Songs from Books

A SMUGGLER'S SONG

 
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street.
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie,
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
      Five and twenty ponies,
      Trotting through the dark —
      Brandy for the Parson,
      'Baccy for the Clerk;
      Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
 
 
Running round the woodlump if you chance to find
Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine,
Don't you shout to come and look, nor use 'em for your play.
Put the brishwood back again – and they'll be gone next day!
 
 
If you see the stable-door setting open wide;
If you see a tired horse lying down inside;
If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore;
If the lining's wet and warm – don't you ask no more!
 
 
If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red,
You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you 'pretty maid,' and chuck you 'neath the chin.
Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been!
 
 
Knocks and footsteps round the house – whistles after dark —
You've no call for running out till the house-dogs bark.
Trusty's here, and Pinchers here, and see how dumb they lie —
They don't fret to follow when the Gentlemen go by!
 
 
If you do as you've been told, 'likely there's a chance,
You'll be give a dainty doll, all the way from France,
With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood —
A present from the Gentlemen, along o' being good!
      Five and twenty ponies,
      Trotting through the dark —
      Brandy for the Parson,
      'Baccy for the Clerk.
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie —
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
 

KING HENRY VII. AND THE SHIPWRIGHTS

(A.D. 1487)

 
Harry, our King in England, from London town is gone,
And comen to Hamull on the Hoke in the countie of Suthampton.
For there lay The Mary of the Tower, his ship of war so strong,
And he would discover, certaynely, if his shipwrights did him wrong.
 
 
He told not none of his setting forth, nor yet where he would go
(But only my Lord of Arundel), and meanly did he show,
In an old jerkin and patched hose that no man might him mark;
With his frieze hood and cloak above, he looked like any clerk.
 
 
He was at Hamull on the Hoke about the hour of the tide.
And saw the Mary haled into dock, the winter to abide,
With all her tackle and habiliments which are the King his own;
But then ran on his false shipwrights and stripped her to the bone.
 
 
They heaved the main-mast overboard, that was of a trusty tree,
And they wrote down it was spent and lost by force of weather at sea.
But they sawen it into planks and strakes as far as it might go,
To maken beds for their own wives and little children also.
 
 
There was a knave called Slingawai, he crope beneath the deck.
Crying: 'Good felawes, come and see! The ship is nigh a wreck!
For the storm that took our tall main-mast, it blew so fierce and fell,
Alack! it hath taken the kettles and pans, and this brass pott as well!'
 
 
With that he set the pott on his head and hied him up the hatch,
While all the shipwrights ran below to find what they might snatch;
All except Bob Brygandyne and he was a yeoman good,
He caught Slingawai round the waist and threw him on to the mud.
 
 
'I have taken plank and rope and nail, without the King his leave,
After the custom of Portesmouth, but I will not suffer a thief.
Nay, never lift up thy hand at me! There's no clean hands in the trade —
Steal in measure,' quo' Brygandyne. 'There's measure in all things made!'
 
 
'Gramercy, yeoman!' said our King. 'Thy council liketh me.'
And he pulled a whistle out of his neck and whistled whistles three.
Then came my Lord of Arundel pricking across the down,
And behind him the Mayor and Burgesses of merry Suthampton town.
 
 
They drew the naughty shipwrights up, with the kettles in their hands,
And bound them round the forecastle to wait the King's commands.
But 'Since ye have made your beds,' said the King, 'ye needs must lie thereon.
For the sake of your wives and little ones – felawes, get you gone!'
 
 
When they had beaten Slingawai, out of his own lips
Our King appointed Brygandyne to be Clerk of all his ships.
'Nay, never lift up thy hands to me – there's no clean hands in the trade.
But steal in measure,' said Harry our King. 'There's measure in all things made!'
 
 
God speed the 'Mary of the Tower,' the 'Sovereign,' and 'Grace Dieu,'
The 'Sweepstakes' and the 'Mary Fortune,' and the 'Henry of Bristol' too!
All tall ships that sail on, the sea, or in our harbours stand,
That they may keep measure with Harry our King and peace in Engeland!
 

THE WET LITANY

 
When the water's countenance
Blurrs 'twixt glance and second glance;
When our tattered smokes forerun.
Ashen 'neath a silvered sun;
When the curtain of the haze
Shuts upon our helpless ways —
  Hear the Channel Fleet at sea;
  Libera nos Domine!
 
