The Seafarer Might I of the mere1-strife meet verse fashion, Roamings ration2, how I, struggling sea-weeks, Scourges suffered ever. Acrid anguish ate my heart fast-anchored, Grasped me by gunwale3 garrulous care-grips And rippling wave-claw, where I bent over bowsprit4, Oft broken by bleary nightwatch as the ship Scratched keel to cliffs. Clasped in coldness My feet were, frost-shod, algor5-greaved, Where grief’s heat haggards6 my heart, Hunger wastes from within the sea-worn soul. Should ever you doubt, fair-plainsman, Days of the fairest befall you, hear how I Wandered a winter’s salt-wretched out-roads Tilling the ice-rich surf; relations were reft of me there, My hair was flecked of frost-nails And the hail-flocks flew. What could I hear In the sea-craw’s cackle, save crackling waves of ice? At sail-lithe the swan-sigh soothed me, Bickering rooks I took for my Yule-cheer, Cries of the curlew for the laughter of kinsmen, Mews7, mocking, my music and mead-drink. Rock shook under storm-fist, stone-cliffs Veined of the Thor-levin8--terns mid-heaven To the gale turn frosted feathers; scream-eagle springs And spreads his spray-heavy staysails9; no kind companion Consoles the care-swept sea-wretch. This he cannot conceive- the burgher of living’s delight, Wine-washed mid fortune's flood, his haughty abode Beyond baleful journey- the weary home I made by the brine-way. Noons narrow nightward, north-snow's shadow,
1 "Mere": sea 2 "Ration": v., apportion, order 3 "Gunwale": rhymes with "tunnel"; rim of a boat 4 "Bowsprit": bow of a boat 5 "Algor": chill 6 "Haggards": as a verb, a novel coinage perhaps, etymologically evoking also the wildness of an untamed raptor 7 "Mews": gulls 8 "Levin": lightning 9 "Staysails": auxiliary sails to catch the wind
Earth rusteth of hoar10-rime11 and hails furrow frost-fields: Sky-seeds sowing snow-chill. Still claps in my chest The clash of vexatious currents-That I strive on high streams, by oar-blade Best salt swords in the sea-surge. Heavy my heart's urge over ocean To fly to far-folked front12-lands, To feel strange sands sink into my foot-falls. First among thewless13 throngs stands no Spine-girthy knight nor knave knows Any than nerve-knocked nights in sight of sea-fare. Steady deed-darer, even liege-belov'd, Bares not his boldness before it. For his hearth-wave Heareth wind-harp, golden gloam14-waves Ring his fingers, with mer-wives warmeth wave-bedYe bard-waves belaud his revels at world's-height!Yet longing long stretcheth his whiles through the welter. Groves gather in green-guise, blithe bustle Breaketh burgh-brumes15 and blooms through the moor-mist Quicken the gray-grown world: with burgeoning broods Bristles also the breast-bower- in fare-man fond For barrenest bog-tides- to leave for the lea16-flood, Wake the white-caps' swift blossoms. Thicket-thatched The gowk17-bird warbles his ware18-woe, for summer's flight Wareth sorrow, shivering heart's-sap. Such fellows never know- they weal-sure and water-shyWhy brave over desolate depths Sea-thanes press each vast adventure. But spumes even now from the breast-spout, Over brine-swells spilleth the full heart's thoughtMy wakefulness, flung for far corners Whelms o'er the whale-realm- where clutch-call marks me Like howls of the harrow-hawk, keen claws Whet for the whale-trek my mind's limp landsmen 10 "Hoar": frost 11 "Rime": hoar 12 "Front-lands": frontiers, as in lands jutting into the sea 13 "Thewless": nerveless 14 "Gloam": twilight 15 "Brume": mist, fog 16 "Lea": untilled, fallow land 17 "Gowk": cuckoo 18 "Ware": Scots for spring
Wide from the sward19-span. Sprint seaward My dreams beyond death-bounds, pass princedom Alike priesthood, keeping least this dead life Leased of the loam-gods, gone ere long To the God-acre20. Though he take his range of the earth, Some tide soon turneth him back, wracked pilgrims return By three paths to the death-house: sickness, sword-stroke, Or slowness of age breaks from the breast-box With a life's last bondsman. But the best bequeath Full-flowering feal-glebes21, blowing praise To cover the grave-place: that he tend to the good Ere he rest under grass-waves, wickedness wrest From the earth and earls giving evil scatter Like chaff. First-fruits of the after-born, On tongues borne deathless as the angels, Glory's increase22 is to ages of ages, eternity's crown And cry of the lion-heart. Pride of days departed Pretends no present purchase23: Caesars and kings forsake us- the old lords, Gold-generous, lavishing valorous deeds Among the kingdoms, leave no vassals Mantled in their majesties, meet-realm's masters. Broad-necked barons lie breathless in death's-bed, Barren the bride-bower, and the vine-rows lie barren-Merest remains this serf of the face-furrow, Whose fair-earth hoareth, her splendors limp hump-backed. So slacken the last-man's sinews, his deed-hand droppeth, Nor blade draweth blood-prize. Presseth age-guard against him As the beard-place paleth. Gray-grasped he gaspeth, Grieves grass-covered sword-kin, findeth the finest Forfeit to the field-fund, and his own body, broken, As life fleeth flesh-field. Not swill the sweet, Nor weep out his sorrows, nor tarry in sweven24, Nor rise to the trumpets may any corpse keeping life's-path. Might he lay then the dead with the dead, forsake what forsakes him: Lucre with limbs and lands and titles To take to the black-tide over waste-back to the star-brink.
19 "Sward": turf, grass 20 "God-acre": frequent Saxon kenning for graveyard 21 "Glebe": soil, field 22 "Increase": produce of the earth 23 "Purchase": acquisition of an estate by means other than inheritance (in this case, land so acquired) 24 "Sweven": dream