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Transcriber's note: Spelling and punctuation inconsistencies, mainly quotes that had not been closed, have been harmonized. Italic text has been marked with _underscores_.
William Blackwood and Sons Edinburgh and London 1919
They watch us leaving harbour for the greatest game of all, And wonder if we're coming back across the greedy sea; They never know the fighting thrill or high adventure's call-- I rather think the women folk are better men than we. But I suspect they say of us as out to sea we go, In all our panoply of pride from Orkney to the Nore: "It keeps them quiet, we suppose--they like the work, we know-- And soon perhaps they'll tire and play some safer game than War."
He went to sea on the long patrol, Away to the East from the Corton Shoal, But now he's overdue. He signalled me as he bore away (A flickering lamp through leaping spray, And darkness then till judgment day), "So long! Good luck to you!"
He's waiting out on the long patrol, Till the names are called at the muster-roll Of seamen overdue. Far above him, in wind and rain, Another is on patrol again-- The gap is closed in the Naval Chain Where all the links are new.
Over his head the seas are white, And the wind is blowing a gale to-night, As if the Storm-King knew, And roared a ballad of sleet and snow To the man that lies on the sand below, A trumpet-song for the winds to blow To seamen overdue.
Was it sudden or slow--the death that came? Roaring water or sheets of flame? The end with none to view? No man can tell us the way he died, But over the clouds Valkyries ride To open the gates and hold them wide For seamen overdue.
But whether the end was swift or slow, By the Hand of God, or a German blow, My messmate overdue-- You went to Death--and the whisper ran As over the Gates the horns began, _Splendour of God! We have found a man_-- Good-bye! Good luck to you!
Faint against the twilight, dim against the evening, Fading into darkness against the lapping sea, She sailed away from harbour, from safety into danger, The ship that took him from me--my sailor boy from me.