”Sea Fever” is one of English poet John Masefield’s best-known works. Masefield employs many poetic devices in his lyric poem, effectively conveying the speaker’s wanderlust and love of the seafaring life.
The poem will be about a sailor who becomes ill at sea.
A former sailor longs to return to the sea. He loves everything about the sea and will not be happy again until he can visit it again. His desire is so strong it is almost a compulsion.
Masefield's personification humanizes the sea and suggests that the speaker shares a personal relationship with the wind and water. The cold, gray setting is portrayed as beautiful and invigorating.
The speaker's repetition of the opening line, "I must go down to the seas again", creates a sense of compulsion. The tone is one of passionate yearning.
The poem does not shift. Each stanza repeats the speaker's desire to return to the sea, providing different memories that the speaker treasures. The poem's consistent message emphasizes the strength of the sailor's call and evokes the repetitive sound of the ocean waves.
I must go down to the seas again...
After reading the poem, I see that the fever is not an illness, but an obsession. The poem is about a man obsessed with the sea and feverishly dreaming of another, perhaps a final, trip to sea.
The speaker is restless until he can follow his heart and return to sea. The poem suggests that contentment can be found in pursuing what you love.