The Turn of the Tide
An’ Bill can have my sea-boots, Nigger Jim can have my knife,You can divvy up the dungarees an’ bed,An’ the ship can have my blessing, an’ the Lord can have my life,An’ sails an’ fish my body when I’m dead.
An’ dreaming down below there in the tangled greens an’ blues,Where the sunlight shudders golden round about,I shall hear the ships complainin’ an’ the cursin’ of the crews,An’ be sorry when the watch is tumbled out.
I shall hear them hilly-hollying the weather crojick brace,And the sucking of the wash about the hull;When they chanty up the topsail I’ll be hauling in my place,For my soul will follow seawards like a gull.
I shall hear the blocks a-grunting in the bumpkins over-side,An’ the slatting of the storm-sails on the stay,An’ the rippling of the catspaw at the making of the tide,An’ the swirl and splash of porpoises at play.
An’ Bill can have my sea-boots, Nigger Jim can have my knife,You can divvy up the whack I haven’t scofft,An’ the ship can have my blessing and the Lord can have my life,For it’s time I quit the deck and went aloft.
Words in this poem
- nigger n.
- A negro; -- in vulgar derision or depreciation.
- 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,]
- slatting
- Slats, collectively.
- swirl v. t.
- To whirl, or cause to whirl, as in an eddy. [Akin to Norw. svirla to whirl, freq. of sverra to whirl, Dan. svirre, G. schwirren to whiz, to buzz. *177. See Swarm, n.]
- whack v. t.
- To strike; to beat; to give a heavy or resounding blow to; to thrash; to make with whacks. [Cf. Thwack.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Turn of the Tide 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, The Turn of the Tide, in Salt-Water Ballads (1902), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #52761, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-salt-water/the-turn-of-the-tide.html, id L12653.
Form and metre
The Turn of the Tide is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic heptameter. 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.8 syllables.
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 ABAB knifeA · bedB · lifeA · deadB
- 2 ABAB bluesA · aboutB · crewsA · outB
- 3 ABAB braceA · hullB · placeA · gullB
- 4 ABAB sideA · stayB · tideA · playB
- 5 A-A- knifeA · scofft · lifeA · aloft
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An’ Bill can have my sea-boots, Nigger Jim can have my knife, | 14 | ·······/˘····· |
| You can divvy up the dungarees an’ bed, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| An’ the ship can have my blessing, an’ the Lord can have my life, | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| An’ sails an’ fish my body when I’m dead. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| An’ dreaming down below there in the tangled greens an’ blues, | 14 | ·/˘······/˘··· |
| Where the sunlight shudders golden round about, | 11 | ··/·/˘/˘··· |
| I shall hear the ships complainin’ an’ the cursin’ of the crews, | 15 | ··············· |
| An’ be sorry when the watch is tumbled out. | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| I shall hear them hilly-hollying the weather crojick brace, | 15 | ····/˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
| And the sucking of the wash about the hull; | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| When they chanty up the topsail I’ll be hauling in my place, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| For my soul will follow seawards like a gull. | 11 | ····/˘/˘··· |
| I shall hear the blocks a-grunting in the bumpkins over-side, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| An’ the slatting of the storm-sails on the stay, | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| An’ the rippling of the catspaw at the making of the tide, | 16 | ··/˘˘······/˘··· |
| An’ the swirl and splash of porpoises at play. | 11 | ······/˘˘·· |
| An’ Bill can have my sea-boots, Nigger Jim can have my knife, | 14 | ·······/˘····· |
| You can divvy up the whack I haven’t scofft, | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| An’ the ship can have my blessing and the Lord can have my life, | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| For it’s time I quit the deck and went aloft. | 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.