“The Emigrant” by John Masefield: A Critical Analysis

Introduction: “The Emigrant” by John Masefield

“The Emigrant” by John Masefield first appeared in Salt-Water Ballads (1902), the collection that established him as a poet of the sea and the lives of sailors. The poem captures the melancholy of departure and the emotional pull between community, memory, and the call of migration. The speaker hears the “boys within / Dancing the Spanish hornpipe to Driscoll’s violin” (ll. 1–2), a scene rich with vitality and belonging, yet he remains detached because “I was going westward, I hadn’t heart for more” (l. 4). The refrain “I was going westward” (ll. 4, 8, 12) underscores the inevitability of exile and the burden of leaving familiar hearths and friends behind. Its popularity lies in this universal tension between home and the unknown, between rootedness and restlessness, a theme that resonated strongly in the early twentieth century as migration and imperial mobility were widespread. Vivid imagery—“the grey stone houses, the night wind blowing keen, / The hill-sides pale with moonlight, the young corn springing green” (ll. 9–10)—anchors the poem in a tangible landscape while contrasting it with the uncertainty of departure. This blending of maritime rhythm, personal sorrow, and universal longing made the poem memorable within Masefield’s body of work and contributed to his reputation as a poet of the sea and of exile.

Text: “The Emigrant” by John Masefield

Going by Daly’s shanty I heard the boys within
Dancing the Spanish hornpipe to Driscoll’s violin,
I heard the sea-boots shaking the rough planks of the floor,
But I was going westward, I hadn’t heart for more.

All down the windy village the noise rang in my ears,
Old sea-boots stamping, shuffling, it brought the bitter tears,
The old tune piped and quavered, the lilts came clear and strong,
But I was going westward, I couldn’t join the song.

There were the grey stone houses, the night wind blowing keen,
The hill-sides pale with moonlight, the young corn springing green,
The hearth nooks lit and kindly, with dear friends good to see,
But I was going westward, and the ship waited me.

Annotations: “The Emigrant” by John Masefield

Stanza	Annotation	Literary Devices ✦
Stanza 1“Going by Daly’s shanty I heard the boys within / Dancing the Spanish hornpipe to Driscoll’s violin, / I heard the sea-boots shaking the rough planks of the floor, / But I was going westward, I hadn’t heart for more.”	The speaker passes a lively scene of friends dancing inside Daly’s hut, accompanied by a fiddler. The sound of boots and music symbolizes joy and community. However, the speaker feels no joy, for he is bound to leave. This shows the contrast between fellowship and isolation.	✦ Imagery (dancing, violin, boots)✦ Contrast (joy inside vs. sorrow of departure)✦ Refrain (repeated “I was going westward”)✦ Symbolism (music = belonging, ship = exile)✦ Tone of melancholy
Stanza 2“All down the windy village the noise rang in my ears, / Old sea-boots stamping, shuffling, it brought the bitter tears, / The old tune piped and quavered, the lilts came clear and strong, / But I was going westward, I couldn’t join the song.”	As he walks through the windy village, the lively sounds echo in his memory. Instead of joy, the rhythm of stamping feet brings him tears. The tune of community is clear and strong, but he cannot join, as departure prevents him. This stanza deepens the sorrow of exile.	✦ Personification (noise “rang” in ears)✦ Repetition (“But I was going westward”)✦ Juxtaposition (tears vs. joy of tune)✦ Alliteration (“sea-boots stamping, shuffling”)✦ Mood of nostalgia
Stanza 3“There were the grey stone houses, the night wind blowing keen, / The hill-sides pale with moonlight, the young corn springing green, / The hearth nooks lit and kindly, with dear friends good to see, / But I was going westward, and the ship waited me.”	The final stanza paints the beauty of home: stone houses, moonlit hills, fresh spring crops, and warm hearths with friends. Yet, despite this comfort, the ship awaits, and he must leave. The inevitability of departure triumphs over love of home, showing the universal tragedy of emigration.	✦ Vivid imagery (moonlight, corn, hearth nooks)✦ Contrast (comfort of home vs. call of ship)✦ Symbolism (ship = destiny/fate)✦ Alliteration (“springing green”)✦ Theme of exile and inevitability

