I must down to the seas again for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.
ATTRIBUTION:
John Masefield (1874–1967), British poet, playwright. “Sea Fever,” st. 2, Salt-Water Ballads (1902).
The line appears as “I must go down to the seas again ... “ in some collections, and in John Ireland’s musical setting of the poem; though apparently not in Masefield’s drafts, nor in the first published version.
