In my October 14, 2006 post, I re-published the poem, Sea-Fever, by John Masefield. It is a favorite of mine, and probably one of the most popular poems in the English Language.
I added a footnote stating that an error had appeared in the first line of each stanza in some later printings of the poem. In the original 1902 edition of Salt-water Ballads, the line reads, I MUST down to the seas again... Apparently, some editors, believing that down is an adverb, not a verb, and believing that you do not capitalize the letters of a word mid-sentence, changed the text to read, I must go down to the seas again...
As I learned from my favorite English professor in college, I stated that these grammatical "corrections" alter the meter and change the emphasis of the first line.
Read it yourself: "I MUST down to the seas again..."
Or, "I must go Down to the seas again..."
Now, which of those readings more strongly conveys the strength of the poet's urge to return to the seas?
Although it is no doubt mandatory in our present age of English illiteracy, this belief of editors that they can "correct," or somehow improve upon the works of a writer bothers me. It is much more irritating in poetry, in which the writer may intentionally break the rules of prose grammar to emphasize a point, as Masefield did in Sea-Fever. After all,that's what poetry is all about. Editors know their spelling and grammar, but most of them don't understand poetry that well.
Recently, I obtained a copy of the 1958 Caedmon recording of John Masefield reading his own poems. At last I could hear Sea Fever in the poet's own voice. To my astonishment, the 80 year-old poet reads, I must go down to the seas again...!
His reading did not convey the urgency of the original poem at all. I asked myself, "Was he reading it from one of the erroneous printings? Did he merely overlook the subtle difference from his original verse? Did he just not care? Or was it all of the above?"
We will probably never know the answers. Masefield passed away in 1967. I doubt that anyone ever bothered him with this minor confusion about his famous poem. But for me, it is the difference between good poetry and great poetry. It will always be, I MUST down to the seas again, the lonely sea and the sky...
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2 comments:
How sad to see that a year and more has passed, Poochie, and no-one answered your excellent commentary on the strange history of "I must down to the seas again"....
Perhaps it's too late for you to come across this comment of mine.
But I was delighted to read what you wrote. I've always known that the original was "I must down...", more powerful, more compelling, and enshrining the old English usage whereby you might say, "I must to sea", or "We must to land".
Schoolmasters in my youth (in the UK - I'm now an English Professor at Brooklyn College - and once taught at Cornell, your alma mater) always said "I must go down...", an easier cadence with ready iambic urgency - but banal.
It's so sad to me to know that Masefield himself succumbed to the popular vulgarisation, for motives unknown - as you accurately say, mentioning various possibilities. You rightly include among these the possibility that Masefield himself had come to think, as so many people did, that he written, "I must go down...". Or, as you say, ceased to care; or was content to conspire with the new, cheap modification; or no longer wanted to fight for what he wrote so many years earlier, which might now sound antique.
It is, in a technical sense, antique - antique syntax. But ever-living, powerful metre, more urgent and more flexible. There's only one way to utter, "I must go down to the seas again..." (and Masefield had given his life to the importance of utterance, as well as to poetry, since for him the two had been inseparable); but there are many ways to speak, "I must down to the seas again". You can throw the emphasis onto the "I" and the "down", reversing the iambic tread of "I must go down" and making a much darker, more suffocating trochaic beat, "I must DOWN"; or you can do what much of the poem does and put two 'long' syllables together for stunning impact, and say, "I MUST DOWN to the seas again" - which delivers not only the addiction, the need to go down to the seas again, but also the resistance to addiction, as the two competing syllables, "MUST DOWN" struggle against metre itself before giving way to the tide of feeling, and then run down to the seas.
I teach Sea Fever every year; every time we look at poetry we look at Sea Fever first. It is a lesson in how to understand sound in poetry, and a lesson in metre and scansion. It also contains a fascinating illustration of how the eye reads ahead of itself, always. The last line, And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over, delivers an uppercut made possible by what we subconsciously think we see coming: ".. when the long trip's over". The astonishing turnabout of "trick", so much more profound and provocative than the mere "trip" of life, is one of the most remarkable sleights of hand in all poetry.
And it reveals how at 20 Masefield was already full of the deep sadness about life that accompanied for him, its joys.
Hope this finds you!
Best regards,
Carey Harrison
I am gladdened, Professor Harrison, to receive and post your comment on 'Sea Fever.' At last I have encountered someone who shares my sentiments.
It may seem strange that an electrical engineer diverts energy to a simple poem, but I was inspired by my own sea experience in the Navy, by my father, who taught high school English, and by an unforgettable professor at Cornell.
You mention that you once taught at Cornell. Perhaps you were fortunate, as I was, to meet the late Professor George Healey. It was in his survey course on English Literature (for non-English majors) that I first experienced the full meaning and beauty of this little poem by Masefield, along with the works of Byron, Keats, Wordsworth, Yeats, Thomas, and many others. Professor Healey brought the printed word to life with a vibrant and exciting lecture style that made his course one of the most popular on campus.
Thank you for your comment.
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