster... Butting through the channel in the mad March days(Mad? -L. Carrol March Hares influence for fit - jumping seas ..presumably?) Thank you search engines.....
I-Like-Rhymes - Your experience probably matches that of a couple of generations of English pupils. I remember learning this and Sea Fever about 8 years after you and then having to re learn them a few years back.
There are many memorable phrases in both that stick easily in ones mind but the whole thing, though apparently simple, is so intricately crafted it is hard to remember it all.
Masefield is one of the top three sea poets that Britain produced.
Jim
PS Do they still have the horse fair in Appleby?
Read more →There are many memorable phrases in both that stick easily in ones mind but the whole thing, though apparently simple, is so intricately crafted it is hard to remember it all.
Masefield is one of the top three sea poets that Britain produced.
Jim
PS Do they still have the horse fair in Appleby?
- From guest Laurie Milner (contact)
Have been trying to recall this poem all day. Our class was make to learn it in about 1954 in the Appleby Council School in the UK. Appleby was then the County Town of Westmorland - now Cumbria. I obviously didn't learn it that well! TA.
Read more →Have been trying to recall this poem all day. Our class was make to learn it in about 1954 in the Appleby Council School in the UK. Appleby was then the County Town of Westmorland - now Cumbria. I obviously didn't learn it that well! TA.
- From guest Kath Cheadle (contact)
I was taught this lovely, evocative poem at junior school, back in the days when we received an education,and I will never forget it's beauty and simplicity. Our teacher emphasised the clever way Masefield used sybillant alliteration to suggest in one's mind the hissing of sleek prows through soft, blue mediterranian waters tipped by flashes of sunlight: sunny Palestine; sandalwood, cedarwood; stately Spanish galleons; emeralds, amethysts. In cold contrast, the final stanza sports hard, abrupt alliteration, as in Tyne coal, pig-lead and cheap tin trays. You can alsmost see the little, scruffy boat, puthering smoke, fighting its way through the choppy grey waters of the Channel, with its cargo rattling and clanking like the cheap tin trays!
Read more →I was taught this lovely, evocative poem at junior school, back in the days when we received an education,and I will never forget it's beauty and simplicity. Our teacher emphasised the clever way Masefield used sybillant alliteration to suggest in one's mind the hissing of sleek prows through soft, blue mediterranian waters tipped by flashes of sunlight: sunny Palestine; sandalwood, cedarwood; stately Spanish galleons; emeralds, amethysts. In cold contrast, the final stanza sports hard, abrupt alliteration, as in Tyne coal, pig-lead and cheap tin trays. You can alsmost see the little, scruffy boat, puthering smoke, fighting its way through the choppy grey waters of the Channel, with its cargo rattling and clanking like the cheap tin trays!
- From guest Sissil Tomlin-Baxter (contact)
I was using a bath soap that smelled of sandalwood and remembered this poem that was taught to me in primary school in a remote village in Jamaica in the early 60's. Love the poem and thank my teacher, Stanley McCalla, now dead, who taught me to appreciate those classic verses.
Read more →I was using a bath soap that smelled of sandalwood and remembered this poem that was taught to me in primary school in a remote village in Jamaica in the early 60's. Love the poem and thank my teacher, Stanley McCalla, now dead, who taught me to appreciate those classic verses.
- From guest bryn.moss (contact)
learnt at school some fifty years ago,perhaps in some way responsible for spending many years at sea.
learnt at school some fifty years ago,perhaps in some way responsible for spending many years at sea.
- From guest Lynn (contact)
like many others, I learned this poem at primary school where i was from 1960 to 1966. I have never forgotten 'dirty British coaster' and when googled up this came! It obviously made a deeep impression on many others. Those were the days when teachers really taught us!
Read more →like many others, I learned this poem at primary school where i was from 1960 to 1966. I have never forgotten 'dirty British coaster' and when googled up this came! It obviously made a deeep impression on many others. Those were the days when teachers really taught us!
- From guest Bill McFadden (contact)
How curious that a cosmetic company now sells a product "Nineva". (I think that is their spelling.) They should consider using "quinquireme" in their pitch. By the way, I too learned this poem in public school, ca. 1938. I am now 82 and still marvel in the joy such a beautiful poem can bring to one even after decades of slumber. Thank you cosmetic company for this awakening.
Read more →How curious that a cosmetic company now sells a product "Nineva". (I think that is their spelling.) They should consider using "quinquireme" in their pitch. By the way, I too learned this poem in public school, ca. 1938. I am now 82 and still marvel in the joy such a beautiful poem can bring to one even after decades of slumber. Thank you cosmetic company for this awakening.
- From guest T.G. Venkatnarayanan, B.A. (English Literature) (contact)
Quinquireme of Nineveh; Home they brought her warrior dead; Kulblai Khan were some of the unforgettable poems that were taught to us in my school in a suburban Bombay (now Mumbai) in the mid-fifties. I had forgotten some of the lines and hence I had to surf the internet for the same. Once more my old fading memories got activated. Thanks. The teaching standards were simply fantastic in India till mid-sixties. But alas I regret for the falling standards of n o t only English but everything.
Read more →Quinquireme of Nineveh; Home they brought her warrior dead; Kulblai Khan were some of the unforgettable poems that were taught to us in my school in a suburban Bombay (now Mumbai) in the mid-fifties. I had forgotten some of the lines and hence I had to surf the internet for the same. Once more my old fading memories got activated. Thanks. The teaching standards were simply fantastic in India till mid-sixties. But alas I regret for the falling standards of n o t only English but everything.
John Masefield Follow
Poet, novelist, dramatist and journalist, John Masefield's literary career was rich and varied, and although his reputation waned in later years, he is again being recognized for his wide range, encompassing ballads, nature poetry and mythological narrative, and for his attempt to make poetry a popular art.
John Masefield (1878-1967)
(English Poet Laureate, 1930-1967)
Read more → John Masefield (1878-1967)
(English Poet Laureate, 1930-1967)
Browse all Famous poems > By John Masefield
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