Port of Holy Peter
The blue laguna rocks and quivers,Dull gurgling eddies twist and spin,The climate does for people's livers,It's a nasty place to anchor inIs Spanish port,Fever port,Port of Holy Peter.
The town begins on the sea-beaches,And the town's mad with the stinging flies,The drinking water's mostly leeches,It's a far remove from ParadiseIs Spanish port,Fever port,Port of Holy Peter.
There's sand-bagging and throat-slitting,And quiet graves in the sea same,Stabbing, of course, and rum-hitting,Dirt, and drink, and stink, and crime,In Spanish port,Fever port,Port of Holy Peter.
All the day the wind's blowingFrom the sick swamp below the hills,All the night the plague's growing,And the dawn brings the fever chills,In Spanish port,Fever port,Port of Holy Peter.
You get a thirst there's no slaking,You get the chills and fever-shakes,Tongue yellow and head aching,And then the sleep that never wakes.And all the year the heat's baking,The sea rots and the earth quakes,In Spanish port,Fever port,Port of Holy Peter.
Words in this poem
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Port of Holy Peter is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #40717; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Masefield, Port of Holy Peter, in The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #40717, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-round-house/port-of-holy-peter.html, id L24997.
Form and metre
Port of Holy Peter is 37 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 ABABCC- quiversA · spinB · liversA · inB · portC · portC · peter
- 2 AAA-BB- beachesA · fliesA · leechesA · paradise · portB · portB · peter
- 3 A-A-BB- slittingA · same · hittingA · crime · portB · portB · peter
- 4 ABABCC- blowingA · hillsB · growingA · chillsB · portC · portC · peter
- 5 ABABABCC- slakingA · shakesB · achingA · wakesB · bakingA · quakesB · portC · portC · peter
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The blue laguna rocks and quivers, | 9 | ··˘/˘··/˘ |
| Dull gurgling eddies twist and spin, | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| The climate does for people's livers, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| It's a nasty place to anchor in | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| Is Spanish port, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Fever port, | 3 | /˘· |
| Port of Holy Peter. | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| The town begins on the sea-beaches, | 9 | ··˘/···/˘ |
| And the town's mad with the stinging flies, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| The drinking water's mostly leeches, | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| It's a far remove from Paradise | 9 | ···˘/·/˘· |
| Is Spanish port, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Fever port, | 3 | /˘· |
| Port of Holy Peter. | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| There's sand-bagging and throat-slitting, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And quiet graves in the sea same, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Stabbing, of course, and rum-hitting, | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Dirt, and drink, and stink, and crime, | 7 | ······· |
| In Spanish port, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Fever port, | 3 | /˘· |
| Port of Holy Peter. | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| All the day the wind's blowing | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| From the sick swamp below the hills, | 8 | ········ |
| All the night the plague's growing, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And the dawn brings the fever chills, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In Spanish port, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Fever port, | 3 | /˘· |
| Port of Holy Peter. | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| You get a thirst there's no slaking, | 8 | ········ |
| You get the chills and fever-shakes, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Tongue yellow and head aching, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And then the sleep that never wakes. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And all the year the heat's baking, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The sea rots and the earth quakes, | 7 | ······· |
| In Spanish port, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Fever port, | 3 | /˘· |
| Port of Holy Peter. | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
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.