 
When the engines' bated pulse
Scarcely thrills the nosing hulls;
When the wash along the side
Sounds, a sudden, magnified;
When the intolerable blast
Marks each blindfold minute passed;
 
 
When the fog-buoy's squattering flight
Guides us through the haggard night;
When the warning bugle blows;
When the lettered doorways close;
When our brittle townships press,
Impotent, on emptiness;
 
 
When the unseen leadsmen lean
Questioning a deep unseen;
When their lessened count they tell
To a bridge invisible;
When the hid and perilous
Cliffs return our cry to us;
 
 
When the treble thickness spread
Swallows up our next-ahead;
When her siren's frightened whine
Shows her sheering out of line;
When, her passage undiscerned,
We must turn where she has turned,
  Hear the Channel Fleet at sea:
  Libera nos Domine!
 

THE BALLAD OF MINEPIT SHAW

 
About the time that taverns shut
  And men can buy no beer,
Two lads went up to the keepers' hut
  To steal Lord Pelham's deer.
 
 
Night and the liquor was in their heads —
  They laughed and talked no bounds,
Till they waked the keepers on their beds,
  And the keepers loosed the hounds.
 
 
They had killed a hart, they had killed a hind,
  Ready to carry away,
When they heard a whimper down the wind
  And they heard a bloodhound bay.
 
 
They took and ran across the fern,
  Their crossbows in their hand,
Till they met a man with a green lantern
  That called and bade 'em stand.
 
 
'What are ye doing, O Flesh and Blood,
  And what's your foolish will,
That you must break into Minepit Wood
  And wake the Folk of the Hill?'
 
 
'Oh, we've broke into Lord Pelham's park,
  And killed Lord Pelham's deer,
And if ever you heard a little dog bark
  You'll know why we come here.
 
 
'We ask you let us go our way,
  As fast as we can flee,
For if ever you heard a bloodhound bay
  You'll know how pressed we be.'
 
 
'Oh, lay your crossbows on the bank
  And drop the knife from your hand,
And though the hounds are at your flank
  I'll save you where you stand!'
 
 
They laid their crossbows on the bank,
  They threw their knives in the wood,
And the ground before them opened and sank
  And saved 'em where they stood.
 
 
'Oh, what's the roaring in our ears
  That strikes us well-nigh dumb?'
'Oh, that is just how things appears
  According as they come.'
 
 
'What are the stars before our eyes
  That strike us well-nigh blind?'
'Oh, that is just how things arise
  According as you find.'
 
 
'And why's our bed so hard to the bones
  Excepting where it's cold?'
'Oh, that's because it is precious stones
  Excepting where 'tis gold.
 
 
'Think it over as you stand.
  For I tell you without fail,
If you haven't got into Fairyland
  You're not in Lewes Gaol.'
 
 
All night long they thought of it,
  And, come the dawn, they saw
They'd tumbled into a great old pit,
  At the bottom of Minepit Shaw.
 
 
And the keepers' hound had followed 'em close,
  And broke her neck in the fall;
So they picked up their knives and their crossbows
  And buried the dog. That's all.
 
 
But whether the man was a poacher too
  Or a Pharisee^A so bold —
I reckon there's more things told than are true,
  And more things true than are told!
 

HERIOT'S FORD

 
'What's that that hirples at my side?' The foe that you must fight, my lord. 'That rides as fast as I can ride?' The shadow of your might, my lord.
 
 
'Then wheel my horse against the foe!' He's down and overpast, my lord. You war against the sunset glow, The judgment follows fast, my lord.
 
 
'Oh who will stay the sun's descent?' King Joshua he is dead, my lord. 'I need an hour to repent!' 'Tis what our sister said, my lord.
 
 
'Oh do not slay me in my sins!' You're safe awhile with us, my lord. 'Nay, kill me ere my fear begins.' We would not serve you thus, my lord.
 
 
'Where is the doom that I must face?' Three little leagues away, my lord. 'Then mend the horses' laggard pace!' We need them for next day, my lord.
 
 
'Next day – next day! Unloose my cords!'
Our sister needed none, my lord.
You had no mind to face our swords,
And – where can cowards run, my lord?
 
 
'You would not kill the soul alive?' 'Twas thus our sister cried, my lord. 'I dare not die with none to shrive.' But so our sister died, my lord.
 
 
'Then wipe the sweat from brow and cheek. It runnels forth afresh, my lord. 'Uphold me – for the flesh is weak.' You've finished with the Flesh, my lord.
 

FRANKIE'S TRADE

 
Old Horn to All Atlantic said: (A-hay O! To me O!') 'Now where did Frankie learn his trade? For he ran me down with a three-reef mains'le.' (All round the Horn!)
 
 
Atlantic answered: – 'Not from me!
You'd better ask the cold North Sea,
For he ran me down under all plain canvas.'
  (All round the Horn!)
 
 
The North Sea answered: – 'He's my man,
For he came to me when he began —
Frankie Drake in an open coaster.
  (All round the Sands!)
 
