He'll take the Mary in ballast-you'll find her a lively ship; And you'll take Sir Anthony Gloster, that goes on 'is wedding-trip, Lashed in our old deck-cabin with all three port-holes wide, The kick o' the screw beneath him and the round blue seas outside! Sir Anthony Gloster's carriage-our 'ouse-flag flyin' free Ten thousand men on the pay-roll and forty freighters at sea! He made himself and a million, but this world is a fleetin' show, And he'll go to the wife of 'is bosom the same as he ought to go By the heel of the Paternosters-there isn't a chance to mistake And Mac'll pay you the money as soon as the bubbles break! Five thousand for six weeks' cruising, the staunchest freighter afloat, And Mac he'll give you your bonus the minute I'm out o' the boat! He'll take you round to Macassar, and you'll come back alone; He knows what I want o' the Mary. what I please with my own. I'll do Your mother 'ud call it wasteful, but I've seven-and thirty more; I'll come in my private carriage and bid it wait at the For my son 'e was never a credit: 'e muddled with books and art, And 'e lived on Sir Anthony's money and 'e broke Sir Anthony's heart. There isn't even a grandchild, and the Gloster family's done The only one you left me, O mother, the only one! Harrer and Trinity College-me slavin' early an' late An' he thinks I'm dying crazy, and you're in Macassar Strait! Flesh o' my flesh, my dearie, for ever an' ever amen, That first stroke come for a warning; I ought to ha' gone to you then, But-cheap repairs for a cheap 'un-the doctors said I'd do: Mary, why didn't you warn me? I've allus heeded to you, Excep'-I know-about women; but you are a spirit now; An', wife, they was only women, and I was a man. That's how. An' a man 'e must go with a woman, as you could not understand; But I never talked 'em secrets. I paid 'em out o' hand. Now what's Thank Gawd, I can pay for my fancies! five thousand to me, For a berth off the Paternosters in the haven where I would be? I believe in the Resurrection, if I read my Bible plain, But I wouldn't trust 'em at Wokin'; we're safer at sea again. For the heart it shall go with the treasure-go down to the sea in ships. I'm sick of the hired women-I'll kiss my girl on her lips! I'll be content with my fountain, I'll drink from my own well, And the wife of my youth shall charm me-an' the rest can go to Hell! (Dickie, he will, that's certain.) I'll lie in our standin'bed, An' Mac'll take her in ballast-an' she trims best by the head. Down by the head an' sinkin', her fires are drawn and cold, And the water's splashin' hollow on the skin of the empty hold Churning an' choking and chuckling, quiet and scummy and dark— Full to her lower hatches and risin' steady. Hark! That was the after-bulkhead. from stem to stern. . Never seen death yet, Dickie? . your time to learn! She's flooded Well, now is SESTINA OF THE TRAMP-ROYAL SPEAKIN' in general, I 'ave tried 'em all, What do it matter where or 'ow we die, So long as we've our 'ealth to watch it all The different ways that different things are done, In cash or credit-no, it aren't no good; But, Gawd, what things are they I 'aven't done? For 'im that doth not work must surely die; Therefore, from job to job I've moved along. It's like a book, I think, this bloomin' world, But what you're after is to turn 'em all. Gawd bless this world! Whatever she 'ath done- |