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.
Cargoes by John Masefield • 46 poems by John MasefieldEdit
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Poet, novelist, dramatist and journalist, John Masefield's literary career was rich and varied, and although his reputation waned in later years, he is again being recognized for his wide range, encompassing ballads, nature poetry and mythological narrative, and for his attempt to make poetry a popular art.
John Masefield (1878-1967)
(English Poet Laureate, 1930-1967)
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By John Masefield, © 1901, All rights reserved.
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Editor notes
From SALT-WATER POEMS AND BALLADS, edited by John Masefield, published by The Macmillan Co., New York, US, © 1944, p. 124; first published in SALT-WATER POEMS, © 1902.
this wonderful poem takes me back to darwen grammar school in 1953, where we had to learn it by heart! good old days!! dorothy abbott, that was!!!
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Wonderful poem!
I first heard it at St. Michael school in Wigan, Lancashire, England and have always remembered most of it.
I also remember the child-like gleeful horror that I felt, knowing that one of my teachers had the name Mrs. (Ms.?) Coaster!
Anyone else remember?
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Puzzled for a short time over a poem part remembered from school days which included
"smoke stack" in the verse, after hearing an interview by one of the passengers of the
stricken "Costa Concordia" refer to the funnel of the cruise liner as the "smoke
stack". A quick 'google' and all was solved. Cargoes by John Masefield, how could I
forget! Thank you, Now a wonderful trip down memory lane.
I will be back to explore!
It's a wonderfully memorable poem, because the word-music is so effective.
There are a couple of minor errors in the first verse, because (1) quinquiremes (which actually had three banks of oars,not five) were Athenian naval vessels and were not used for shipping cargoes and (2) to get a ship from Nineveh to Ophir, pre-Suez Canal, you would have had to circumnavigate Africa!
The third verse is my favourite, but I don't think Masefield is pointing any particular moral in it. On the one hand, the dirty British coaster and its cargo are much less romantic. On the other hand, the cargoes of the quinquireme and galleon are being carried for the benefit of the rich, whilst the coaster carried goods that created jobs and products for everyone.
- From guest Hélène (contact)
Quel bonheur de retrouver ce texte, que j'ai moi aussi appris par coeur en classe d'anglais au lycée!! Je ne pensais jamais le retrouver, c'est la miracle d'internet (pour le meilleur et pour le pire). Je vois que nombreux sont ceux qui, comme moi, l'avaient par bribes au fond de leur mémoire.
What a joy to read this text, which I also learned by heart in English class in high school! I never expected to find it, is the miracle of the Internet (for better or for worse). I see that many people like me, are remeniscing old literary memories. Cargoes
From guest Mike Shapter (contact)
Took me back to Worthing High School in the fifties. We thought we were wasting our time!- From guest Pepee (contact)
Lovely poem I found it straight away! could only remember Ninevah - takes me right back to grammar school in the 60's cargoes, John Masefield
From guest Tanya (contact)
I was watching the 'Likely Lads' film today and the character Bob recites the first 2 lines of the 3rd verse to Terry. Suddenly, I was transported back to my schooldays (I am 68) as we learned so many poems then; looked it up on the internet and hey presto! remembered the 3rd verse, not the first 2. A blast from the past - after all these years, in fact I hadn't even THOUGHT about this poem, although have remembered others, 'Silver', 'The Highwayman', 'The Ancient Mariner', etc. etc. Tanya.Cargoes
From guest Douglas Buchanan (contact)
I am eighty one years old and remember this from grammar school. We had to learn about 50 poems and a couple of Shakespeare's plays by heart for the O Level English Literature exam. Ever since I have been grateful for that introduction to the mind and tool box of our poets.Cargoes- John Masefield
From guest Anne Wilson (contact)
I also learned this in Primary School in England in the 40's- didn't have a clue at the time what I was talking about! We also used to sing it and I loved the way the tempo increased with each verse. I do remember it being "pig lead"Amazing
Not only have I looked at this poem here an delsewhere countless times. I have also recited it on more than one occasion and never realised until your comment that it is "pig lead" I too always remembered it as "pig iron" (perhaps because I used to work in an iron-foundry one summer).
I checked back to the original book-texts and it is LEAD!!
