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Aboard at a ship’s helm, A young steersman steering with care.
Through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing,
An ocean-bell-O a warning bell, rock’d by the waves.
O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing,
Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place.
For as on the alert O steersman, you mind the loud admonition,
The bows turn, the freighted ship tacking speeds away under her gray sails,
The beautiful and noble ship with all her precious wealth speeds away gayly and safe.
But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship!
Ship of the body, ship of the soul, voyaging, voyaging, voyaging.
SUMMARY AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Summary. Aboard At A Ship’s Helm is a short poem of eleven short lines with fine imagery and a strikingly lucid narration of a ship’s gay voyage to safety under the guidance of a good steersman who was warned of the sea-reefs by a ringing bell rocked by the waves.
The pilot of a ship hears the warning note of a bell through the fog. Immediately he becomes aware of the fact that there are sea-reefs in the direction from which the sound came:
O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing.Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-places.
Alerted by the warning bell the pilot changes the course of the ship and saves it from being wrecked.
The beautiful and noble ship with all her precious wealth speeds away gayly and safe.
The closing two lines, then speak of the ship of the body, ship of the soul, which goes on voyaging. There is uncertainty in its voyage with none to warn it of the impending disaster of being wrecked.
Critical Analysis. The poet’s beautiful imagery is very striking. What happens to the voyaging soul as distinguished from the voyaging freighted ship is a subject discussed by philosophers everywhere and at all times. No one has come to any conclusion. The poet does not profess to solve this age-old problem. The restless soul has no well-defined destination, it faces danger at any time. Is there any warning bell? Who is the steersman? Is the soul within the body itself or any Immanent Supreme Being? The thinking reader has to go on pondering over this. This is the charm of the poem.