Third Mate
All the sheets are clacking, all the blocks are whining,The sails are frozen stiff and the wetted decks are shining;The reef's in the topsails, and it's coming on to blow,And I think of the dear girl I left long ago.
Grey were her eyes, and her hair was long and bonny,Golden was her hair, like the wild bees' honey.And I was but a dog, and a mad one to despise,The gold of her hair and the grey of her eyes.
There's the sea before me, and my home's behind me,And beyond there the strange lands where nobody will mind me,No one but the girls with the paint upon their cheeks,Who sell away their beauty to whomsoever seeks.
There'll be drink and women there, and songs and laughter,Peace from what is past and from all that follows after;And a fellow will forget how a woman lies awake,Lonely in the night watch crying for his sake.
Black it blows and bad and it howls like slaughter,And the ship she shudders as she takes the water.Hissing flies the spindrift like a wind-blown smoke,And I think of a woman and a heart I broke.
Words in this poem
- bonny a.
- Handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful. [OE. boni, prob. fr. F. bon, fem. bonne, good, fr. L. bonus good. See Bounty, and cf. Bonus, Boon.]
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
- whomsoever pron.
- The objective of whosoever. See Whosoever.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Third Mate 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, Third Mate, 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/third-mate.html, id L25026.
Form and metre
Third Mate is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 AABB whiningA · shiningA · blowB · agoB
- 2 --AA bonny · honey · despiseA · eyesA
- 3 AABB meA · meA · cheeksB · seeksB
- 4 AABB laughterA · afterA · awakeB · sakeB
- 5 AABB slaughterA · waterA · smokeB · brokeB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| All the sheets are clacking, all the blocks are whining, | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
| The sails are frozen stiff and the wetted decks are shining; | 14 | ···/˘···/˘··/˘ |
| The reef's in the topsails, and it's coming on to blow, | 13 | ········/˘··· |
| And I think of the dear girl I left long ago. | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| Grey were her eyes, and her hair was long and bonny, | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Golden was her hair, like the wild bees' honey. | 11 | /˘·······/˘ |
| And I was but a dog, and a mad one to despise, | 13 | ···········˘/ |
| The gold of her hair and the grey of her eyes. | 11 | ··········· |
| There's the sea before me, and my home's behind me, | 12 | ············ |
| And beyond there the strange lands where nobody will mind me, | 14 | ········/····· |
| No one but the girls with the paint upon their cheeks, | 12 | ············ |
| Who sell away their beauty to whomsoever seeks. | 13 | ··˘/·/˘··˘/˘· |
| There'll be drink and women there, and songs and laughter, | 13 | /˘···/˘····/˘ |
| Peace from what is past and from all that follows after; | 13 | ·········/˘·· |
| And a fellow will forget how a woman lies awake, | 14 | ··/˘·˘/··/˘·˘/ |
| Lonely in the night watch crying for his sake. | 11 | /˘····/˘··· |
| Black it blows and bad and it howls like slaughter, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And the ship she shudders as she takes the water. | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
| Hissing flies the spindrift like a wind-blown smoke, | 11 | /˘··/˘····· |
| And I think of a woman and a heart I broke. | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
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.