Sea Change
"Goneys an' gullies an' all o' the birds o' the sea They ain't no birds, not really", said Billy the Dane. "Not mollies, nor gullies, nor goneys at all", said he, "But simply the spirits of mariners livin' again." "Them birds goin' fishin' is nothin' but the souls o' the drowned, Souls o' the drowned, an' the kicked as are never no more An' that there haughty old albatross cruisin' around, Belike he's Admiral Nelson or Admiral Noah." "An' merry's the life they are living.
They settle and dip, They fishes, they never stands watches, they waggle their wings;
When a ship comes by, they fly to look at the ship To see how the nowaday mariners manages things." "When freezing aloft in a snorter I tell you I wish — (Though maybe it ain't like a Christian) — I wish I could be A haughty old copper-bound albatross dipping for fish And coming the proud over all o' the birds o' the sea."
John Masefield
Other author posts
The Passing Strange
Out of the earth to rest or Perpetual in perpetual change, The unknown passing through the strange Water and saltness held
Sonnet II
Forget all these, the barren fool in power, The madman in command, the jealous O, The bitter world, biting its bitter hour, The cruel now, the happy long ago
On Eastnor Knoll
Silent are the woods, and the dim green boughs are Hushed in the twilight: yonder, in the path through The apple orchard, is a tired plough-boy Calling the cows home A bright white star blinks, the pale moon rounds, but Still the red, lurid w...
Night Is On The Downland
Night is on the downland, on the lonely moorland, On the hills where the wind goes over sheep-bitten turf, Where the bent grass beats upon the unplowed poorland And the pine-woods roar like the surf Here the Roman lived on the wind-...
