Part 1 (1/2)
THE STORY OF A ROUND-HOUSE AND OTHER POEMS.
by John Masefield.
DAUBER
I
Four bells were struck, the watch was called on deck, All work aboard was over for the hour, And some men sang and others played at check, Or mended clothes or watched the sunset glower.
The bursting west was like an opening flower, And one man watched it till the light was dim, But no one went across to talk to him.
He was the painter in that swift s.h.i.+p's crew, Lampman and painter--tall, a slight-built man, Young for his years, and not yet twenty-two; Sickly, and not yet brown with the sea's tan.
Bullied and d.a.m.ned at since the voyage ”Being neither man nor seaman by his tally,”
He bunked with the idlers just abaft the galley.
His work began at five; he worked all day, Keeping no watch and having all night in.
His work was what the mate might care to say; He mixed red lead in many a bouilli tin; His dungarees were smeared with paraffin.
”Go drown himself” his round-house mates advised him, And all hands called him ”Dauber” and despised him.
Si, the apprentice, stood beside the spar, Stripped to the waist, a basin at his side, Slus.h.i.+ng his hands to get away the tar, And then he washed himself and rinsed and dried; Towelling his face, hair-towzelled, eager eyed, He crossed the spar to Dauber, and there stood Watching the gold of heaven turn to blood.
They stood there by the rail while the swift s.h.i.+p Tore on out of the tropics, straining her sheets, Whitening her trackway to a milky strip, Dim with green bubbles and twisted water meets, Her clacking tackle tugged at pins and cleats, Her great sails bellied stiff, her great masts leaned: They watched how the seas struck and burst and greened.
Si talked with Dauber, standing by the side.
”Why did you come to sea, painter?” he said.
”I want to be a painter,” he replied, ”And know the sea and s.h.i.+ps from A to Z, And paint great s.h.i.+ps at sea before I'm dead; s.h.i.+ps under skysails running down the Trade-- s.h.i.+ps and the sea; there's nothing finer made.
”But there's so much to learn, with sails and ropes, And how the sails look, full or being furled, And how the lights change in the troughs and slopes, And the sea's colours up and down the world, And how a storm looks when the sprays are hurled High as the yard (they say) I want to see; There's none ash.o.r.e can teach such things to me.
”And then the men and rigging, and the way s.h.i.+ps move, running or beating, and the poise At the roll's end, the checking in the sway-- I want to paint them perfect, short of the noise; And then the life, the half-decks full of boys, The fo'c'sles with the men there, dripping wet: I know the subjects that I want to get.
”It's not been done, the sea, not yet been done, From the inside, by one who really knows; I'd give up all if I could be the one, But art comes dear the way the money goes.
So I have come to sea, and I suppose Three years will teach me all I want to learn And make enough to keep me till I earn.”
Even as he spoke his busy pencil moved, Drawing the leap of water off the side Where the great clipper trampled iron-hooved, Making the blue hills of the sea divide, Shearing a glittering scatter in her stride, And leaping on full tilt with all sails drawing, Proud as a war-horse, snuffing battle, pawing.
”I cannot get it yet--not yet,” he said; ”That leap and light, and sudden change to green, And all the glittering from the sunset's red, And the milky colours where the bursts have been, And then the clipper striding like a queen Over it all, all beauty to the crown.
I see it all, I cannot put it down.
”It's hard not to be able. There, look there!
I cannot get the movement nor the light; Sometimes it almost makes a man despair To try and try and never get it right.
Oh, if I could--oh, if I only might, I wouldn't mind what h.e.l.ls I'd have to pa.s.s, Not if the whole world called me fool and a.s.s.”
Down sank the crimson sun into the sea, The wind cut chill at once, the west grew dun.
”Out sidelights!” called the mate. ”Hi, where is he?”
The Boatswain called, ”Out sidelights, d.a.m.n you! Run!”
”He's always late or lazing,” murmured one-- ”The Dauber, with his sketching.” Soon the tints Of red and green pa.s.sed on dark water-glints.
Darker it grew, still darker, and the stars Burned golden, and the fiery fishes came.
The wire-note loudened from the straining spars; The sheet-blocks clacked together always the same; The rus.h.i.+ng fishes streaked the seas with flame, Racing the one speed n.o.ble as their own: What unknown joy was in those fish unknown!
Just by the round-house door, as it grew dark, The Boatswain caught the Dauber with, ”Now, you; Till now I've spared you, d.a.m.n you! now you hark: I've just had h.e.l.l for what you didn't do; I'll have you broke and sent among the crew If you get me more trouble by a particle.
Don't you forget, you daubing, useless article!