SeaBritain 2005 is a national maritime celebration on a grand scale. Led by the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, its starting point is the 200th anniversary, this October, of Nelson’s victory at the great sea battle of Trafalgar. But SeaBritain 2005 and partner organizations like Magma are looking to make the anniversary year a much wider celebration of all the ways in which sea touches our lives.

Magma invites all readers to join the search for the SeaBritain 2005 Favourite Poem of the Sea. We would like you to use the Magma web forums to nominate what you think is the best sea poem. click here to nominate your favourite sea poem

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To kickstart the selection processes, the article “Measuring the Sea” in Magma 32 includes the favourite sea poems of the Magma committee and contributing Magma poets, as well as celebrity choices. Poet Laureate Andrew Motion has chosen “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold and the anonymous Anglo-Saxon poem “The Seafarer”. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s choice is “Sea-Fever” by John Masefield. Roy Clare, Director of the National Maritime Museum has chosen “Song of the Waterlily” by shipwright poet Martin Newell. The SeaBritain 2005 website will include more maritime celebrities announcing their own choice of best sea poem.

By the end of July Magma will select the ten most popular nominations and ask you to vote on the web forums for your own favourite.

And in October, you are invited to a sea poetry party at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, to hear which of the top ten has come out as the SeaBritain 2005 Favourite Poem of the Sea. You’ll have a chance to hear all the top ten sea poems being read, and also the best of Magma’s new sea poetry, read by the poets.