This is a little poem by a big author, W.H. Auden. He wrote a lot of big poems. But I find Auden is at his best when he’s brief:
Song of the Master and Boatswain
by W. H. Auden
At Dirty Dick’s and Sloppy Joe’s
We drank our liquor straight,
Some went upstairs with Margery,
And some, alas, with Kate;
And two by two like cat and mouse
The homeless played at keeping house.
There Wealthy Meg, the Sailor’s Friend,
And Marion, cow-eyed,
Opened their arms to me but I
Refused to step inside;
I was not looking for a cage
In which to mope my old age.
The nightingales are sobbing in
The orchards of our mothers,
And hearts that we broke long ago
Have long been breaking others;
Tears are round, the sea is deep:
Roll them overboard and sleep.
*
The first two stanzas are accessible, almost to a fault. The author is remembering his time with friends as sailors. They’re meeting girls in port, they’re peeling off and trying to live a married life. They are, but “he” the author isn’t. It’s artfully worded but it’s practical. We get it.
In the third stanza suddenly we break away from the play-by-play of memories. Instead suddenly we are discussing some nightingales in a far-off garden. These birds and their songs are no longer a memory of who-did-what; but more an abstract idea. An idea that hearts have been broken; probably many in a web of heartbreaks. What to do now in the face of sad tears and memories? “Roll them overboard and sleep.” A great line…. simple and sad, like the poem itself.