The Full Text of “Sea Fever”
1I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
2And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
3And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
4And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
5I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
6Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
7And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
8And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
9I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
10To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
11And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
12And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
The Full Text of “Sea Fever”
1I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
2And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
3And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
4And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
5I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
6Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
7And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
8And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
9I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
10To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
11And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
12And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
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“Sea Fever” Introduction
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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.
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“Sea Fever” Summary
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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.
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“Sea Fever” Themes
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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.
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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.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sea Fever”
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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;The poem begins with the speaker's proclamation that he "must [go] down to the seas again." He might be stuck on land right now, but in his heart, a sailor's life is the life for him: this will be a poem about wanderlust, an unquenchable and "feverish" thirst for the freedom of the ocean.
This speaker's urgent repetitions prove that he can hardly think of anything but getting back out on the open water. For instance, the poem's first words, "I must down to the seas again," will repeat at the beginning of every stanza, their anaphora creating a kind of longing refrain. And when the speaker says that that he wishes to return "to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky," his polyptoton makes him sound deeply preoccupied, almost obsessed.
This "lonely" sea is a symbol of freedom and adventure. Out on the ocean, the speaker feels, he can follow his own nose, without other people around to tell him what to do or where to go.
The speaker goes on to say that the only things he really wants are "a tall ship" (i.e., a sailing ship with high masts) and a "star" he can use to navigate. The sibilant /s/ alliteration in "sea" and "sky" and /st/ alliteration in "star" and "steer" evokes waves breaking in an otherwise silent night. These musical sounds suggest the speaker finds the thought of being out on the ocean all alone quite romantic. In fact, the poem reads an awful lot like a love letter—to seafaring!
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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. -
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; -
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. -
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; -
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
For the speaker of this poem, the sea is a symbol of freedom and adventure. Its "lonel[iness]" beckons to him because it represents his freedom to make his own choices; nobody's going to tell him what to do or where to go. He can "steer" his ship through the ocean's wild expanse, using only the night sky for a map. Like the "gull" and the "whale," he gets to make his own "way" in life.
He is also drawn to the "wild[ness]" of the sea, to the "vagrant" ways of his "fellow-rovers." In other words, part of the appeal of this life at sea is that he never stays still for long. At sea, he is always moving, always discovering new places, never putting down roots. He hopes he can keep moving his whole life, following "the call of the running tide" until the day he dies.
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“Sea Fever” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Anaphora
Each stanza of the poem begins with anaphora: the speaker repeats, "I must down to the seas again." This obsessive repetition suggests that the speaker can think of nothing but returning to the sea: his thoughts are practically on a loop! Each of these moments of anaphora introduces an entire stanza of supporting imagery that paints a picture of the life the speaker so desires.
Each stanza also repeats the phrase, "And all I ask is a [...]." This anaphora draws attention to the details of the speaker's longings. He wants a "tall ship and a star to steer her by," a "windy day with the white clouds flying," and a "merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover." By introducing these variations on a single theme—the delights of sailing—anaphora suggests that what's fundamentally important is that the speaker get out to sea again.
The poem also uses polysyndeton to create a wavelike rhythm. Take 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.The repetition of "and" strings images together and gives the poem a fluid, bouncing, downright oceanic rhythm.
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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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This just means "I must go down."
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sea Fever”
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Form
The poem consists of three four-line stanzas, or quatrains. Each stanza begins with the same, insistent phrase: "I must down to the seas again." These repetitions give the poem an incantatory feel: the speaker seems almost to be casting a spell, summoning up a life in which he is free to wander the ocean forever.
Other repetitions (like the echoing "call" in lines 5-6) evoke the rhythmic rise and fall of waves, while continuing to emphasize the speaker's desire to be back on the sea where he belongs.
The poem's shape mimics the ocean, too. The lines are quite long, so the poem on the page is wider than it is tall. This expansive shape evokes the open expanse of the sea, and the freedom for which the speaker so longs.
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Meter
"Sea Fever" isn't written in one specific meter. Instead, it mixes different kinds of metrical feet to create a rhythm with room for variation and surprise—fitting for a poem about freedom and adventure!
The poem's changing rhythms also mirror the sea's changing moods. Take a look at line 4, for instance:
And a | grey mist | on the | sea's face, | and a | grey dawn | breaking.
This line starts out by alternating pyrrhic feet (that is, two unstressed metrical feet in a row, da-da)—and spondees (two stressed feet in a row, DUM-DUM). Then, the final foot of the line is a trochee (a stressed-unstressed foot, DUM-da).
Overall, this rhythm is predictable and soothing, like waves hitting the sides of the ship—but the hiccup at the end reminds readers that the sea is constantly in motion and its rhythms are always changing.
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Rhyme Scheme
"Sea Fever" uses this simple rhyme scheme:
AABB
In other words, each stanza is built from two rhymed couplets. This straightforward pattern evokes the speaker's simple-but-intense love for the sea. Its singsongy feeling might even call sea shanties to mind.
