Last week we passed the 6th anniversary of my Grandfather’s death; in what I assume to be a typical feature of all families, this occasion was marked by my various relatives launching into different variations of the “has it really been that long?” conversation.

My Grandfather lived to the age of 90 years old, which was something that seemed to fill him with amazement. On one of the last occasions that I spoke with him he responded to my birthday wishes by simply saying “Ninety years!” with a smile and a sigh.

Like most of his generation, his life was marked by the impact of World War II. He served in the Army, but with a twist - he served as a mate on an Army ship in the US Army Mine Planters Service. Of course, to make things even more confusing the ship he spent the most time on wasn’t a mine planter but was instead a cable ship. So how did he wind up on a ship as an Army recruit? That was a result of his years of experience as a mate on the Great Lakes, which the army saw and utilized.

Even though my Grandfather probably spent less than 1/8th of his life sailing the sea, his life was forever defined by that. His home was full of nautical memorabilia, some of which - like his sextants - were used by him during the war. Many of those same pieces of memorabilia reside in my son’s room now.

Today, for Poetry Monday and my Grandfather we have Thomas Lovell Beddoes’ “To Sea, To Sea!”

To Sea, To Sea!

To sea, to sea! The calm is o’er;
The wanton water leaps in sport,
And rattles down the pebbly shore;
The dolphin wheels, the sea-cow snorts,
And unseen mermaids’ pearly song
Comes bubbling up, the weeds among.
Fling broad the sail, dip deep the oar:
To sea, to sea! The calm is o’er.

To sea, to sea! our wide-winged bark
Shall billowy cleave its sunny way,
And with its shadow, fleet and dark,
Break the caved Tritons’ azure day,
Like mighty eagle soaring light
O’er antelopes on Alpine height.
The anchor heaves, the ship swings free,
The sails swell full. To sea, to sea!