- The Anchor Watch

O shipmates as you lay sleeping
Blow, boys, blow!
Across the world the day came creeping
Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!
With a cold wet wind the shrouds were shaking,
And in all the port was no one waking,
In the morning watch and the grey dawn breaking
Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!

I saw a ship come down the river
Blow, boys, blow!
In the morning light her sails did shiver
Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!
I saw the sun on her royals gleaming
And her gilded trucks in the dawn a-gleaming,
And the bubbled foam of her bow-wave streaming —
Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!

I heard the gulls all round her calling
Blow, boys, blow!
I heard the watch on the braces hauling
Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!
I heard their voices over the water —
‘O Shenandoah, I love your daughter’ —
And the dash o’ the tide on her weather quarter
Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!

Then like a cloud she broke and lifted
Blow, boys, blow!
Her spars did melt, her sails they drifted
Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!
And all that I saw was a white mist flying,
All that I heard, the grey gulls crying,
And the tide’s sob and the wind’s sighing
And one far call out of dreams replying
Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!

non-male_writer
supernatural
Cicely_Fox_Smith