The poem also uses alternating patterns of so-called "masculine" and "feminine" rhymes. The first couplet of each stanza is always masculine, which means the rhyme is on a single stressed syllable: for instance, "sky" and "by." The second couplet is always feminine, which means that the rhymes close on unstressed syllables: for instance, "rover" and "over." Swinging back and forth between these two flavors of rhyme, the poem evokes a ship rolling over the waves.
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“Sea Fever” Speaker
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The speaker of this poem is an adventurer and a wanderer, someone who itches to get back to his life as a sailor. He isn't cut out for dry land, it seems; he needs the "lonel[iness]" and "wild[ness]" of the ocean, where he is free to roam and make his own "way" in life.
He is drawn to aspects of seafaring that other people might find difficult or strange: not just the "lonely" isolation of the sea, but the danger of the "flung spray" and "blown spume," and the wind "like a whetted knife." Yet these challenges excite the speaker and beckon him on; he can't resist "the call of the running tide," and it seems that when "the long trick" (i.e. his turn at the helm of this ship—but also, metaphorically, his life) is "over," there will be nothing left for him to do but sleep. In other words, seafaring is the only life he imagines for himself.
Note: while we're calling the speaker "he" in this guide, the speaker doesn't have a clear gender. The poem's early-20th-century context makes it likely the speaker is male—women were rarely sailors at the time—but readers don't have to interpret the poem this way!
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“Sea Fever” Setting
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The setting of "Sea Fever" is, unsurprisingly, the sea! But it's the sea of the speaker's memory. Recalling former voyages, the speaker dreams of returning to the freedom and adventure of a seafaring life. He describes this life in great detail and with great admiration; everything from "the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking" to the "grey mist" and "grey dawn breaking" over the surface of the water appeals to him.
This setting reveals how attracted to movement he is. It isn't just the beauty or openness of the sea that calls to him, but the wind which sends "white clouds flying," and all the commotion of "the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying." To him, clearly, the sea is a place of excitement and possibility.
He also describes the freedom and challenge of being surrounded by nature. Like him, the gulls and the whales find their own "way" through the waters. And the wind is sometimes a "song" and other times a "whetted" (or sharpened) knife. In other words, every day there is something new to contend with; the sea is wild and free, and it allows the speaker to be wild and free as well.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Sea Fever”
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Literary Context
In December of 1895, 17-year-old John Masefield was deeply moved to read Canadian poet Duncan Cambell Scott's “The Piper of Arll” in a New York magazine. He later wrote to Scott saying that, thanks to this poem, poetry had become the single most important influence in his life.
While working for a carpet factory in New York from 1895-1897, Masefield devoured as many books as he could get his hands on; he had a wide range of interests, but he became particularly interested in the work of English poets Geoffrey Chaucer, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. "Sea Fever" in particular shows the influence of Romanticism in its speaker's love of nature and his desire to lead a "lonely," inspired life.
In 1897 Masefield met English poet W.B. Yeats, with whom he would become close friends, and began writing prolifically. By the time Masefield died in 1967, he had served as Poet Laureate of England and published around 50 books of poetry, as well as a number of novels, plays, and memoirs.
“Sea Fever,” which remains Masefield’s best-known poem, first appeared in his book Salt-Water Ballads in 1902. Many of the poems from this collection would be re-released by Macmillan in 1916 after the success of Masefield's 1911 book The Everlasting Mercy, which details a common man’s confession as he turns from a life of sin to Christianity. The directness of this book-length poem's language was considered shocking in its day, and it is now seen as an exemplar of Georgianism, the literary movement that bridges the gap between Victorian poetry and Modernism.
Historical Context
John Masefield was born in Herefordshire, England, in 1878. Orphaned at a young age, he attended boarding school before spending several years aboard the HMS Conway, apprenticing to become a merchant navy officer. Unlike the speaker of “Sea Fever,” Masefield struggled with life at sea, often succumbing to sea-sickness and sunstroke. But he was passionate about seafaring lore, and spent much of his time aboard the Conway reading, writing, and listening to the stories of sailors. Eventually, he would publish a memoir, New Chum, about this time in his life.
“Sea Fever” can be seen as a response to the tradition of sea shanties—that is, nautical folk songs. These songs were meant not for entertainment but rather to assist in hard group labor like scrubbing decks or hoisting sails; the strong rhythms of the shanties helped sailors to coordinate their efforts. As steam power began to replace manual labor in the early 20th century, the sea shanty lost its practical purpose, but sailors and folk musicians kept on singing them. As a student of sea lore, it is likely that Masefield wrote “Sea Fever” from a similar impulse to preserve nautical memories.
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More “Sea Fever” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Set to Music — Listen to a musical arrangement of the poem by John Ireland.
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to Masefield himself reading the poem out loud.
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More About the Poet — Read a brief biography and more of Masefield's poems at the Poetry Foundation.
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The Poem in Print — Explore the first edition of Salt-Water Ballads, in which "Sea Fever" originally appeared.
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More about Masefield — Read an in-depth look at Masefield's life and career from the New York Review of Books.
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