Poems of the Sea

Jacket Description/Flap: Throughout history, poets have felt the ancient pull of the sea, exploring the full range of mankind's nautical fears, dreams, and longings. The colorful legends of the sea-pirates and mermaids, phantom ships and the sunken city of Atlantis-have inspired as many imaginations as have the realities of lighthouses and shipwrecks, of icebergs and frothing foam and seaweed. This marvelous collection includes classics old and new, from Homer and Milton to Plath and Merwin. Here are Tennyson's seductive sea-fairies next to Poe's beloved Annabel Lee. Here is Coleridge's darkly brooding "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" alongside the grandeur of Shakespeare's "Full Fathom Five." And here is Masefield's "I must go down to the seas again" alongside Cavafy's "Ithaka" and Stevens's "The Idea of Order at Key West." In the wide variety of lyrics collected here-sonnets and sea chanteys, ballads and hymns and prayers-we feel the encompassing power of our planet's restless waters, as metaphor, mystery, and muse. Biographical Note: J. D. McClatchy is the author of five collections of poems: Scenes From Another Life, Stars Principal, The Rest of the Way, Ten Commandments, and Hazmat."" He has also written two books of essays: White Paper and Twenty Questions. He has edited many other books, including The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry, Poets on Painters," " and Horace: The Odes. In addition, he edits The Voice of the Poet series for Random House AudioBooks, and has written seven opera libretti. He is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has taught at Princeton, UCLA, and Johns Hopkins, and is now a professor at Yale, where since 1991 he has edited "The Yale Review." He lives in Stonington, Connecticut. Table of Contents: "Foreword " "SEA-FEVER"Emily Dickinson, ''Exultation is the going''Sara Teasdale, Sea Longing Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Return D. H. Lawrence, Mana of the Sea William Carlos Williams, SeafarerEdna St. Vincent Millay, Exiled John Masefield, Sea-fever "THE CALL OF THE DEEP"John Milton, "From "Paradise Lost, Book VII George Gordon, Lord Byron, "From "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Percy Bysshe Shelley, "From "Queen Mab John Keats, On the Sea Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Sea Limits Christina Rossetti, By the SeaCharles Baudelaire, Man and SeaPaul Valery, The Sea Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Sound of the Sea Hart Crane, Voyages, IISlyvia Plath, Full Fathom Five "STORM AND CALM"John Donne, "From "The Storm Percy Blythe Shelly, A Vision of the Sea Victor Hugo, The Beacon in the Storm May Swenson, A Hurricane at SeaArthur Hugh Clough, Qua Cursum Ventus Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, A Calm at Sea May Swenson, The Even Sea " ""BALLADS"Anonymous, Sir Patrick Spens Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "From "The Rhyme of the Ancient MarinerHenry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sir Humphrey Gilbert Felicia Hemans, CasabiancaHenry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Wreck of the Hesperus Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Phantom ShipAnonymous, Trafalgar " ""SONGS AND CHANTEYS"William Shakespeare, "From "The TempestAnonymous, We'll Go to Sea No MoreRudyard Kipling, Frankie's Trade Anonymous, The Death of Admiral Benbow Anonymous, Hearts of Oak Anonymous, Davey Jones's Locker Rudyard Kipling, A Song in StormJohn Masefield, A Pier-head Chorus W. S. Gilbert, "From "H. M. S. Pinafore Noel Coward, Matelot Anonymous, ''My bounding bark'' Anonymous, Blow the Man Down Anonymous, Drunken Sailor "ANTHEM, PRAYER, HYMN"James Thomson, Rule, BritanniaAnonymous, "From "Carmina Gadelica Herman Melville, Father Mapple's HymnGeorge Darley, The Sea RitualWilliam Whiting, The Sailors' Hymn " ""SEAFARERS"John Milton, "From "Paradise Lost, Book XI Homer, "From "The Odyssey, Book XII Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "From "UlyssesConstantine Cavafy, Ithaka William Morris, Song of the Argonauts Anonymous, The Seafarer Joaquin Miller, Columbus George Gordon, The Pirate Oliver Wendell Holmes, Old Ironsides Archibald MacLeish, Seafarer "WRECKS AT SEA"W. S. Merwin, The Shipwreck Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain Robert Lowell, The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket William Meredith, The Wreck of the Thresher "LEGENDS"William Shakespeare, "From "Richard III Walt Whitman, The World Below the Brine Thomas Campion, In Praise of NeptuneW. S. Merin, LeviathanAlfred, Lord Tennyson, The MermaidElinor Wylie, Sea Lullaby Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel LeeEdgar Allan Poe, The City in the Sea Conrad Aiken, Atlantis Walter de la Mare, Sunk Lyonesse "ABOVE AND BEYOND"Herman Melville, The Berg Herman Melville, The Tuft of Kelp Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, SeaweedHenry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Lighthouse "READING THE WAVES"Robert Frost, Neither Out Far Nor In Deep Marianne Moore, A Grave Amy Clampitt, Marine Surface, Low OvercastHerman Melville, Billy in the DarbiesWaleter de la Mare, Echoes Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ''Break, break, break'' Genevieve Taggard, Sea-change Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Crossing the BarHart Crane, At Melville's Tomb Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach Louise Bogan, Putting to Sea Emily Dickinson, ''I started early'' Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning Wallace Stevens, The Idea of Order at Key West T. S. Eliot, Marina Walt Whitman, As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life" ""Acknowledgments ""Index of Authors "

Contributor Bio:  McClatchy, J D J. D. McClatchy is Poetry Editor of "The Yale Review", and his poems, essays, and reviews appear regularly in "The New Republic, The New Yorker" and "The New York Times Book Review".