This poem is found in Housman’s
More Poems, it is poem number 46:
Hearken, landsmen, hearken, seamen,
to the tale of grief and me,
Looking from the land of Biscay
on the waters of the sea.
Looking from the land of Biscay
over Ocean to the sky
On the far-beholding foreland
paced at even grief and I.
There, as warm the west was burning
and the east uncoloured cold,
Down the waterway of sunset
drove to shore a ship of gold.
Gold of mast and gold of cordage,
gold of sail to sight was she,
And she glassed her ensign golden
in the waters of the sea.
Oh, said I, my friend and lover,
take we now that ship and sail
Outward in the ebb of hues and
steer upon the sunset trail;
Leave the night to fall behind us
and the clouding counties leave;
Help for you and me is yonder,
in a haven west of eve.
Under hill she neared the harbour,
till the gazer could behold
On the gold deck the steersman
standing at the helm of gold,
Man and ship and sky and water
burning in a single flame;
And the mariner of Ocean,
he was calling as he came:
From the highway of the sunset
he was calling as he came:
From the highway of the sunset
he was shouting on the sea,
‘Landsman of the land of Biscay,
have you help for grief and me?’
When I heard I did not answer,
I stood mute and shook my head:
Son of earth and son of Ocean,
much we thought and nothing said.
Grief and I abode the nightfall,
to the sunset grief and he
Turned them from the land of Biscay
on the waters of the sea.
The poem with the stressed
syllables underlined:
Hearken, landsmen, hearken, seamen,
to the tale of grief and me,
Looking from the land of Biscay
on the waters of the sea.
Looking from the land of Biscay
over Ocean to the sky
On the far-beholding foreland
paced at even grief and I.
There, as warm the west was burning
and the east uncoloured cold,
Down the waterway of sunset
drove to shore a ship of gold.
Gold of mast and gold of cordage,
gold of sail to sight was she,
And she glassed her ensign golden
in the waters of the sea.
Oh, said I, my friend and lover,
take we now that ship and sail
Outward in the ebb of hues and
steer upon the sunset trail;
Leave the night to fall behind us
and the clouding counties leave;
Help for you and me is yonder,
in a haven west of eve.
Under hill she neared the harbour,
till the gazer could behold
On the golden deck the steersman
standing at the helm of gold,
Man and ship and sky and water
burning in a single flame;
And the mariner of Ocean,
he was calling as he came:
From the highway of the sunset
he was shouting on the sea,
‘Landsman of the land of Biscay,
have you help for grief and me?’
When I heard I did not answer,
I stood mute and shook my head:
Son of earth and son of Ocean,
much we thought and nothing said.
Grief and I abode the nightfall,
to the sunset grief and he
Turned them from the land of Biscay
on the waters of the sea.
Analysis:
This poem has a real interesting
beat to it and it is a pity that
Housman did not create other
poems in this style. Grief, in
this poem, is a friend and
companion, and they encounter
another couple in the same
situation. Housman often likes
to dramatize issues by have a
person talk or consider another
version of himself, here these
duel identities are doubled.
Like Ned in “Hellgate”, the
steersman is burning with some
awful guilt, no doubt secret and
sexual in nature. The poem ends
on a despairing note.
The illustration is incorrect, one
of the characters should be on
land. I drew it before I reread
the poem, I will redraw it
eventually.
© C.A. MacLennan 2025
