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User Rating: |
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8.2
/10
(33
votes)
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QUINQUIREME of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.
Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amythysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
John Masefield
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Read poems about / on: green, home
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Comments about this poem (Cargoes
by
John Masefield
) |
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comments about this poem (Cargoes by
John Masefield
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V.N.Seetharam Naidu Naidu
(8/17/2009 10:05:00 PM) |
This is one of the most enduring poems I had been taught way back in 1958, along with Walter de la Mare's 'Arabia'. both poems are so modern yet so evocative. They criss cross the time lines and one is so swiftly carried across to the splendors and opulence as well as the romanticism of the past while being firmly rooted inn the present. The rhythm produced by the masterly craftsmanship of these wordsmiths is a joy!
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Simon Jejfries
(7/20/2009 10:57:00 AM) |
Just for the record - a quinquireme is a ship with 5 rows of oars not sails. A great evocative poem going from the romantic to the prosaic in three verses.
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Michael Harmon
(6/1/2009) |
apps.carleton.edu/people/gsoule/Masefield/ - 23k
www.cincomsmalltalk.com/userblogs/troy/blogView? entry=3320256231 - 24k
et al.
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Michael Pruchnicki
(5/31/2009 5:46:00 PM) |
Harmon says the debate has started. Why and on what basis does he assert that? You readers who agree with Harmon, please specify by citing lines in Masefield's poem that support the remark! Methinks I detect a whiff of PC! Guys like Harmon don't read poetry, they search for what they perceive to be incorrect thinking! Does no one on this site understand the history of PC all the way back to der Fuhrer, Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Il Jong, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro et al? Check out a little history!
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Michael Pruchnicki
(5/31/2009 11:15:00 AM) |
A poem that states rather matter of factly the kinds of cargo carried on ocean-going vessels. The five-sailed ship of Nineveh and the Spanish galleon transport expensive and rare trinkets and goods. The modern steam ship transports all those materials and manufactured items that have improved life in most lands around the globe. Quibble if you will about their importance, but Masefield knew about salt-water sailing. And he was not ashamed about those coasters, nor was he subject to politically correct opinions current in this century!
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Michael Harmon
(5/31/2009 2:10:00 AM) |
This is a poem designed to provoke debate.
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Patrick De-la-mere
(9/9/2006 7:26:00 AM) |
I remember this poem from my schooldays because of its punchy lyrics and am now teaching my grandchildren to appreciate poetry
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Eddie Loughran
(5/31/2006 6:31:00 AM) |
As Emily says - its all about rhythm,
but also some nice word combinations.
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