 
'I caught him young and I used him sore,
So you never shall startle Frankie more,
Without capsizing Earth and her waters.
  (All round the Sands!)
 
 
'I did not favour him at all.
I made him pull and I made him haul —
And stand his trick with the common sailors.
  (All round the Sands!)
 
 
'I froze him stiff and I fogged him blind.
And kicked him home with his road to find
By what he could see in a three-day snow-storm
  (All round the Sands!)
 
 
'I learned him his trade o' winter nights,
'Twixt Mardyk Fort and Dunkirk lights
On a five-knot tide with the forts a-firing.
  (All round the Sands!)
 
 
'Before his beard began to shoot,
I showed him the length of the Spaniard's foot —
And I reckon he clapped the boot on it later.
  (All round the Sands!)
 
 
'If there's a risk which you can make.
That's worse than he was used to take
Nigh every week in the way of his business;
  (All round the Sands!)
 
 
'If there's a trick that you can try,
Which he hasn't met in time gone by,
Not once or twice, but ten times over;
  (All round the Sands!)
 
 
'If you can teach him aught that's new,
  (A-hay O! To me O!)
I'll give you Bruges and Niewport too,
And the ten tall churches that stand between 'em.'
  Storm along my gallant Captains!
  (All round the Horn!)
 

THE JUGGLER'S SONG

 
When the drums begin to beat
Down the street,
When the poles are fetched and guyed,
When the tight-rope's stretched and tied,
When the dance-girls make salaam,
When the snake-bag wakes alarm,
When the pipes set up their drone,
When the sharp-edged knives are thrown,
When the red-hot coals are shown,
To be swallowed by and bye —
Arré Brethren, here come I!
 
 
Stripped to loin-cloth in the sun,
Search me well and watch me close!
Tell me how my tricks are done —
Tell me how the mango grows?
Give a man who is not made
To his trade
Swords to fling and catch again,
Coins to ring and snatch again,
Men to harm and cure again.
Snakes to charm and lure again —
He'll be hurt by his own blade,
By his serpents disobeyed,
By his clumsiness bewrayed,
By the people laughed to scorn —
So 'tis not with juggler born!
 
 
Pinch of dust or withered flower,
Chance-flung nut or borrowed staff,
Serve his need and shore his power,
Bind the spell or loose the laugh!
 

THORKILD'S SONG

 
There's no wind along these seas. Out oars for Stavanger! Forward all for Stavanger! So we must wake the white-ash breeze, Let fall for Stavanger! A long pull for Stavanger!
 
 
Oh, hear the benches creak and strain! (A long pull for Stavanger!) She thinks she smells the Northland rain! (A long pull for Stavanger!)
 
 
She thinks she smells the Northland snow,
And she's as glad as we to go.
 
 
She thinks she smells the Northland rime,
And the dear dark nights of winter-time.
 
 
She wants to be at her own home pier,
To shift her sails and standing gear.
 
 
She wants to be in her winter-shed.
To strip herself and go to bed.
 
 
Her very bolts are sick for shore,
And we – we want it ten times more!
 
 
So all you Gods that love brave men,
Send us a three-reef gale again!
 
 
Send us a gale, and watch us come,
With close-cropped canvas slashing home!
 
 
But– there's no wind on all these seas, A long pull for Stavanger! So we must wake the white-ash breeze, A long pull for Stavanger!
 

'ANGUTIVAUN TAINA'

Song of the Returning Hunter (Esquimaux)

 
Our gloves are stiff with the frozen blood,
  Our furs with the drifted snow,
As we come in with the seal – the seal!
  In from the edge of the floe.
 
 
An jana! Aua! Oha! Haq!
  And the yelping dog-teams go,
And the long whips crack, and the men come back,
  Back from the edge of the floe!
 
 
We tracked our seal to his secret place,
  We heard him scratch below,
We made our mark, and we watched beside,
  Out on the edge of the floe.
 
 
We raised our lance when he rose to breathe,
  We drove it downward – so!
And we played him thus, and we killed him thus,
  Out on the edge of the floe.
 
 
Our gloves are glued with the frozen blood,
  Our eyes with the drifting snow;
But we come back to our wives again,
  Back from the edge of the floe!
 
 
Au jana! Aua! Oha! Haq!  
And the loaded dog-teams go,
And the wives can hear their men come back,  
Back from the edge of the floe!
 

HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK

 
As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled —
  Once, twice and again!
And a doe leaped up, and a doe leaped up
From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup.
This I, scouting alone, beheld,
  Once, twice and again!
 
 
As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled —
  Once, twice and again!
And a wolf stole back, and a wolf stole back
To carry the word to the waiting pack,
And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track
  Once, twice and again!
 