Literary And Poetic Devices: “The Emigrant” by John Masefield

Device	Example (from the poem)	Explanation
✦ Alliteration	“Old sea-boots stamping, shuffling, it brought the bitter tears” (l. 3)	Repetition of initial consonant sounds creates rhythm and musicality, echoing the song and steps in the poem.
✦ Anaphora	“But I was going westward” (ll. 4, 8, 12)	Repetition of the phrase at the end of each stanza emphasizes the inevitability of departure and the speaker’s sorrow.
✦ Assonance	“Dancing the Spanish hornpipe to Driscoll’s violin” (l. 2)	Repeated vowel sounds (“a,” “i”) create a musical effect, mirroring the fiddle’s melody.
✦ Contrast	Joy inside Daly’s shanty (ll. 1–3) vs. the speaker’s sorrow (l. 4)	Highlights tension between communal joy and personal exile.
✦ Enjambment	“The hill-sides pale with moonlight, the young corn springing green, / The hearth nooks lit and kindly, with dear friends good to see” (ll. 9–11)	Thoughts flow across lines, imitating the continuity of memory and the pull of home.
✦ Hyperbole	“The noise rang in my ears” (l. 5)	Exaggerates the persistence of sound, showing its emotional impact on the speaker.
✦ Imagery	“grey stone houses, the night wind blowing keen” (l. 9)	Vivid visual and sensory description creates a strong sense of place and atmosphere.
✦ Irony	“the old tune piped and quavered, the lilts came clear and strong, / But I was going westward, I couldn’t join the song” (ll. 7–8)	The joy of the music contrasts with the speaker’s inability to participate, stressing his isolation.
✦ Juxtaposition	“bitter tears” (l. 6) with “lilts came clear and strong” (l. 7)	Placing sorrow against joy intensifies the emotional contrast.
✦ Melancholic Tone	“I hadn’t heart for more” (l. 4)	The emotional mood is sorrowful and resigned, capturing the sadness of exile.
✦ Metaphor	“the ship waited me” (l. 12)	The ship symbolizes destiny, exile, and the inevitability of departure.
✦ Mood	Created by imagery of music, moonlight, and hearths (ll. 1–12)	Establishes nostalgia and sadness, allowing the reader to feel the tension between home and journey.
✦ PersonificationPersonification: A Literary Device	“The noise rang in my ears” (l. 5)	Gives sound human-like persistence, suggesting the haunting nature of memory.
✦ Refrain	“I was going westward” repeated in all stanzas (ll. 4, 8, 12)	Creates musicality and reinforces the theme of inevitability.
✦ Rhythm	“Old sea-boots stamping, shuffling” (l. 6)	The beat of words mirrors the rhythm of dancing feet.
✦ Symbolism	“sea-boots” = sailors’ lives; “ship” = exile/destiny; “hearth nooks” = comfort of home	Objects represent larger ideas of belonging and departure.
✦ Synecdoche	“sea-boots” (ll. 3, 6)	Boots stand for the sailors themselves, focusing on movement and dance.
✦ Theme of Exile	“But I was going westward” (ll. 4, 8, 12)	Central idea of forced departure, sacrifice, and the pain of leaving home.
✦ Visual Imagery	“hill-sides pale with moonlight, the young corn springing green” (l. 10)	Creates a picturesque scene of home, emphasizing what is lost.
✦ Voice (First-Person Narration)	“I heard… I was going… I couldn’t join” (ll. 1–12)	The personal voice draws the reader into the speaker’s emotional journey, making the exile intimate and relatable.

Themes: “The Emigrant” by John Masefield

🌸 Theme 1: Exile and Departure: “The Emigrant” by John Masefield captures the inevitability of departure and the emotional toll of leaving one’s homeland. The repeated refrain, “But I was going westward” (ll. 4, 8, 12), serves as a constant reminder of the speaker’s fate, highlighting the theme of exile. Even when surrounded by warmth, music, and friendship, he cannot share in the joy, confessing “I hadn’t heart for more” (l. 4). The “ship waited me” (l. 12) becomes a symbol of destiny, pulling him away from the comforts of community and familiarity. The poem’s title itself, The Emigrant, evokes displacement, loss, and the compulsion to move toward an unknown future. Masefield thus presents exile not as a choice but as a tragic inevitability that overshadows all moments of happiness.

✦ Theme 2: Nostalgia and Memory: “The Emigrant” by John Masefield reveals how memories of home, music, and companionship remain powerful, even when the speaker is physically leaving. The sounds of “the Spanish hornpipe to Driscoll’s violin” (l. 2) and “Old sea-boots stamping, shuffling” (l. 6) echo in his mind, turning joy into sorrow, as they “brought the bitter tears” (l. 6). Nostalgia heightens his pain: the “grey stone houses” and “hearth nooks lit and kindly” (ll. 9, 11) represent the comfort and rootedness he must abandon. Memory, in this poem, becomes both a blessing and a torment—it vividly recalls the warmth of home but also sharpens the anguish of separation. The theme of nostalgia reflects the human tendency to carry one’s homeland in the heart even when forced to part from it.

