The Poems and Plays of John Masefield, Volumes 1-2Macmillan Company, 1918 |
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Common terms and phrases
Anna beat beauty bells blind blood blow blue bones Bosun brain breath bright broken brook burning called Cape Horn cold cried daffodils dark Dauber Davy Jones dead dear death deck door drink earth eyes face felt fire flowers fo'c'sle furled futtock-shrouds Gaucho give glittering glow gone grass green grey hand head heard heart hell Henry Morgan hill horse Jimmy JOHN MASEFIELD knew light Lion living Loch Achray lonely look man's Mary masts Mate merry Michael mind moon mother never night Occleve oilskins paint passed Pauntley port Port Mahon road rose round running rigging sail ship Shropshire singing skysail song soul stars stay-sails stood sweet talk tell there's things thought took topsails town trembling tugboat turned wait wandering watch wild wind woman yard yarn
Popular passages
Page 82 - Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine, With a cargo of ivory, And apes and peacocks, Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine. Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus, Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores, With a cargo of diamonds, Emeralds, amethysts, Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores. Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke-stack Butting through the Channel in the mad March days, With a cargo of Tyne coal, Road-rail,...
Page 49 - ... swaying, tattered pennons fled, a broken, beaten few, And all a summer afternoon they hunted us and slew ; But to-morrow, By the living God, we'll try the game again! And here upon the turret-top the bale-fire glowers red, The wake-lights burn and drip about our hacked, disfigured dead, And many a broken heart is here and many a broken head; But to-morrow, By the living God, we'll try the game again!
Page 122 - By Dead Man's Thorn, while setting wires, Who should come up but Billy Myers, A friend of mine, who used to be As black a sprig of hell as me, With whom I'd planned, to save encroachin', Which fields and coverts each should poach in. Now when he saw me set my snare, He tells me "Get to hell from there. This field is mine," he says, "by right; If you poach here, there'll be a fight.
Page 101 - The old soul takes the roads again. Such is my own belief and trust; This hand, this hand that holds the pen, Has many a hundred times been dust And turned, as dust, to dust again; These eyes of mine have blinked and shone In Thebes, in Troy, in Babylon.
Page 108 - Where the shy-eyed delicate deer troop down to the brook to drink When the stars are mellow and large at the coming on of the night. O, to feel the beat of the rain, and the homely smell of the earth, Is a tune for the blood to jig to, a joy past power of words; And the blessed green comely meadows are all a-ripple with mirth At the noise of the lambs at play and the dear wild cry of the birds.
Page 82 - Cargoes QUINQUIREME of Nineveh from distant Ophir Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine With a cargo of ivory, And apes and peacocks, Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine. Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus, Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores, With a cargo of diamonds, Emeralds, amethysts, Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores. Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack Butting through the Channel in the mad March days, With a cargo of Tyne coal,...
Page 31 - 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...
Page 173 - Christ who holds the open gate, O Christ who drives the furrow straight, O Christ, the plough, O Christ, the laughter Of holy white birds flying after, Lo, all my heart's field red and torn, And Thou wilt bring the young green corn, The young green corn divinely springing, The young green corn forever singing...
Page 290 - Call all hands on deck!" The Dauber knew its meaning ; it was come : Cape Horn, that tramples beauty into wreck, And crumples steel and smites the strong man dumb. Down clattered flying kites and staysails : some Sang out in quick, high calls : the fair-leads skirled And from the south-west came the end of the world. "Caught in her ball-dress...
Page 446 - Among her crew the song spread, man to man, Until the singing rang across the bay ; And soon in other anchored ships the men Joined in the singing with clear throats, until The farm-boy heard it up the windy glen, Above the noise of sheep-bells on the hill. Over the water came the lifted song — Blind pieces in a mighty game we swing ; Life's battle is a conquest for the strong ; The meaning shows in the defeated thing.