mad March days

or Quinquireme of Nineveh
or Stately Spanish galleon
or cheap tin trays!


Amazing how these phrases come flooding back into the memory when I haven't read the John Masefield poem 'Cargoes' for a long, long time. But then I think at school we sang it, so that is possibly why the phrases stuck. Does anyone else remember singing it? 

Certainly a mad March day today. Mad because last night and this morning it was so windy, wild. Then the rest of the day has alternated madly between rain, cloud and sunshine . . . and now we have snow on the hills.

Poem added

'Cargoes'

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, amethysts,
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.

John Masefield