Summary
"Sea Fever" is a celebrated poem by John Masefield (1878–1967), an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1930. The poem captures the speaker's irresistible longing to return to the sea. This yearning is expressed through the repeated opening line, "I must go down to the seas again," which conveys a compulsion that cannot be ignored.
The poem has three stanzas, each consisting of four lines. In the first stanza, the poet describes his desire to go to the lonely sea under the open sky. He asks for nothing more than a tall ship and a guiding star (the North Star or Pole Star) to navigate by. He recalls the sensory pleasures of sailing — the kick of the ship's wheel, the song of the wind, the shaking of the white sail, and the grey mist and dawn over the sea.
In the second stanza, the poet says the call of the running tide is wild and clear and cannot be denied. He longs for a windy day with white clouds flying, the spray of the sea, blown foam (spume), and the cry of sea-gulls.