Weymouth Harbour
Songwriting about the sea and maritime themes is a lot like writing poetry but with the added benefit of the sound of the words enhanced by the musicality of the tune.
If you are writing about the sea, perhaps with a view to entering the 2009 Wessex Folk Festival songwriting competition with its £200 first prize, there are lots of wonderful sounds to play with as you write your maritime song.
There is the splash of the waves on the shore, the booming of the surf on the rocks, the creak of the oars in the water, the whistling of the wind in the mast and the crack off the sails in the North-Westerly wind.
Writing about the sea and maritime themes, whether it is poetry, songwriting or prose is powerful because of the sheer majesty and size of the forces that have confronted sailors throughout the ages and still do today.
Technology does much to help modern mariners who cross the seas but the oceans are still a sleeping monster that can rear up and engulf the unfortunate or unwary without warning.
To me, as I stand by the Dorset sea shore or voyage over the sea by a boat, ship or yacht, the ocean almost always seems to be alive and it is easy to bring parallels between our thoughts and feelings as human beings and the sights, sounds and smells of the sea as it restlessly tosses and turns.
Sailors who have gone to sea often leave loved ones on the sea shore and children at home and the sadness of separation adds to the piquancy of the maritime songwriting tradition.
Songwriting about sea, sailors, ships and maritime themes is a great subject to inspire passionate poetry about the elements with a soaring tune but it is always the effect the oceans have on ordinary human beings that reaches our hearts most profoundly.
Bye for now
Rob
.