Konnichiwa, from Japan!

[TygerTrust]

Hello Everyone, I'm yet another new person entering this apparently massive community. Just to be like most of the other people, I'll start with a question (seeing is that's why I registered after browsing through most of the classics for the last few months):

John Masefield was a poet, known for his poems of the sea (as a young man, he was apprenticed aboard a sailing ship) and his narrative poems, although he also wrote a number of novels. He became Poet Laureate in 1930.

The question is, does anyone know the complete poem which includes the line "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to sail her by". The title is Sea Fever, but I haven't the resources (local library) that I would have if I lived in the states.

[mono]

Hello, TygerTrust. I think this poem seemed a bit more famous from when Willy Wonka quoted the exact line in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but I, also, try to respect the whole poem, though I loved the film, too. :D

Sea Fever

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again to the vagrant gypsy life.
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

John Masefield

[TygerTrust]

Thanks for posting that for me, and if you noticed, a lot of my original post was copied from IMDBs information on Willy Wonka, but the interest was originally sparked for me by all the years of Star Trek and the occasional reference therein.

Cheers!

Next one, if there's anyone out there willing to take up this obscure one:

"Such a dark mind within me dwells, that I make myself such evil cheer"

A English professor at Uni quoted this to me and attributed it to Alfred Lord Tennyson, but I've searched this site a bit and I can't find it. Was it by Tennyson? Or another author?

[Isagel]

It´s by Tennyson, from "Maud, a monodrama":
It´s a very long poem - I´ll just qoute one part:
part XV
So dark a mind within me dwells,
And I make myself such evil cheer,
That if I be dear to some one else,
Then some one else may have much to fear;
But if I be dear to some one else,
Then I should be to myself more dear.
Shall I not take care of all that I think,
Yea ev’n of wretched meat and drink,
If I be dear,
If I be dear to some one else.

[TygerTrust]

Wow, the people here are tensai-- genious! I definitely need to read more.

Thanks for the quick reply, and reaffirming my high regard of that Uni Prof!

Cheers!

[Isagel]

No genius - but I can Google. You´re welcome.