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Then said the souls of the gentlemen-adventurersFettered wrist to bar all for red iniquity: "Ho, we revel in our chains

O'er the sorrow that was Spain's; Heave or sink it, leave or drink it, we

were masters of the sea!"

Up spake the soul of a gray Gothavn 'speckshioner2

(He that led the flinchings in the fleets of fair Dundee):

"Ho, the ringer and right whale, And the fish we struck for sale, Will Ye whelm them all for wantonness that wallow in the sea?"

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Loud sang the souls of the jolly, jolly mariners,

Crying: "Under Heaven, here is neither lead nor lea!

Must we sing for evermore On the windless, glassy floor? Take back your golden fiddles and we'll beat to open sea!"

Then stooped the Lord, and He called the good sea up to Him,

And 'stablishèd his borders unto all eternity,

That such as have no pleasure For to praise the Lord by measure,⭑ They may enter into galleons and serve Him on the sea.

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Sun, wind, and cloud shall fail not from the face of it,

Stinging, ringing spindrift, nor the fulmar flying free;

And the ships shall go abroad

To the glory of the Lord

Who heard the silly sailor-folk and gave them back their sea!

(1895)

1 Deepsea Chantey. Pronounced

Shanty"; a chantey is a sailor's song.

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"Dipsy

"After you, Pilot." The pilot woke,

a 'speckshioner. Chief harpooner of a whaler.

3 flinching. Cutting of whale-blubber.

4 by measure. In song.

5 fulmar. Petrel.

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Down the ladder he went, and Craven

died.

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Without a word, without a groan,

Sudden and swift Gillespie turned; 10 The blood roared in his ears like fire, Like fire the road beneath him burned.

At the battle of Zutphen, 1586, Sir Philip Sidney, himself sorely wounded, gave the water provided for him to a dying foot soldier, saying, "Thy necessity is greater than mine."

2 James Outram, British General, who voluntarily yielded to Havelock, a junior officer, the honor of commanding the expedition for the relief of Lucknow, in 1857.

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And "What's all this?" he growls at us! With dignity we chaunted, "Forty singing seamen, sir, as won't be put upon!"

"What? Englishmen?" he cries. "Well, if ye don't mind being haunted, Faith, you're welcome to my palace; I'm the famous Prester John!

Will ye walk into my palace? I don't bear 'ee any malice! One and all ye shall be welcome in the halls of Prester John."

Cho. So we walked into the palace and the halls of Prester John!

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Now the door was one great diamond and the hall a hollow rubyBig as Beachy Head, my lads, nay bigger by a half!

And I sees the mate wi' mouth agape, a-staring like a booby,

And the skipper close behind him, with his tongue out like a calf!

Now the way to take it rightly Was to walk along politely Just as if you didn't notice-so I couldn't help but laugh!

Cho. For they both forgot their man

ners and the crew was bound to laugh!

But he took us through his palace and, my lads, as I'm a sinner,

We walked into an opal like a sunsetcolored cloud50 "My dining-room," he says, and, quick as light we saw a dinner Spread before us by the fingers of a hidden fairy crowd;

And the skipper, swaying gently After dinner, murmurs faintly, "I looks to-wards you, Prester John, you've done us very proud!" Cho. And we drank his health with honors, for he done us very proud!

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