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Famous Seafaring Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Seafaring poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous seafaring poems. These examples illustrate what a famous seafaring poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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by McGonagall, William Topaz
...ful ring of light,
And as the stranger looks thereon, it fills his heart with delight. 

Oh! think on the danger of seafaring men
If any of these mighty mountains where falling on them;
Alas! they would be killed ere the hand of man could them save
And, poor creatures, very likely find a watery grave! 

'Tis most beautiful to see and hear the whales whistling and blowing,
And the sailors in their small boats quickly after them rowing,
While the whales keep lashing the wat...Read more of this...



by Edgar, Marriott
...I'll tell you a seafaring story, 
Of a lad who won honour and fame 
Wi' Nelson at Battle 'Trafalgar, 
Joe Moggeridge, that were his name. 

He were one of the crew of the Victory, 
His job when a battle begun 
Was to take cannon balls out o' basket 
And shove 'em down front end o' gun. 

One day him and Nelson were boxing, 
The compass, like sailor lads do. 
Whe...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ow rocks retain 
The sound of blustering winds, which all night long 
Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull 
Seafaring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance 
Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay 
After the tempest. Such applause was heard 
As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleased, 
Advising peace: for such another field 
They dreaded worse than Hell; so much the fear 
Of thunder and the sword of Michael 
Wrought still within them; and no less desire 
To found t...Read more of this...

by Gibran, Kahlil
...peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements? 

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. 

If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. 

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction. 

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing; 

...Read more of this...

by Davies, William Henry
...ever draped by Doubt: to them 
Death was a rainbow in Eternity, 
That promised everlasting brightness soon. 
An old seafaring man was he; a rough 
Old man, but kind; and hairy, like the nut 
Full of sweet milk. All day on shore he watched 
The winds for sailors' wives, and told what ships 
Enjoyed fair weather, and what ships had storms; 
He watched the sky, and he could tell for sure 
What afternoons would follow stormy morns, 
If quiet nights would end wild afternoo...Read more of this...



by Dyke, Henry Van
...trife with each other and Spain; 
And battle and storm sent a myriad ships
to sleep in the depths of the main; 
But the seafaring spirit could never be drowned,
and it filled up the fleets again. 

They greatened and grew, with the aid of steam,
to a wonderful, vast array,
That carries the thoughts and the traffic of men
into every harbor and bay;
And now in the world-wide work of the ships
'tis England that leads the way. 

O well for the leading that follows the law...Read more of this...

by Miller, Alice Duer
...uth town 
To welcome her sailors, common men, 
She herself, as she used to say, 
Being' mere English' as much as they— 
Seafaring men who sailed away 
From rocky inlet and wooded bay, 
Free men, undisciplined, uncontrolled, 
Some of them pirates and all of them bold, 
Feeling their fate was England's fate, 
Coming to save it a little late, 
Much too late for the easy way,
Much too late, and yet never quite
Too late to win in that last worst fight.

And I thought of Hampde...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...I

What's become of Waring
Since he gave us all the slip,
Chose land-travel or seafaring,
Boots and chest, or staff and scrip,
Rather than pace up and down
Any longer London-town?

Who'd have guessed it from his lip,
Or his brow's accustomed bearing,
On the night he thus took ship,
Or started landward?—little caring
For us, it seems, who supped together,
(Friends of his too, I remember)
And walked home through the merry weather,
The sn...Read more of this...

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