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.
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Comments
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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 lambs -
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John 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 born -
love 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. -
PLZ HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From guest belinda (contact)
can someone plz paraphrase the second stanza for me bacause i need it for a school assignment -
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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.
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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. -
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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.
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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 mind -
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Cargoes.
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! -
From guest Nick Ratnieks (contact)
Reading this poem takes me back to my classroom in about 1964 or '65 when I was 10. I can't remember if we did this poem in conjunction with a BBC Schools radio broadcast- we certainly did "Singing Together" and I have a booklet from Autumn 1962-"Stories from World History" another BBC radio broadcast that includes "Leonidas and the Battle of Thermopylae"- all interesting stuff for me back then! Happy days, and a great time to be a kid! -
From guest john (contact)
can someone help me with criticm on john masefield because im doing a paper on him and i cant find much information? -
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In response to Guest John
As one of the most widely read and written about of the British Poet Laureates there is a massive amount of work on Masefield available on the net. Thats in addition to the biography on this site (Just click on his name under the picture above right) and the dozens of poems we have posted.
I would recommend after you have read some of his poems for yourself you take a look at the work of the Masefield Society [http://ies.sas.ac.uk/cmps/Projects/Masefield/Society/jms2.htm ]
Hope this helps
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A bull's eye
It's not surprising to find that millions of people know this one by heart. It presents three vivid, exciting pictures, and makes a succint point about the metalbashing industry of the 1920s: it was dirty, it was mundane, but it brought untold wealth, like the cargoes of history and story. I wonder how Masefield would have tackled a fourth stanza on the service-led boom of the 2000s! -
I'm yet another person who studied this poem at school in middle primary. Amazing how all the old poems one is taught come back to you in later life lol (and most of them are found here on OP!!!)
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Beautiful but dumb
The poem, particularly the first verse, is lyrical and romantic. Unfortunately it's completely ridiculous.
Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir
Quinquireme of Nineveh? Nineveh was destroyed many centuries before any quinquiremes were built. Only the Romans and Carthaginians ever built them, to use in the Punic Wars. As to Ophir, no one now knows where it was, if it existed at all.
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine
What would a Nineveh ship be doing rowing "home" to Palestine? Nineveh was in what is now Iraq, just across the Tigris from present-day Mosul. You can take a ferry over to see the ruins -- a long way from Palestine.
With a cargo of apes and peacocks, etc.
If you understand what a quinquireme was, you know it could not carry any cargo. It was a naval vessel, a fighting ship powered by five decks of oarsmen, hence the name. Obviously there's no room for cargo on such a ship. The rowing decks are completely taken up by the benches the rowers sat on; the top deck was crowded with soldiers ready to hurl spears or launch arrows at the enemy -- no place for cargo on a quinquireme!
So the beautiful first verse is to giggle at. The other verses make sense, of course; it's just the first one that blows one up into gales of laughter. -
This poem by John Masefield I learned at school!...it brought back memories of nervous recitals in class!...and in answer to the previous comment...it is a poem that needs to be read properly to appreciate the flow and lyrical quality intended by the author!
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I also learned this poem in school in VIS, I still remember how we had to disect this poem and analyze all the literary devices. DAMN THIS POEM!!! J/K This poem is very mmmmmm nice. HAHA!!!
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Of all the poems my late father was taught, this is the only one he remembered, and recited with passion. In his latter years we shared many any time resding it together.
Thank you John Masefield. -
This poem by John Masefield I learned at school!...it brought back memories of nervous recitals in class!...and in answer to the previous comment...it is a poem that needs to be read properly to appreciate the flow and lyrical quality intended by the author!
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I don't get why you like this poem its like one of the worst poems i have ever read. It so wrong. Everything now its also beautiful.
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hey alex nice commentary, mine sucks, i feel like such a loser today, no, everyday!
This poem is very enjoyable to read and if you have a BIG imagination then you can really picture the scenes!
Thanks, Rich Nolifeskivichloser -
I am a teenage student and just whanted to say that they do stiil teach this poem in schools all over the world. as i should know having to do it in english class in school in austria. here is my comentry if any on would like to read it!
This commentary is on a poem called ‘Cargoes’ by John Masefield. ‘Cargoes’ is a poem about three different cargo ships, the places these ships are coming from, where they are going to and what cargo they are carrying. The speaker compares, the ancient and elegant cargo ships to the modern more industrial coasters.
