In Masefield's Cargoes, there is no set meter in any of the three stanzas. As to the rhyme scheme, I figured it to be ABCCB, ABCCB, ABCCB. Masefield rhymed line two and line five in each stanza. In the poem, there was a definitive emphasizing of the poetic device alliteration. In stanza one there is one example ("white wine"). In stanza two there is another ("Stately Spanish"). And in stanza three I found three examples ("mad March", "Road rails" and "tin trays"). In line one of stanza three I found a perfect example of hyperbole. "Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smokestack." One can say the word dirty can be an over exaggeration in Masefield's description of the boat, but I find his description of the smokestack being "salt-caked" a prime example of the device.
             Many readers believe that in Cargoes, Masefield is contrasting life in present day with what he imagined life to be in the past. I believe the past to be the first two ships described in stanza one and two. When reading those two stanzas you get a clear vision of the boats sailing in the water carrying the sweetest of cargo. Especially in stanza two, when he describes the cargo as being expensive, luxurious jewels and gold coins (moidores). Present day I believe is the latter part of the poem. I think Masefield was imagining how great the past must have been and then drifted back to the present in stanza three. The third stanza describes the boat as being dirty, and the cargo being coal, road rails and things that make you think of hard times in his time of life.
             ...