NB
Both pig-iron and pig-lead are blocks of metal; often a couple of feet long and about 6 inches wide. they are called pigs because when they are cast the blocks leading off the runnel where the molten metal is poured look like piglets suckling a sow.
JimCargoes John Masefield
From guest John Barnett (contact)
This topic arose in a conversation about ships propelled by five tiers of oarsmen, this form of transport is apparently required knowlege in French history lessons for eleven year olds - but not the works of John Masefield! I remembered the poem from my early school days, (I am now seventy six years old.) I knew it would be of use some day! I seem to recall our version of verse three was pig iron, does pig lead exist? Perhaps a rare example of "paying attention?" Sad to relate, French was characterised by, "He has the ability, more effort required next term" in view of my present address.cargoes
From guest christina F clifford-oconnor (contact)
This so takes me back to primary school choir when we sang the words of this poem. The contrasts of the three verses conjures up so many images.- From guest Virginia Brown (contact)
Our family has a "poetry game" we play, both in person and on facebook. Someone says a line from a poem, the next person has to identify the poem and poet and then say a line from another poem containing one of the same words. My daughter said "the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power . . ." to which my husband replied with "all our pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tyre." I was so delighted to be able to remember "Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir." Let them try to top THAT! Incidentally, we're in our 60's, our children in their 30's and early 40's, and we all love classical poetry and are trying to pass that love on to our 15 grandchildren all across America. Cargoes
From guest ken macgregor (contact)
What a fantastic poem. Reminded me of my school days in the late fifties(in New Zealand) when we had to learn it. I remember reciting this at a school assembly.Cargoes
From guest Bill Stobie (contact)
I learned this poem at school in 1970 and have just revisited it, spurred on by a discussion of primary school homework in the 60's/70's. It was amazing reading it again after I'd learned it 40 years ago. The rhythm and cadence just came flooding back. All I could remember was the marvellous name for the five levelled oar driven ship - quinquereme. Super nostalgia!cargoes
From guest Bill in Bristol (contact)
I remember the third verse from schooldays back in the 1960s - something about the cadence and contrast really made it stick.- From guest Carole (contact)
Love this poem. The pictures it conjures up stay in the mind particularly the third verse. Masefield must have loved taking a slap at England when he wrote that! I had to learn it in school along with Wordsworth's "Daffodils",Alfred Noyes's "The Highwayman" "Silver" by Walter De La Mare, and loads of others. You never forget them. cargoes
From guest Jean Hamer (contact)
such a beautiful poem, the contrast between the cargoes is so defined- I learned it in school in England in 1940's and it is in my head forever! thanks John!Christmas Carol Concert
From guest Gllenda Crouch (contact)
At my senior school, the Christmas carol concert was twelve lessons and twelve christmas songs; this was one but I have never, until now been able to find it. Thank you to GoogleCargoes
From guest Barry (contact)
Never forgotten it; well some of it. Quinquireme, Niniveh, Ophir? Exotic to a Norf London schoolboy. And 'Dirty British Coaster with the SHORTCAKE smoke stack' as we had it. Great word picture, still up there with the best 60 years on.Dirty British Coaster
From guest Denise Barton (contact)
I have never quite forgotten nor ever quite remembered this wonderful poem from my school days! I just love the 3rd verse, the other 2 never stuck in mind, other than the vague memory of the other ships being so much more graceful and languid than that dirty British Coaster which I will always remember with such affection!- I googled poem and Nineveh and it came up on the first page!!
Perhaps the spelling helped!