I think that the speaker is intending to show us how more modern cargo ships carry more useful cargo cargoes compared to the older cargo ships even though in away they carry things that seem to be less precious and have less appeal. The speaker tells us how the quinquireme boat carried things such as; apes, peacocks and sweet white wine, which where luxurious items for perhaps pleasure. Where as the Spanish galleon carries things like; emeralds, gold and cinnamon, which, still quite appealing where probably traded or sold to buy more useful things. Lastly the speaker talks about the British coaster that carried things like; Tyne coal, fire wood and tin trays, which are not appealing but are necessities and probably more use full than white wine or amethysts which the other two ships carried
John used repetition to keep the stanzas connected to each other by begging the third line on each stanza with ‘with a cargo of’ followed by a list of the ships cargo. He illustrated hi poem by using words such as; rowing, sunny, stately, dipping, dirty and butting.
John used some rhyme, which isn’t that obvious. He rhymed the last word of the first line and the last word of the fifth line in each stanza. He does not achieve comparison by using similes but by using imagery. He achieves his intentions through the use of alliteration and euphony. The euphony and alliteration occurs mainly in the first and second stanzas. The words in the first two stanzas work with the meaning to please mind and ear. They are slow moving compared to the last stanza. The alliteration occurs when the speaker lists the cargoes of the ships. He uses ‘C’ and ‘S’ sounds in two different ways. In the first stanza he uses them to give a nice easy flow to the poem. He also uses them later on in the poem, towards the end but with different intensions. He uses them this time to stop the flow of the poem and make it harder to read or speak.
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the thing to consider in Masefield's poem is his use of rhythm. The third verse in cargoes, for example, reflects the short choppy waves in the channel, the north sea and the western approaches. the first verse uses a sliding series of words - one can almost feel oneself cruising down the Nile on the flow. The roll and sway of the galleon is evident in the central stanza. The nature of the cargoes themselves, of course, underlines this pattern, but it is the pattern itself that is of significance. Students are advised to choose another ship-type and to compose a complementary verse
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brought back memories of a tiny country school in Scotland in the 1950's. this poem started my interest in travel and far away shores.
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I really like doing this poem with students - it is colourful and full of sounds and imagery that lends well to performance presentations.
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my name is curtis and i liked the poem alot and there is alot of unusal words to do with the poem like moidores and pig-lead aswell. there is alot of adjectives kinds of cargo and qite alot of rhyming words
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I think this is a well written poem it's realy moving and like alot of his work
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This poem describes a transition through time from a mystical, biblical setting, to the modern industrial and secular world. The first verse describes the jounrey made by Solomon to the rich land of Ophir. No one knows exactly where it is, but he's described as bringing back santal wood, peacocks, apes, etc. The second paragraph jumps ahead to the Spanish trips to the new world, which is slightly less exotic and closer to history. We know where the tropics are, and we know the voyage made by the ship, as opposed to that in the first verse. The technology is newer, galleons instead of quinquiremes, and the cargo is much more focused on wealth than rare commodities. The last verse shows a completely unexotic trip in a "coaster" which just travels around the coast. Instead of being a beautiful scene, either in "sunny palestine" or "palm green shores," it's dirty with a salt caked smoke stack. The cargo is completely uninteresting and they are the common, cheap, basic elements of industry.
I think this poem describes the transition from early sedentary life to an industrialized society, and the sacrafices of an appealing romantic life that were lost in the process. Industry isn't romantic enough apparently. Read this poem out loud. It has a very cool rhythm, like the movement of a ship... -
Cargoes
by John Masefield
My mother would recite this poem to me(over 60 years ago)
I do not remember the first two verses very well, but the third verse stands out clearly in my memory; Masefield paints a vivid and amusing picture of the little tramp steamer getting the job done in difficult conditions.The subject matter may be ugly and ordinary, but the description is brilliant.
Chuckerbutty. -
The goods of the east were highly prized for their beauty their fragrances their rarity, their value, and much sought after the world over, in return the west traded in goods which though useful were not very artistic or beautiful to look at, This poem in extremely beautiful ways describes the cargoes that came into Europe from, Asia Africa and probably even South America, and contrasts it with the ugliness and ordariness of the cargoes that traded out of England. A poem of sharp contrasts and some irony.
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whats this poem about?
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old and boring
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