Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios. I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Thursday, June 1st, 2003.

Today's poem is by John Masefield, who was a British poet laureate at the beginning of the 20th century.

And like many great writers before him, he had a brief career as a sailor before he really took off as a paid writer. And today's poem

is inspired by his time on the high seas.

It's called Sea Fever.

I will read it once,

then offer a few comments,

then read it one more time.

Sea Fever.

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea in the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, and the wheels kick in the wind's song and the white sails shaking,

and a gray mist on the sea seas face and a gray 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 seagulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

to the gulls way and the whales way with a winds like a wetted knife.

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover and a quiet sleep and a sweet

dream when the long tricks over.

As I said, John Maysfield was the UK's Poet Laureate, and he held that position for nearly

40 years under four different monarchs, from the 1930s to the 1960s.

After some unhappy school days, Maysfield embarked on a naval training ship, hoping to pursue

a life at sea and break what his family considered

...