In this guest blog post, Christopher Hart provides a reading of a short and interesting poem by John Donne, ‘A Burnt Ship’.
Out of a fired ship, which by no way
But drowning could be rescued from the flame,
Some men leap’d forth, and ever as they came
Near the foes’ ships, did by their shot decay;
So all were lost, which in the ship were found,
They in the sea being burnt, they in the burnt ship drowned.
This poem is a bitterly ironic reminder of one of the horrors of naval warfare in the age of the sail; if a ship was set on fire, it was almost certainly going to sink. Sailors who leapt from the ship either drowned or were killed by the enemy who lit the ship on fire in the first place (‘near the foes’ ships, did by their shot decay’). All who were left in the ship, in a wet, flaming oxymoron, were burnt in the sea and drowned in a burning ship.
The poem is strangely emotionally detached. It observes without moralizing, reading almost like a sterile account of events. There are no dramatic exclamations (‘O, alack, alay!’), no mourning the crew, no cursing the enemy (who is only referred to as foe, a fairly neutral word). It’s as if Donne is inviting us to be observers and to judge for ourselves. In doing so, I think that he makes the gruesome fate of the sailors seem like even more of a tragedy. We can draw our own conclusions about the scene, and I doubt there are any who do not feel some sort of pity for the poor souls who burned in a watery grave and drowned in a funeral pyre.
There is some ironic black humor in burning to death on a sinking ship, or drowning in a burning ship, but somehow I don’t think that’s the point of this poem. I do admit that I smiled a little at the image, and like to think that if I was one of the unfortunate souls in the poem, somewhere between saying my prayers and cursing my bad luck, I’d chuckle to think that I’m about to drown trapped inside a flaming ship.
Structurally, the poem contains six un-metered lines following a rhyme scheme of ABBACC. The final rhyming couplet serves to draw a tidy conclusion to the grisly scene. When one reads the poem aloud, there is a definite feeling of finality in those lines.
If you enjoyed this analysis, you might also like our pick of Donne’s best poems.
Christopher Hart is an English teacher in Uiseong-gun, South Korea. Born in Wallingford, CT, in the United States of America, he received his B.A. in English and Music at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. He believes firmly in both education and poetry, and believes that poetry and song should be vital parts of every day life. He thinks that we often read too fast, and should read aloud more often. His blog, ‘A Poem a Day’ updates five times weekly with poetry and light analysis. His blog may be found here.
Image: John Donne, public domain.
I enjoyed reading your blog, its beautifully written.
Great analysis on what could be an easily overlooked poem.
Succinct
Lovely to read your appreciation of John Donne. I think you might enjoy considering the poem as a metaphor: Donne is using this striking image to comment on – well, you decide. The politics of the day? The frailty of the human heart? He was an expert on both.
Reblogged this on Gently Read Literature.
Wonderful. I must read more John Donne. I always thought it incredible that he managed to add two phrases to the English language in one short set of paragraphs: “No man is an island, entire of itself … therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee”: http://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html.
John Donne’s poetry is so interesting, he seems to see things from a very unique perspective. One of my favourites is “the flea”, quite comically but also rather darkly he observes a flea which has sucks the blood of he and his maiden. He reasons that “our two bloods mingled be” and that therefore “The flea is you and I, and this/ Our marriage bed and marriage temple is”. The flea is “pampered swells with one blood made of two”, whilst the frustrated speaker of the poem is denied sexual gratification.
Just fabulous.
Thank you for sharing this John Donne poem. I love the imagery and how he provokes thought. I have long used “No man is an island.”………. As my urge for self exploration. Good read thank you. Susan ❤
Perfectly analyzed …. The most beautiful aspect that strikes us while reading Metaphysical poetry is the difficulty to grasp the meaning evolved from the first reading, for it requires from us a second reading to be fully in the mood of understanding it. Thus, the more one reads the poems of these poets the more one tends to find, simply in actual meaning, what had been missed earlier.
So refreshing to read this as I haven’t read Donne in ages!
thescribblingtrain.wordpress.com
I seem to understand John Donne a lot more now that ever before….thanks for this post and thanks for visiting my blog…
touche
I enjoyed reading your interpretation and reading the poem. To me, John Donne always brings to mind, “Death be not proud.” Regarding this poem, do you think there is any metpahorical content in the burning ship and the damned if you jump damned if you stay notion? I might appropriate it for other situations in life.