Jim cargoes
From guest Odette Nair (contact)
I also remembered this poem from my school days. But it was so difficult to find. I couldn't remember the title or the author, only the word Niniveh. I searched for ages under ships, poetry, ancient ships etc. Please make it easier to findcargoes
From guest Steve Morrow (contact)
This poem evokes times when I have been sailing on a yacht in the Irish Sea. It conjures up a greeny blue sea with white seas breaking. There is a rythmn in the words that reflects the way a sailing vessel butts through the waves when sailing to windward. Has to be experienced to be appreciated.dirty british coaster
From guest M Slaughter (contact)
At friends one evening this poem came up .I remember it from school ,but no one remembered all the words. Now i want to teach it to my grandchildren. Then hope they can pass it on to their children, it is lovelyDirty British Coaster
From guest Mrs D F Connor (contact)
Suddenly, yesterday, the third verse of this poem leapt into my head, but apart from the cheap tin trays I couldn't remember what else the ship was carrying. I just had to find out! The other two verses hadn't stuck so well so it's nice to re-visit them.Cargoes
From guest Jake Allsop (contact)
At the time when Masefield wrote this, Britain was the richest trading nation in the world. The wealth was generated in good measure by those cargoes of "Tyne coal, road-rails...and cheap tin trays." So, for me, each stanza is about "riches". Masefield's genius is in the way he describes the first two so lusciously and the third so starkly. Like other commentators, I learned and loved it as a child and still get a buzz out of declaiming it to anyone who will listen!Cargoes and Crosswords
From guest David Hennings (contact)
I have just completed a blog at fifteensquared.com for a crossword with Cargoes as its theme. Like many commenters here, it brought back memories of school back in the 50's when this was obviously a frequently-taught poem. Although some of the words have faded from my memory, "Quinquireme of Nineveh" and "Dirty British coaster" have not! Unlike many here, I don't think it is a comment on ecological problems either then or to come. I see it more as a description of the industrialised and depressing life of the average working-class Briton back at the start of the 20th century. Of course, at age 8, I didn't think of what it meant; all those alliterations just made it sound fun. What Masefield was really getting at is, I guess, only known to him.cargoes
From guest Mr G Clement (contact)
learned it as a child of 9 or 10 read it again today and it's still as mystical and down to earth now as it was then.Cargoes
From guest David Watters (contact)
I was taught this poem by Miss Davidson in Prestonpans Primary School in 1948/9 when I was eight. It was lovely to read it again after all these years. Miss Davidson was a wonderful teacher.
70 yrs onward afar and asunder
From guest Dr Leslie Dobinson (contact)
"Quinquireme of Nineveh" and the whole of the third verse stand out in my memory from my primary schooldays in 1932, and helped me to Google this website. Thank you!
MOD MESSAGE
You're most welcome.
You might also like this http://oldpoetry.com/column/show/53
Jim- Hi Yemassee, could you please take your comments off for his week....Please, Please
To Female Thinker
You make an interesting point that has eluded me in the past.
When I have read this poem I have concentrated on the idea of good things come in good packages. The stately almost regal wooden ships carrying the exotic cargoes and the squalid little tin ships carrying squalid little tin goods.
Masefield is bemoaning the ever increasing triviality of what we ferry around the world.
However he is also pointing out whether by chance or by design, the ecological disaster we are contributing too with this constant desire for only marginally different imports rather than settling for what we can grow and make ourselves.
Thanks FT
JimLeft out
From guest Female Thinker (contact)
Hmmm. I be but 18 and know little compared to some...but this poem just makes me feel like it was a story who's ending was ripped out. Doesnt it leave you all kinda feeling...depressed and melancholy? I mean I recognize the beautiful craftsmanship but it leaves me feeling ashamed and sad to realize that Masefield's efforts at writting this poem and sending a message to us was....disregarded, for look where we are at now...dont you feel a bit ashamed to feel so much joy from a poem that was crafted so that YOU would try and change the darkening path which our world follows? I hear all of ou say how this poem was a parcel in your past...and hearing all you say this saddens me...a man crafts a magnificent poem trying to get a warning out...thousands read it...and yet we are exactly where Masefield warned us we would be...It makes you wonder what does it take for a being to actually influence change without literally screaming at someone...or even more so is it simply a waste of time to try? hmmm...but maybe I am wrong...Masefield's abrupt stop at the british suggest the oncoming of modernization but maybe it was too much for Masefield to go any further...to fantasize the possibilities of our world today....im ashmaed to think at how Masefield would cringe at the sight of what our cargo ships bring overseas now. Alas, this is a momument of a poem.cargoes by Johm Maysefield
From guest Kevin Westerman (contact)
What an evocative piece of poetry this is as far as I am concerned. Not just because of it's subject imagery but also because of the images and memories it evokes for me of school days and memories of sunshine and gazing out of the high classroom windows at the wide blue sky and . . . . well . . . dreaming. Does any one of a certain age . . . those of us born at a more comfortable distance from the apocalypse, shall we say . . . recall listening to poetry being broadcast over a huge communal radio which was listened to by all the school in the assembly hall? Oh! and we all used to dance around to "Music and Movement" programmes . . ."Now children imagine you are being blown about by the wind" . . . . .Nostalgia
From guest Bob Johns (contact)
Talking to my grand childen and my daughter (A Teacher) in Harrogate. They asked me to recall the words of Alice in Wonderland, The owl and the Pussy cat and various old songs, Window cleaner-George Formby and Stanley Holloway with Marriott Edgar's Albert and the Lion. Suddenly dirty british coaster and smokestacks came into my head as a poem we were "encouraged" to learn at school. Devonport High School actually in Plymouth. We too were to make the leap to galleons in the Channel, (Sir Francis Drake)the Armada and the numeroys other ships that ply their trade in the English Channel. I'm 62 now but still remember those days with fondness while I look forward to retirement here in Philadelphia, USA. Thank you,where is school poetry today?