 
As the dawn was breaking the Wolf Pack yelled
  Once, twice and again!
Feet in the jungle that leave no mark!
Eyes that can see in the dark – the dark!
Tongue – give tongue to it! Hark! O hark!
  Once, twice and again!
 

SONG OF THE MEN'S SIDE

(Neolithic)

 
Once we feared The Beast – when he followed us we ran,
  Ran very fast though we knew
It was not right that The Beast should master Man;
  But what could we Flint-workers do?
The Beast only grinned at our spears round his ears —
  Grinned at the hammers that we made;
But now we will hunt him for the life with the Knife —
  And this is the Buyer of the Blade!
 
 
    Room for his shadow on the grass – let it pass!      
To left and right – stand clear!    
This is the Buyer of the Blade – be afraid!      
This is the great god Tyr!
 
 
Tyr thought hard till he hammered out a plan,
  For he knew it was not right
(And it is not right) that The Beast should master Man;
  So he went to the Children of the Night.
He begged a Magic Knife of their make for our sake.
  When he begged for the Knife they said:
'The price of the Knife you would buy is an eye!'
  And that was the price he paid.
 
 
    Tell it to the Barrows of the Dead – run ahead!      
Shout it so the Women's Side can hear!    
This is the Buyer of the Blade – be afraid!      
This is the great god Tyr!
 
 
Our women and our little ones may walk on the Chalk,
  As far as we can see them and beyond.
We shall not be anxious for our sheep when we keep
  Tally at the shearing-pond.
We can eat with both our elbows on our knees, if we please,
  We can sleep after meals in the sun;
For Shepherd of the Twilight is dismayed at the Blade,
  Feet-in-the-Night have run!
Dog-without-a-Master goes away (Hai, Tyr, aie!),
  Devil-in-the-Dusk has run!
 
 
Then:
    Room for his shadow on the grass – let it pass!     
To left and right – stand clear!   
 This is the Buyer of the Blade – be afraid!      
This is the great god Tyr!
 

DARZEE'S CHAUNT

(Sung in honour of Rikki-tikki-tavi)

 
        Singer and tailor am I —
          Doubled the joys that I know —
        Proud of my lilt to the sky,
          Proud of the house that I sew —
Over and under, so weave I my music – so weave I the house that I sew.
 
 
        Sing to your fledglings again,
          Mother, O lift up your head!
        Evil that plagued us is slain,
          Death in the garden lies dead.
Terror that hid in the roses is impotent – flung on the dung-hill and dead!
 
 
        Who hath delivered us, who?
          Tell me his nest and his name.
        Rikki, the valiant, the true,
          Tikki, with eyeballs of flame,
Rik-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with eyeballs of flame.
 
 
        Give him the Thanks of the Birds,
          Bowing with tail-feathers spread!
        Praise him with nightingale-words —
          Nay, I will praise him instead.
Hear! I will sing you the praise of the bottle-tailed Rikki, with eyeballs of red!
 
 
(Here Rikki-tikki interrupted, and the rest of the song is lost.)
 

THE FOUR ANGELS

 
As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree,
The Angel of the Earth came down, and offered Earth in fee.
      But Adam did not need it,
      Nor the plough he would not speed it,
  Singing: – 'Earth and Water, Air and Fire,
        What more can mortal man desire?'
            (The Apple Tree's in bud.)
 
 
As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree,
The Angel of the Waters offered all the Seas in fee.
      But Adam would not take 'em,
      Nor the ships he wouldn't make 'em,
  Singing: – 'Water, Earth and Air and Fire,
        What more can mortal man desire?'
          (The Apple Tree's in leaf.)
 
 
As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree,
The Angel of the Air he offered all the Air in fee.
      But Adam did not crave it,
      Nor the flight he wouldn't brave it,
  Singing: – 'Air and Water, Earth and Fire,
        What more can mortal man desire?'
          (The Apple Tree's in bloom.)
 
 
As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree,
The Angel of the Fire rose up and not a word said he,
      But he wished a flame and made it,
      And in Adam's heart he laid it,
  Singing: – 'Fire, Fire, burning Fire!
        Stand up and reach your heart's desire!'
          (The Apple Blossom's set.)
 
 
As Adam was a-working outside of Eden-Wall,
He used the Earth, he used the Seas, he used the Air and all;
      And out of black disaster
      He arose to be the master
        Of Earth and Water, Air and Fire,
        But never reached his heart's desire!
          (The Apple Tree's cut down!)
 

THE PRAYER

 
My Brother kneels, so saith Kabir,
To stone and brass in heathen-wise,
But in my brother's voice I hear
My own unanswered agonies.
His God is as his fates assign,
His prayer is all the world's – and mine.