The Sea-Change
Where river and ocean meet in a great tempestuous frown,Beyond the bar, where on the dunes the white-capped rollers break;Above, one windmill stands forlorn on the arid, grassy down:I will set my sail on a stormy day and cross the bar and seekThat I have sought and never found, the exquisite one crown,Which crowns one day with all its calm the passionate and the weak.
When the mad winds are unreined, wilt thou not storm, my sea?(I have ever loved thee so, I have ever done thee wrongIn drear terrestrial ways.) When I trust myself to theeWith a last great hope, arise and sing thine ultimate, great songSung to so many better men, O sing at last to me,That which when once a man has heard, he heeds not over long.
I will bend my sail when the great day comes; thy kisses on my faceShall seal all things that are old, outworn; and anger and regretShall fade as the dreams and days shall fade, and in thy salt embrace,When thy fierce caresses blind mine eyes and my limbs grow starkand set,All that I know in all my mind shall no more have a place:The weary ways of men and one woman I shall forget.
Words in this poem
- windmill n.
- A mill operated by the power of the wind, usually by the action of the wind upon oblique vanes or sails which radiate from a horizontal shaft.
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sea-Change is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur Symons, Project Gutenberg ebook #8497; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Dowson, The Sea-Change, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/the-sea-change.html, id L01678.
Form and metre
The Sea-Change is 19 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.3 syllables. 37% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-ABAB frownA · break · downA · seekB · crownA · weakB
- 2 ABABAB seaA · wrongB · theeA · songB · meA · longB
- 3 ABA-BAB faceA · regretB · embraceA · stark · setB · placeA · forgetB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Where river and ocean meet in a great tempestuous frown, | 14 | ·/˘·/·····/˘˘· |
| Beyond the bar, where on the dunes the white-capped rollers break; | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| Above, one windmill stands forlorn on the arid, grassy down: | 15 | ···/··˘/··/˘/˘· |
| I will set my sail on a stormy day and cross the bar and seek | 16 | ·······/˘······· |
| That I have sought and never found, the exquisite one crown, | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘˘·· |
| Which crowns one day with all its calm the passionate and the weak. | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| When the mad winds are unreined, wilt thou not storm, my sea? | 14 | ·····/˘˘······ |
| (I have ever loved thee so, I have ever done thee wrong | 14 | ··/˘·····/˘··· |
| In drear terrestrial ways.) When I trust myself to thee | 14 | ··˘/˘˘·····/·· |
| With a last great hope, arise and sing thine ultimate, great song | 14 | ·····˘/···/˘·· |
| Sung to so many better men, O sing at last to me, | 14 | ···/˘/˘······· |
| That which when once a man has heard, he heeds not over long. | 14 | ·············· |
| I will bend my sail when the great day comes; thy kisses on my face | 16 | ···········/˘··· |
| Shall seal all things that are old, outworn; and anger and regret | 15 | ··········/˘·˘/ |
| Shall fade as the dreams and days shall fade, and in thy salt embrace, | 15 | ·············˘/ |
| When thy fierce caresses blind mine eyes and my limbs grow stark | 14 | ···˘/˘········ |
| and set, | 2 | ·· |
| All that I know in all my mind shall no more have a place: | 14 | ·············· |
| The weary ways of men and one woman I shall forget. | 14 | ·/˘·····/˘··˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.