From guest Ian Billington (contact)
Alas, unlike most of the comments, I never had poetry introduced and read to me at school, some decicated chaucerian scholars and new age sci -fi afficionados - Ray Bradbury etc. I read just a two line exerpt in The Saturday Telegraph magazine some c. 9 yrs ago, and the words salt-caked smoke stack(like you Irene) have stuck with me since, how joyful to find the complete piece and to once again fit the Dirty British Coaster... Butting through the channel in the mad March days(Mad? -L. Carrol March Hares influence for fit - jumping seas ..presumably?) Thank you search engines.....For guest Laurie Milner
Your experience probably matches that of a couple of generations of English pupils. I remember learning this and Sea Fever about 8 years after you and then having to re learn them a few years back.
There are many memorable phrases in both that stick easily in ones mind but the whole thing, though apparently simple, is so intricately crafted it is hard to remember it all.
Masefield is one of the top three sea poets that Britain produced.
Jim
PS Do they still have the horse fair in Appleby?Nostalgia
From guest Laurie Milner (contact)
Have been trying to recall this poem all day. Our class was make to learn it in about 1954 in the Appleby Council School in the UK. Appleby was then the County Town of Westmorland - now Cumbria. I obviously didn't learn it that well! TA.Cargoes
From guest Kath Cheadle (contact)
I was taught this lovely, evocative poem at junior school, back in the days when we received an education,and I will never forget it's beauty and simplicity. Our teacher emphasised the clever way Masefield used sybillant alliteration to suggest in one's mind the hissing of sleek prows through soft, blue mediterranian waters tipped by flashes of sunlight: sunny Palestine; sandalwood, cedarwood; stately Spanish galleons; emeralds, amethysts. In cold contrast, the final stanza sports hard, abrupt alliteration, as in Tyne coal, pig-lead and cheap tin trays. You can alsmost see the little, scruffy boat, puthering smoke, fighting its way through the choppy grey waters of the Channel, with its cargo rattling and clanking like the cheap tin trays!How nice
From guest Sissil Tomlin-Baxter (contact)
I was using a bath soap that smelled of sandalwood and remembered this poem that was taught to me in primary school in a remote village in Jamaica in the early 60's. Love the poem and thank my teacher, Stanley McCalla, now dead, who taught me to appreciate those classic verses.salt water poems
From guest bryn.moss (contact)
learnt at school some fifty years ago,perhaps in some way responsible for spending many years at sea.cargoes
From guest Lynn (contact)
like many others, I learned this poem at primary school where i was from 1960 to 1966. I have never forgotten 'dirty British coaster' and when googled up this came! It obviously made a deeep impression on many others. Those were the days when teachers really taught us!nineveh
From guest Bill McFadden (contact)
How curious that a cosmetic company now sells a product "Nineva". (I think that is their spelling.) They should consider using "quinquireme" in their pitch. By the way, I too learned this poem in public school, ca. 1938. I am now 82 and still marvel in the joy such a beautiful poem can bring to one even after decades of slumber. Thank you cosmetic company for this awakening.Old memories revived.
