Fever Ship
There’ll be no weepin’ gells ashore when our ship sails,Nor no crews cheerin’ us, standin’ at the rails,’N’ no Blue Peter a-foul the royal stay,For we’ve the Yellow Fever--Harry died to-day.--It’s cruel when a fo’c’s’le gets the fever!
’N’ Dick has got the fever-shakes, ’n’ look what I was told(I went to get a sack for him to keep him from the cold):‘Sir, can I have a sack?’ I says, ‘for Dick ’e’s fit to die.’‘Oh, sack be shot!’ the skipper says, ‘jest let the rotter lie!’--It’s cruel when a fo’c’s’le gets the fever!
It’s a cruel port is Santos, and a hungry land,With rows o’ graves already dug in yonder strip of sand,’N’ Dick is hollerin’ up the hatch, ’e says ’e’s goin’ blue,His pore teeth are chattering, ’n’ what’s a man to do?--It’s cruel when a fo’c’s’le gets the fever!
Words in this poem
- harry v. i.
- To make a predatory incursion; to plunder or lay waste.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- skipper n.
- One who, or that which, skips.
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- chattering n.
- The act or habit of talking idly or rapidly, or of making inarticulate sounds; the sounds so made; noise made by the collision of the teeth; chatter.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fever Ship is in the public domain. This text is taken from Salt-Water Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #52761; 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, Fever Ship, in Salt-Water Ballads (1902), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #52761, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-salt-water/fever-ship.html, id L12648.
Form and metre
Fever Ship is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.8 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 AABB- sailsA · railsA · stayB · dayB · fever
- 2 AABB- toldA · coldA · dieB · lieB · fever
- 3 AABB- landA · sandA · blueB · doB · fever
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There’ll be no weepin’ gells ashore when our ship sails, | 14 | /˘·····˘/·/˘·· |
| Nor no crews cheerin’ us, standin’ at the rails, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| ’N’ no Blue Peter a-foul the royal stay, | 11 | ···/˘···/˘· |
| For we’ve the Yellow Fever--Harry died to-day.-- | 12 | ···/˘/˘/˘··· |
| It’s cruel when a fo’c’s’le gets the fever! | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| ’N’ Dick has got the fever-shakes, ’n’ look what I was told | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| (I went to get a sack for him to keep him from the cold): | 14 | ·············· |
| ‘Sir, can I have a sack?’ I says, ‘for Dick ’e’s fit to die.’ | 14 | ·············· |
| ‘Oh, sack be shot!’ the skipper says, ‘jest let the rotter lie!’-- | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘· |
| It’s cruel when a fo’c’s’le gets the fever! | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| It’s a cruel port is Santos, and a hungry land, | 13 | ··/˘··/˘··/˘· |
| With rows o’ graves already dug in yonder strip of sand, | 14 | ····˘/˘··/˘··· |
| ’N’ Dick is hollerin’ up the hatch, ’e says ’e’s goin’ blue, | 15 | ············/˘· |
| His pore teeth are chattering, ’n’ what’s a man to do?-- | 13 | ····/˘˘······ |
| It’s cruel when a fo’c’s’le gets the fever! | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
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.