What is the poem Cargoes about?

What is the poem Cargoes about?

‘Cargoes’ by John Masefield is an interesting poem about the history of cargo ships and the cargo that they transported. In the first stanza, the poet explores ancient ships and ports from the Bible and the various items they could’ve been transported from Ophir. These include apes, peacocks, and sandalwood.

What does Quinquireme of Nineveh mean?

A quinquireme is an ancient ship with five banks of oars. Perhaps the ship was built in Nineveh, rowed to Ophir, then on to its destination in Palestine. The traditional cargo of Ophirian gold is replaced by an exotic catalog of luxury items from Nineveh or from other places along the route.

Who wrote the poem cargoes?

John Masefield
John Masefield “Cargoes” appeared in his second collection, published the following year. In 1930 he became poet laureate of England and remained so until his death in 1967.

Where is Nineveh and Ophir?

Nineveh: Capital city of the ancient empire of Assyria. Nineveh was on the east bank of the Tigris River in present-day Iraq. 3…. Ophir: Fabled land of gold referred to in the Bible in the books of Genesis, Kings, and Chronicles.

What does distant Ophir mean?

Masefield’s ship is being rowed from “distant Ophir,” a region in either Arabia or Africa at the southern end of the Red Sea, to the northern end of that sea. ( Masefield must have intended the term “Palestine” to apply to the land at the farthest reach of the present Gulf of Aqaba.)

What type of poem is cargoes?

lyric poem
Cargoes is a lyric poem in 3 stanzas, each with 5 lines. The first line of each stanza identifies a particular type of ship, while the second line gives us the locale. The next three lines list the items held in the cargo. None of the stanzas has a complete sentence.

What is the meaning of Nineveh?

Nineveh. / (ˈnɪnɪvə) / noun. the ancient capital of Assyria, on the River Tigris opposite the present-day city of Mosul (N Iraq): at its height in the 8th and 7th centuries bc; destroyed in 612 bc by the Medes and Babylonians.

What is the plural for cargo?

cargo. noun. car·​go | \ ˈkär-gō \ plural cargoes or cargos.

What does cargoes mean in history?

Cargo refers to goods carried by a large vehicle, like a plane, ship, train, or truck. Cargo originates from the Latin word carricare which means “to load on a cart, or wagon.” Cargo can be loaded on a cart, but it’s usually loaded on something much bigger.

Where Nineveh is located?

Nineveh was the capital of the powerful ancient Assyrian empire, located in modern-day northern Iraq. Sennacherib was the king of Assyria from 704–681 BC and was famous for his building projects.

What the speaker imagines in poem cargoes?

In this poem the speaker imagines a whole history of cargo ships carrying different things across the seas. Each verse gives us a different kind of ship in a different time in history and a different place, with different cargo. Some of the words might be unfamiliar when you first read the poem.

What is the rhyming pattern of the poem cargoes?

In Masefield’s Cargoes, there is no set meter in any of the three stanzas. As to the rhyme scheme, I figured it to be ABCCB, ABCCB, ABCCB. Masefield rhymed line two and line five in each stanza. In the poem, there was a definitive emphasizing of the poetic device alliteration.

Is the poem Cargoes by John Masefield true?

Poem © John Masefield. Reproduced with permission of The Society of Authors In this poem the speaker imagines a whole history of cargo ships carrying different things across the seas. Each verse gives us a different kind of ship in a different time in history and a different place, with different cargo.

What did John Masefield do for a living?

He was a versatile poet, novelist and journalist, and wrote and lectured for the government during the First World War after supporting the war effort as a hospital orderly in France. Masefield went to sea at a young age but saw no future as a sailor and on one voyage to America deserted ship in New York.

What are some famous poems by John Masefield?

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.

What is the meaning of the poem Cargoes?

In this poem the speaker imagines a whole history of cargo ships carrying different things across the seas. Each verse gives us a different kind of ship in a different time in history and a different place, with different cargo.