From guest T.G. Venkatnarayanan, B.A. (English Literature) (contact)
Quinquireme of Nineveh; Home they brought her warrior dead; Kulblai Khan were some of the unforgettable poems that were taught to us in my school in a suburban Bombay (now Mumbai) in the mid-fifties. I had forgotten some of the lines and hence I had to surf the internet for the same. Once more my old fading memories got activated. Thanks. The teaching standards were simply fantastic in India till mid-sixties. But alas I regret for the falling standards of n o t only English but everything.Standards
From guest R.A. Marriott (contact)
This comment transfered to the Forum where it rightly belongs
http://oldpoetry.com/board/topic/1594
Jim
Oldpoetry Team LeaderOuch
From guest Ali Archer (contact)
This comment transfered to the forum where it rightly belongs.
http://oldpoetry.com/board/topic/1594
Jim
oldpoetry Team Leader
Cargoes by Macefield
An excellent and humourous comparison of the difference between England's mucky lifestyle and the romantic, clean mediterreaneanCargoes : help required
From guest R.A. Marriott (contact)
This comment transfered to the forum where it rightly belongs
http://oldpoetry.com/board/topic/1594
Jim Oldpoetry Team Leadersalt caked smoke stack
From guest Irene (contact)
I don't know why these words came to mind when my kids were doing homework, part of a poem which I learned at primary school. The head master was a much loved ex army seargent who taught generations at a primary near Lesmahagow in Scotland. I attended in the late 70's and cannot believe the poems and songs I learned and are still remembered and I have passed on to my kids. My children really enjoyed having poetry read to them when they were in the bath when they were small. They appreciated this in secondary school when some of the old poetry reappeared. Thanks Mr Barr you did a good job!- From guest laney (contact)
I learnt this poem as a song and I sang it in the inter schools choir festival in the steel town of Corby in 1959 aged 11. I am now 61 and the words come back to me as though I had learnt it yesterday. Quinquierime of Ninevah from distant Ophir rowing home to Haven in sunny Palestine, paints a picture in my mind that I just don't have the words for. A place I want to exist but doesn't unfortunately. The dirty British coaster butting through the channel again is pure genius. I like everyone else will never forget these magical words.If only life was innocent and beautiful like this. - From guest Sidney Goldsack (contact)
I learned this at school when I was twelve years old I am now eightyone I still love it. Cargoes - revisited
From guest Roy Laing (contact)
I have read the comments below and find that I had a similar trigger about this peom. I am visiting Connecticut and staying in a house in Stratford overlooking long Island Sound. Every other morning, a tug goes by trailing a series of barges and although this is not Britain, and it is not the channel, the line "Dirty British coaster witha slat-caked smoke stack" seemed appropriate. Thank you Mrs. Sales/Mr. Newton from Loughborough Central High School in London UK back in the 1950s for the inspiration for the day.- From guest Sheila Martin (contact)
I feel that this poem, which I learned in school some 55 years ago, may have caused my life long love of travel, exploration and interest in other cultures!!! Extra verse - apologies to John Masefield
From guest Ali Archer (contact)
I was thinking about this poem today, randomly, and had to 'Google' it to find the words - at least 40 years after learning it at school. This is my humble contribution, inspiration taken from the week's headlines Dodgy British MP's with their suspect, fake claims Busy blaming others who approved their scams Are the cargo, now banished Pension, pay off, Bleating innocence like slaughtered lambsJohn Masefield's Cargoes Revisited
From guest John Hyatt (contact)
I decided that it's high time a new verse was added to Masefield's fine poem. Hence "Cargoes Revisited": Cargoes Revisited 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. Undermanned Dutch Panamax sailing from Shanghai, Wallowing past the buoy with containers piled eight-high, With a cargo of cell phones, iPods and ear buds, White plastic chairs and fake porn DVDs.cargoes
From guest Sue Milson (contact)
This was the first piece of 'Real' Poetry I ever learned. I believe I was in 4th/5th grade at Mortlake Primary School in Sydney (Australia) western suburbs and was aged about 9/10 yrs old (1959/1960). Have always remembered it.Elocution
From guest Billy Torres (contact)
I am proud to say that I was born and grew up in Liverpool (I still live in neighbouring Birkenhead) and my dad thought that it would help me in later life if my Liverpudlian accent could be 'softened' a little. He paid for me to attend elocution lessons, at which I learned what I now realise was merely the 3rd verse of this wonderful poem. My dad was right - my accent did need to be toned down. I still speak with a decided 'scouse' accent but I like to think that it is not as aggressive as some of my co-scousers. The version that we were taught was slightly different. 'Butting' was 'ploughing' and 'pig-lead' was 'pig-iron'. Great memories.cargoes
i love the last line of the poem. it takes me back to school days, whwn the last line was read by us children with such gusto. I note Masefield wrote it the year i was bornlove of this poem since childhood
From guest Beth Stainton nee Mc Donald (contact)
what pictures this poem conjures up. i will always thank Miss Simons who taught English at Withington girls' school in fallowfield, Manchester for my love of poetry..John ." Autumn" my very top love. If any old students read this (80 plus years old.) please get in touch.- Long gone luxuries in elegant craft or modern necessities in work-a-day vessels.
