Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad The Polish-English writer, A merchant ship man, a sea man, A captain, a seafarer With a chequered life Dividing in between, Spent at different places As for historic upheavals and repercussions Taking it place then And destiny taking him To England finally. The memories of distraught life, Displacement and dislocation Never left him behind, Found consolation with the sea, Served the marine As it was his last hope And recreated it With diaries and memoirs To turn them into the souvenir Of literature Starting from Ukraine, Poland To Austria, Russia, That very part Which the English-speaking Knew it not so much, He delved upon and drew it from His imagery and sea life As did it John Masefield As a sea man, a ship man. But is not easy to lead A mariner's life And those who are at sea Know it best How hard is life there, How the vicissitudes of life, The struggles and hardships To be borne and compromised? Polish descent, ancestry, Austrian historicity, Russian legacy and hegemony, How to shake them off The connections Which many understand it not That of being a non-English writer, Like Somerset Maugham Trying to learn and adopt and adapt to Conditions prevailing around?