 | Sea Songs |  |
68
'TIS TRUE THAT OUR LOT IS BUT ROUGH.
'Tis true that our lot is but rough;
It's not your smooth life of the shore;
But your days are more dull than enough;
And, the life of the deck, we love more;
We give Death more chances, we own;
He may stop with salt-water, our breath,
But the end of us all lies alone
With Him who gives long days or death;
Ships must trade; we must sail them, we know;
Tempests, men always onwards have swept;
All must work with a will while below;
Calm or storm, still the watch must be kept.
It's not your smooth life of the shore;
But your days are more dull than enough;
And, the life of the deck, we love more;
We give Death more chances, we own;
He may stop with salt-water, our breath,
But the end of us all lies alone
With Him who gives long days or death;
Ships must trade; we must sail them, we know;
Tempests, men always onwards have swept;
All must work with a will while below;
Calm or storm, still the watch must be kept.
69
You're working for comfort at home,
Day by day, in your dull mill-horse round;
We'd rather with waves and winds roam,
Than, nailed to your desks, we'd be found;
Month by month, the same bustle and fuss
You go through, the same dull pens you drive;
Your street life, it wouldn't suit us;
Why, mates, it's not being alive;
What though, blast and storm, we must face?
Round the globe all alive we are swept;
We'd not with you landsmen change place,
Though the watch, calm or storm, must be kept.
Day by day, in your dull mill-horse round;
We'd rather with waves and winds roam,
Than, nailed to your desks, we'd be found;
Month by month, the same bustle and fuss
You go through, the same dull pens you drive;
Your street life, it wouldn't suit us;
Why, mates, it's not being alive;
What though, blast and storm, we must face?
Round the globe all alive we are swept;
We'd not with you landsmen change place,
Though the watch, calm or storm, must be kept.
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