Quote:
Originally Posted by Christopher ONeill
I am nonplused by the 'tall ship' though. A tall ship is a very corporate enterprise: I can't get my head around the solo navigator air of the rest of the poem once there is a tall ship onscreen. It really should have been a sloop or a yawl to fit in with the rest of the poem.
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Interesting take, Christopher. Despite the poet's mention of the "lonely" sea (and the marked lack of mention of sordid sailors, sadistic officers, etc.), I've never had the impression of solo navigation.
To me, this poem is (as you mention in your final paragraph) a wistful daydream of freedom...but only a specific kind of freedom. It's not the freedom of William Ernest Henley's "Invictus"--with its defiant "I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul" celebrating the autonomy to set one's own course and accept the consequences.
Instead, I think this poem celebrates the seduction of leaving all one's terrestrial cares behind...trading them in for things over which one has no responsibility, such as birds and wind. It's freedom from the need to make important decisions, because you're not in charge. A pretty seductive siren, that, at times.
It's the seafaring equivalent of the daydream of running off to join the circus. The drudgery, squalor, financial insecurity, etc., of the reality are totally irrelevant to the fantasy.