Prose and poetry references and allusions in the Swallows and Amazons books | ||
The Armada | Thomas, Lord Macaulay | "And the red glare on Skiddaw woke the burghers of Carlisle" – How Titty knew that Carlisle had to be nearby, upon seeing Skiddaw from the summit of Kanchenjunga. |
The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens | Traditional | "Gae fetch a web o' the silken claith" – Swallowdale Ch. VII. |
Cargoes | John Masefield | "Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus" – Peter Duck, Ch. XXIX. |
Casabianca | Felicia D. Hemans | "The boy stood on the burning deck" – The poem Nancy and Peggy already knew. |
The Iliad of Homer | Alexander Pope | "By mutual confidence and mutual aid" – Swallowdale Ch. IV. |
John Winter | Laurence Binyon | "He turns his head, but in his ear the steady Trade-Winds run" – Peter Duck Ch. I. |
The Little Mermaid | Hans Christian Andersen | "Moving it at all reminded him of the mermaid who had to walk on sharp knives" – Roger's wounded foot in Swallowdale. |
On first looking Into Chapman's Homer |
John Keats | "Silent, upon a peak in Darien" – Titty looking at the Atlantic from Crab Island; Swallows and Amazons Ch. I. |
One of the Bo'sun's Yarns | John Masefield | "'And well,' says he, 'and how are your arms and legs and liver and lungs and bones afeeling now?'"" – Swallows and Amazons Ch. II. |
The Yarn of the Loch Achray | John Masefield | "The old man said, 'I mean to hang on till her canvas busts or her sticks are gone'" – The bit Daddy read to them at Falmouth; Swallowdale Ch. V. |