Ballad: The Sailor Boy To His Lass

In the bal­lad “The Sailor Boy to His Lass,” the nar­ra­tor, a sailor boy, address­es his beloved Matil­da as he pre­pares to set sail. The poem opens with his depar­ture for an undis­closed loca­tion, as the cap­tain, Cap­tain Hyde, keeps the des­ti­na­tion a secret from the crew. The sailor boy express­es frus­tra­tion over being kept in the dark due to his low­ly posi­tion but quick­ly moves past this griev­ance to focus on mat­ters of the heart.

He eager­ly ques­tions Matil­da about their future, specif­i­cal­ly whether they will wed upon his return. Matil­da’s respons­es, how­ev­er, are less than enthu­si­as­tic. She phys­i­cal­ly shows her reluc­tance and skep­ti­cism – her eyes are red, she bows her head, and at one point, she even sticks out her tongue and makes faces, sig­nal­ing her dis­dain. This reac­tion is fur­ther empha­sized by her ver­bal rebuff, indi­cat­ing she is not as com­mit­ted to their future togeth­er as he is.

Despite her dis­mis­sive atti­tude, the sailor boy pleads with Matil­da, remind­ing her of their past and the emo­tion­al toll their rela­tion­ship has tak­en on him. He recounts a time of jeal­ousy when Matil­da was seen inter­act­ing close­ly with an old­er man, which trou­bled him deeply. The bal­lad oscil­lates between his pleas for a future togeth­er and Matil­da’s appar­ent reluc­tance to com­mit, under­scor­ing the sailor boy’s unre­quit­ed love and devo­tion.

In essence, the poem weaves a nar­ra­tive of love, expectan­cy, and despair, por­trayed through the sailor boy’s depar­ture and his antic­i­pa­tion of a future that seems increas­ing­ly uncer­tain with Matil­da’s ambiva­lent and reject­ing ges­tures. The ballad’s style, main­tain­ing a rhyth­mic and rhyming struc­ture, cap­tures the emo­tion­al oscil­la­tion between hope and heartache, end­ing on a note of long­ing and unre­solved affec­tion.