Poems: New and Old Part 1

t.i.tle: Poems: New and Old.

Author: Henry Newbolt.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

This volume forms a complete collection of all my published work in verse from 1897 to 1912. It includes the contents of four previous volumes: 'Admirals All' (1897), 'The Island Race' (1898), 'The Sailing of the Long-Ships' (1902), and 'Songs of Memory and Hope' (1909), together with a number of pieces added to the later editions of the first two of these, and ten poems which have not hitherto appeared in book form--namely, 'Sailing at Dawn, The Song of the Sou' Wester, The Middle Watch, The Little Admiral, The Song of the Guns at Sea, Farewell, Mors Janua, Gold, The Faun', and 'Rilloby-Rill'.

The volumes above mentioned were dedicated respectively to ANDREW LANG, to ROBERT BRIDGES, to SIR EDWARD GREY, and to LAURENCE BINYON; and I delight to repeat these names once more, in a volume which commemorates also the inspiration of a later friendship.

H. N.

'Songs of the Fleet'

I.

'Sailing at Dawn'

One by one the pale stars die before the day now, One by one the great ships are stirring from their sleep, Cables all are rumbling, anchors all a-weigh now, Now the fleet's a fleet again, gliding towards the deep.

'Now the fleet's a fleet again, bound upon the old ways, Splendour of the past comes shining in the spray; Admirals of old time, bring us on the bold ways!

Souls of all the sea-dogs, lead the line to-day!'

Far away behind us town and tower are dwindling, Home becomes a fair dream faded long ago; Infinitely glorious the height of heaven is kindling, Infinitely desolate the sh.o.r.eless sea below.

'Now the fleet's a fleet again, bound upon the old ways, Splendour of the past comes shining in the spray; Admirals of old time, bring us on the bold ways!

Souls of all the sea-dogs, lead the line to-day!'

{2}.

Once again with proud hearts we make the old surrender, Once again with high hearts serve the age to be, Not for us the warm life of Earth, secure and tender, Ours the eternal wandering and warfare of the sea.

'Now the fleet's a fleet again, bound upon the old ways, Splendour of the past comes shining in the spray; Admirals of old time, bring us on the bold ways!

Souls of all the sea-dogs, lead the line to-day!'

{3}.

II.

'The Song of the Sou' Wester'

The sun was lost in a leaden sky, And the sh.o.r.e lay under our lee; When a great Sou' Wester hurricane high Came rollicking up the sea.

He played with the fleet as a boy with boats Till out for the Downs we ran, And he laugh'd with the roar of a thousand throats At the militant ways of man:

'Oh! I am the enemy most of might, The other be who you please!

Gunner and guns may all be right, Flags a-flying and armour tight, But I am the fellow you've first to fight-- The giant that swings the seas.'

A dozen of middies were down below Chasing the X they love, While the table curtseyed long and slow And the lamps were giddy above.

{4}.

The lesson was all of a ship and a shot, And some of it may have been true, But the word they heard and never forgot Was the word of the wind that blew:

'Oh! I am the enemy most of might, The other be who you please!

Gunner and guns may all be right, Flags a-flying and armour tight, But I am the fellow you've first to fight-- The giant that swings the seas.'

The Middy with luck is a Captain soon, With luck he may hear one day His own big guns a-humming the tune "'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay."

But wherever he goes, with friends or foes, And whatever may there befall, He'll hear for ever a voice he knows For ever defying them all:

'Oh! I am the enemy most of might, The other be who you please!

Gunner and guns may all be right, Flags a-flying and armour tight, But I am the fellow you've first to fight-- The giant that swings the seas.'

{5}.

III.

'The Middle Watch'

In a blue dusk the ship astern Uplifts her slender spars, With golden lights that seem to burn Among the silver stars.

Like fleets along a cloudy sh.o.r.e The constellations creep, Like planets on the ocean floor Our silent course we keep.

'And over the endless plain, Out of the night forlorn Rises a faint refrain, A song of the day to be born-- Watch, oh watch till ye find again Life and the land of morn.'

From a dim West to a dark East Our lines unwavering head, As if their motion long had ceased And Time itself were dead.

{6}.

Vainly we watch the deep below, Vainly the void above, They died a thousand years ago-- Life and the land we love.

'But over the endless plain, Out of the night forlorn Rises a faint refrain, A song of the day to be born-- Watch, oh watch till ye find again Life and the land of morn.'

{7}.

IV.

'The Little Admiral'

Stand by to reckon up your battleships Ten, twenty, thirty, there they go.

Brag about your cruisers like Leviathans-- A thousand men a-piece down below.

But here's just one little Admiral We're all of us his brothers and his sons, And he's worth, O he's worth at the very least Double all your tons and all your guns.

'Stand by, etc.'

See them on the forebridge signalling-- A score of men a-hauling hand to hand, And the whole fleet flying like the wild geese Moved by some mysterious command.

Where's the mighty will that shows the way to them, The mind that sees ahead so quick and clear?