Hells Pavement
“When I’m discharged at Liverpool ‘n’ draws my bit o’ pay,
I won’t come to sea no more;
I’ll court a pretty little lass ‘n’ have a weddin’ day,‘N’ settle somewhere down shore;
I’ll never fare to sea again a-temptin’ Davy Jones,
“When I’m discharged at Liverpool ‘n’ draws my bit o’ pay,
I won’t come to sea no more;
I’ll court a pretty little lass ‘n’ have a weddin’ day,‘N’ settle somewhere down shore;
I’ll never fare to sea again a-temptin’ Davy Jones,
HE Kings go by with jewled crowns;
Their horses gleam, their banners shake, their spears are many
The sack of many-peopled towns Is all their dream:
The way they take Leaves but a ruin in the brake,
Oh some are fond of red wine, and some are fond of white,
And some are all for dancing by the pale moonlight:
But rum alone’s the tipple, and the heart’s delight Of the old bold mate of Henry Morgan
Oh some are fond of Spanish wine,...
Troy Town is covered up with weeds,
The rabbits and the pismires
On broken gold, and shards, and
Where Priam's ancient palace stood
Mother Carey
She's the mother o' the witches'N' all them sort o' rips;
She's a fine gell to look at, but the hitch is,
She's a sight too fond of ships;
In the dark womb where I
My mother’s life made me a man
Through all the months of human
Her beauty fed my common earth
Laugh and be merry, remember, better the world with a song,
Better the world with a blow in the teeth of a wrong
Laugh, for the time is brief, a thread the length of a span
Laugh and be proud to belong to the old proud pageant of man
When I am buried, all my thoughts and acts Will be reduced to lists of dates and facts, And long before this wandering flesh is rotten The dates which made me will be all forgotten; And none will know the gleam there used to be About the feast day...
Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
I hold that when a person dies His soul returns again to earth;
Arrayed in some new flesh-disguise Another mother gives him birth
With sturdier limbs and brighter brain The old soul takes the road again
Such is my own belief and tru...
This is a sacred city built of marvellous earth
Life was lived nobly here to give such beauty birth
Beauty was in this brain and in this eager hand: Death is so blind and dumb Death does not understand
Death drifts the brain with du...
I Four bells were struck, the watch was called on deck,
All work aboard was over for the hour,
And some men sang and others played at check,
Or mended clothes or watched the sunset glower