: The Story of a Round-House and Other Poems by Masefield John - English poetry 20th century

@FreeBooks

Posted in: #FreeBooks #FreeBooksIndia #FreeBooksApp #gg

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

Dauber

Biography

Ships Truth They closed her Eyes The Harp I saw the Ramparts That Blessed Sunlight Song The Ballad of Sir Bors Spanish Waters Cargoes Captain Stratton's Fancy An Old Song re-sung St. Mary's Bells London Town The Emigrant Port of Holy Peter Beauty The Seekers Prayer Dawn Laugh and be Merry June Twilight Roadways Midsummer Night The Harper's Song The Gentle Lady The Dead Knight Sorrow of Mydath Twilight Invocation Posted as Missing A Creed When Bony Death The West Wind Her Heart Being her Friend Fragments Born for Nought Else Tewkesbury Road The Death Rooms Ignorance Sea Fever The Watch in the Wood C. L. M. Waste Third Mate The Wild Duck Christmas, 1903 The Word

THE STORY OF A ROUND-HOUSE AND OTHER POEMS

DAUBER

I

Four bells were struck, the watch was called on deck, All work aboard was over for the hour, And some men sang and others played at check, Or mended clothes or watched the sunset glower. The bursting west was like an opening flower, And one man watched it till the light was dim, But no one went across to talk to him.

He was the painter in that swift ship's crew, Lampman and painter--tall, a slight-built man, Young for his years, and not yet twenty-two; Sickly, and not yet brown with the sea's tan. Bullied and damned at since the voyage "Being neither man nor seaman by his tally," He bunked with the idlers just abaft the galley.

His work began at five; he worked all day, Keeping no watch and having all night in. His work was what the mate might care to say; He mixed red lead in many a bouilli tin; His dungarees were smeared with paraffin. "Go drown himself" his round-house mates advised him, And all hands called him "Dauber" and despised him.

Si, the apprentice, stood beside the spar, Stripped to the waist, a basin at his side, Slushing his hands to get away the tar, And then he washed himself and rinsed and dried; Towelling his face, hair-towzelled, eager eyed, He crossed the spar to Dauber, and there stood Watching the gold of heaven turn to blood.

They stood there by the rail while the swift ship Tore on out of the tropics, straining her sheets, Whitening her trackway to a milky strip, Dim with green bubbles and twisted water meets, Her clacking tackle tugged at pins and cleats, Her great sails bellied stiff, her great masts leaned: They watched how the seas struck and burst and greened.

Si talked with Dauber, standing by the side. "Why did you come to sea, painter?" he said. "I want to be a painter," he replied, "And know the sea and ships from A to Z, And paint great ships at sea before I'm dead; Ships under skysails running down the Trade-- Ships and the sea; there's nothing finer made.

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

(0)

Login to post a comment!