Ships change, sailors change, cargoes change but the sea goes on for ever.
Hopefully Masefield's elegant poem will continue too, as both the public speaking exercise it was when I first encountered it half-a-century since and as the beautiful poetry I've found every time I've revisited it since. - I'll try, and I'm sure someone else here on OP will offer a better explanation. The second stanza seems to set the feel of the poem. I believe Ophir is mentioned in the bible where King Solomon received a cargo of riches and exotics (like is mentioned in the poem) from Ophir, every three years. People have speculated as to where Ophir might actually have been...but no real confirmation has been made.
So for me that section you asked about simply describes in a poetic way that ship carrying such exotic goods and seems to be meant as a stark contrast for the final section, as a means for irony. Notice the riches in the first two sections and then the stark difference in cargo in the final one? The first two seem to me to set that last one as irony of modern life, modern commerce and shipping maybe. Times change. Needs change, governments change, and so do the means to convey it. Maybe he wants the reader to see something about modern life with the ships dirty salt-caked smoke stacks, maybe that progression isn't always a good thing, but maybe something more, like the contrast between romanticism and realism.
PLZ HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From guest belinda (contact)
can someone plz paraphrase the second stanza for me bacause i need it for a school assignment- It is nice to hear from someone who, like me, appreates this poem and the message it conveys.
Masefield wrote it in an era when sail was fast giving way to steam in the merchant fleets of the world. Nowadays many people long for the days of those wonderful sailing ships but few yearn for thier small, ugly, fusy little successors. They had much more character than their modern cargo container counterparts and the modern payloads fo not seem half as enchanting.
As with Neil Munro and his Para Handy tales, Masefield has provided us with some wonderfully memorable nautical writing and this poem is one of the best. cargoes
From guest bill field (contact)
I lived through that period of maritime history when Britain possessed the greatest aggregate of merchant ship tonnage in the world, when to travel overseas one had to go by sea,and many of us as youngsters were experts in ship recognition, particularly the ships of the Orient Line, P&O , Shaw Savill Albion,Port Line, Dominion Line and a host of others.Masefield's poem really fired up our imagination and in mind's eye that British tramp steamer really came alive. I first heard the poem in or about the year 1931 and was read to me by my school teacher, sadly those days have long gone.- From guest David Ming (contact)
I learned this at school too! It's okay, although we had to write what every word meant by answering questions on a sheet. I mean 5! At school 1948 Chadwell Heath
From guest Ken Abbott (contact)
My English teacher (Mrs Prior) Used this poem to express the power of words to a group of boys in 1948. The poem lasted in my mind all these years and brings back the romance of travel by sea around the world, which I did for a number of years. Next year my art group is using 'A favourite poem' as a theme to paint and I have chosen this. Still vivid in my mindCargoes.
From guest George Williams (contact)
Like many others, I am taken back to my schooldays when I think of this poem. In 1955 at the tender age of 11 years when my past dictated to me that my future should be mundane, this poem offered me hope! The comparisons of quinquirime of Nineveh from distant Ophir,with post war S.E London presented me with a mysterious challenge to think further and discover. Stately Spanish Galleon coming from the Isthmus represented to me an emerging concept of the 'haves' versus the have nots'', This I think stirred up in me my first political awarness! Dirty British coaster with a salt caked smoke stack, confirmend to me the political ideal of the RC sec. mod. school that I attended. We were indeed a second class group of individuals who were to be taught and indoctrinated into a life of survile duty. The salt caked smoke stack offered a picture of utter survility, lack of scope or oppertunity and a boring trudging path that I could not accept. This poem was ever in the recesses of my mind and enthused me to move beyond the yolk of my heritage. I used the contrasts of Cargoes to explore life, travel and chalange the norms of my existence. I do not intend to boast my success but to state how supportive were the haughtingly,rythmic verses that helped me perservere and endure the times in my life that were truly chalanging!
