“Sea Fever” Summary

“Sea Fever” Themes

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  Freedom and Nature

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• 

  Adventure and Wanderlust

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sea Fever”

• Lines 1-2

  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;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-6

  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;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-8

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-10

  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;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-12

  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.

  

  

  

  

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“Sea Fever” Symbols

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  The Sea

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“Sea Fever” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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“Sea Fever” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• I must down
• Tall ship
• Flung
• Spume
• Vagrant
• Gypsy
• Whetted
• Fellow-rover
• Yarn
• The long trick

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sea Fever”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Sea Fever” Speaker

“Sea Fever” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Sea Fever”

More “Sea Fever” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Set to Music — Listen to a musical arrangement of the poem by John Ireland. 

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to Masefield himself reading the poem out loud.

  • More About the Poet — Read a brief biography and more of Masefield's poems at the Poetry Foundation.

  • The Poem in Print — Explore the first edition of Salt-Water Ballads, in which "Sea Fever" originally appeared. 

  • More about Masefield — Read an in-depth look at Masefield's life and career from the New York Review of Books.