✨ Theme 3: Community vs. Isolation: “The Emigrant” by John Masefield contrasts the lively togetherness of the village with the speaker’s inner loneliness. Inside Daly’s shanty, “the boys” dance, “the sea-boots shaking the rough planks of the floor” (ll. 1–3), suggesting fellowship, laughter, and vitality. Yet the speaker stands apart, unable to join, repeating mournfully, “I couldn’t join the song” (l. 8). While the community continues its life, he is cut off, isolated by his destiny as an emigrant. The hearths “lit and kindly, with dear friends good to see” (l. 11) symbolize warmth and shared bonds, but his heart remains elsewhere, pulled toward the departing ship. This stark tension between community and isolation makes the speaker’s departure even more painful, for he leaves behind not just a homeland but also the embrace of human connection.

🌿 Theme 4: Nature and the Passage of Time: “The Emigrant” by John Masefield also intertwines natural imagery with the theme of leaving, suggesting the cycle of life and the inevitability of change. The description of “the hill-sides pale with moonlight, the young corn springing green” (l. 10) evokes freshness, growth, and renewal, reminding the reader of the land’s eternal rhythm. In contrast, the emigrant’s journey westward represents disruption, loss, and personal displacement. Nature remains constant—the hills, the moon, the crops—yet human life is fragile, vulnerable to forces of migration, poverty, or destiny. By juxtaposing the permanence of the natural world with the transience of human belonging, Masefield highlights the inevitability of time’s passage and the sorrow of departure.

Literary Theories and “The Emigrant” by John Masefield

Literary Theory	Application to “The Emigrant”
🌸 Formalism / New Criticism	Focuses on the poem’s structure, language, and imagery. The repeated refrain “But I was going westward” (ll. 4, 8, 12) functions as a unifying device that shapes the rhythm and mood. Literary devices such as ✦ imagery (“grey stone houses, the night wind blowing keen” l. 9), ✦ alliteration (“springing green” l. 10), and ✦ symbolism (the ship as destiny) highlight the internal conflict of the speaker. Formalist reading emphasizes how sound, rhythm, and repetition build the poem’s melancholic effect without relying on external context.
✦ Historical / Biographical Criticism	Interprets the poem through John Masefield’s life and historical context. Masefield himself spent years as a sailor and emigrant, leaving England for America. The speaker’s sorrowful departure—“I hadn’t heart for more” (l. 4)—echoes Masefield’s own feelings of exile and dislocation. The reference to maritime life through “sea-boots stamping, shuffling” (l. 6) reflects the seafaring communities he knew. Historically, the early 20th century saw waves of migration, making the poem resonate with real cultural displacement.
✨ Psychoanalytic Criticism	Reads the poem through the lens of inner conflict and subconscious desires. The lively music in Daly’s shanty represents the pleasure principle (community, joy, belonging), while the repeated call of “I was going westward” represents the reality principle (duty, destiny, or unconscious compulsion to leave). The speaker’s tears—“it brought the bitter tears” (l. 6)—reveal repression and emotional breakdown, suggesting unresolved trauma in abandoning home. The ship functions as a symbolic “other,” embodying both opportunity and exile in the psyche.
🌿 Postcolonial Criticism	Examines themes of migration, identity, and displacement under imperial contexts. The poem’s title, The Emigrant, frames the speaker as part of a broader movement of people uprooted by empire, poverty, or global expansion. The tension between the hearth “lit and kindly, with dear friends good to see” (l. 11) and the waiting ship (l. 12) mirrors the colonial push-and-pull between homeland and foreign lands. The loss of belonging and cultural uprooting reflects the costs of imperial migration, while the speaker’s silence against destiny signals the powerless position of many emigrants in colonial history.

Critical Questions about “The Emigrant” by John Masefield

🌸 Question 1: How does “The Emigrant” by John Masefield explore the tension between joy and sorrow?

The poem juxtaposes lively scenes of fellowship with the speaker’s inner grief. While the boys are “Dancing the Spanish hornpipe to Driscoll’s violin” (l. 2) and the “sea-boots shaking the rough planks of the floor” (l. 3), the speaker confesses, “I was going westward, I hadn’t heart for more” (l. 4). This tension between outer joy and inner sorrow demonstrates the painful reality of exile: the emigrant sees happiness but cannot partake in it. John Masefield emphasizes that migration often involves a deep contradiction—the world around may celebrate life, but the emigrant’s heart remains heavy with departure.

✦ Question 2: In what ways does “The Emigrant” by John Masefield reflect the theme of memory and nostalgia?

The poem is suffused with nostalgic recollection, as sounds and sights of home haunt the speaker. The “old tune piped and quavered, the lilts came clear and strong” (l. 7) recalls joyous gatherings, yet it brings “the bitter tears” (l. 6). Similarly, the imagery of “grey stone houses, the night wind blowing keen” (l. 9) and “the hearth nooks lit and kindly, with dear friends good to see” (l. 11) conjures comfort and belonging. These images highlight how memory intensifies the pain of departure. For Masefield, nostalgia is not merely sentimental; it becomes a heavy burden that emigrants must carry across oceans.

