The sea, and do things change?

The tides ebb and flow, but the sea is all ways there. 

The sea has a beautiful, paradoxical character when it floats the imagery of change. Certainly, its depth, weight and vast horizon evoke powerful notions of constant and immutable existence. But the tides, the storms, the currents, push an equally powerful image of change and chaos. So the character of the seas is wrapped around the paradox of dynamic equilibrium. Constant change, unchanging constants. Part homeostatic, part stable state.

Like all good imagery, the connotations which the sea brings say more about us than anything else. I am always struck by how much our affairs change and how much they stay the same. Just today I learnt Margaret Atwood is on twitter.

I think the following two pieces demonstrate the point in a surprisingly coherent way. Both deal with change, constants, the sea and what it means about human nature. But, when looked at side by side, these two works really rub the kernel of the dynamic equilibrium paradox. Separated by medium and time, they jointly show how the changes in our activity are a function of our constant human nature.

That they do it with the sea seems even more appropriate.

Firstly a poem:

Cargoes - John Masefield

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amythysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

Secondly an article from The Telegraph:

Container shipping: the secretive industry crucial to our existence