✨ Question 3: How does Masefield use repetition in “The Emigrant” to emphasize inevitability?

The refrain “But I was going westward” (ll. 4, 8, 12) recurs at the end of each stanza, acting as a rhythmic anchor that underscores inevitability. Despite scenes of dancing, music, moonlight, and companionship, the refrain interrupts every joy with the reminder of departure. The ship, described simply but powerfully—“and the ship waited me” (l. 12)—embodies the unavoidable destiny that pulls the speaker away. The repetition mirrors the emigrant’s psychological state: no matter where his mind wanders, the thought of leaving returns insistently, erasing every fleeting comfort.

🌿 Question 4: What does “The Emigrant” by John Masefield suggest about the human cost of migration?

The poem presents migration not as adventure but as sorrowful dislocation. The emigrant leaves behind “the young corn springing green” (l. 10), a symbol of renewal and future growth, and “dear friends good to see” (l. 11), symbols of love and community. Yet he must go, compelled by circumstances beyond his control. The line “I couldn’t join the song” (l. 8) captures the exclusion and loneliness migration creates. Masefield thus highlights the human cost of migration: not only the physical act of leaving but the emotional rupture that severs individuals from their roots, traditions, and people.

Literary Works Similar to “The Emigrant” by John Masefield

🌸 “The Leaving of Liverpool” (Traditional Ballad)
✦ Similar because it expresses the sorrow of parting from one’s homeland and loved ones while embarking on an uncertain sea voyage, echoing the refrain-like tone of The Emigrant.

🌿 “Crossing the Bar” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
✦ Similar because it uses maritime imagery and the metaphor of a ship’s departure to symbolize transition, inevitability, and farewell, paralleling the emigrant’s westward journey.
🌸 “Sailing to Byzantium” by W. B. Yeats
✦ Similar because it reflects on leaving behind the familiar world in search of something beyond, blending exile, transformation, and inevitability, much like Masefield’s emigrant.
✦ “Sea-Fever” by John Masefield
✦ Similar because it voices the restless pull of the sea and departure, though more adventurous in tone, it shares the same maritime rhythm and inevitability of leaving as “The Emigrant.“

Representative Quotations of “The Emigrant” by John Masefield

🌸 Quotation	Context	Theoretical Perspective
“Going by Daly’s shanty I heard the boys within” (l. 1)	Sets the opening scene of fellowship and music in a communal space, highlighting the life the emigrant is leaving.	Formalism: Focus on imagery and rhythm establishing contrast between inner joy and outer exile.
✦ “Dancing the Spanish hornpipe to Driscoll’s violin” (l. 2)	Describes cultural tradition and music as symbols of belonging, joy, and identity.	Cultural Criticism: Music embodies cultural memory that the emigrant loses in migration.
🌿 “I heard the sea-boots shaking the rough planks of the floor” (l. 3)	Vivid sensory image of stamping sailors, grounding the poem in maritime life.	Maritime Studies: Representation of sailor identity and the material world of seafaring culture.
✨ “But I was going westward, I hadn’t heart for more” (l. 4)	First use of the refrain; shows sorrow, inevitability, and alienation from joy.	Psychoanalytic Criticism: Reveals conflict between desire for belonging and unconscious compulsion to leave.
🌸 “All down the windy village the noise rang in my ears” (l. 5)	The sound of joy echoes even outside, haunting the speaker with memory.	Memory Studies: Shows how sensory recollection burdens the emigrant with nostalgia.
✦ “Old sea-boots stamping, shuffling, it brought the bitter tears” (l. 6)	Fellowship turns into sorrow; sound evokes grief instead of happiness.	Reader-Response: Readers feel the emotional tension of joy transformed into pain.
🌿 “The old tune piped and quavered, the lilts came clear and strong” (l. 7)	Music persists as a communal bond, but the emigrant cannot join.	Postcolonial Criticism: Highlights loss of cultural participation in exile.
✨ “I couldn’t join the song” (l. 8)	Emphasizes isolation and inability to belong to community despite presence.	Existentialism: Captures human loneliness and separation from shared meaning.
🌸 “The hill-sides pale with moonlight, the young corn springing green” (l. 10)	Nature continues in cycles of renewal, contrasting with human loss.	Ecocriticism: Examines how natural imagery emphasizes permanence vs. human dislocation.
🌿 “But I was going westward, and the ship waited me” (l. 12)	Final refrain; destiny of migration triumphs over love, friendship, and home.	Historical/Biographical Criticism: Reflects Masefield’s own seafaring exile and broader migration patterns of his age.

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