Songs from Vagabondia

<h3><SPAN name="A_CAPTAIN_OF_THE_PRESS-GANG" name="A_CAPTAIN_OF_THE_PRESS-GANG"></SPAN>A CAPTAIN OF THE PRESS-GANG.</h3> <p>Shipmate, leave the ghostly shadows, <br/>Where thy boon companions throng! <br/>We will put to sea together <br/>Through the twilight with a song. <br/> <br/>Leering closer, rank and girding, <br/>In this Black Port where we bide, <br/>Reel a thousand flaring faces; <br/>But escape is on the tide. <br/> <br/>Let the tap-rooms of the city <br/>Reek till the red dawn comes round. <br/>There is better wine in plenty <br/>On the cruise where we are bound. <br/> <br/>I've aboard a hundred messmates <br/>Better than these 'long-shore knaves. <br/>There is wreckage on the shallows; <br/>It's the open sea that saves. <br/> <br/>Hark, lad, dost not hear it calling? <br/>That's the voice thy father knew, <br/>When he took the King's good cutlass <br/>In his grip, and fought it through. <br/> <br/>Who would palter at press-money <br/>When he heard that sea-cry vast? <br/>That's the call makes lords of lubbers, <br/>When they ship before the mast. <br/> <br/>Let thy cronies of the tavern <br/>Keep their kisses bought with gold; <br/>On the high seas there are regions <br/>Where the heart is never old, <br/> <br/>Where the great winds every morning <br/>Sweep the sea-floor clean and white, <br/>And upon the steel-blue arches <br/>Burnish the great stars of night; <br/> <br/>There the open hand will lose not, <br/>Nor the loosened tongue betray. <br/>Signed, and with our sailing orders, <br/>We will clear before the day; <br/> <br/>On the shining yards of heaven <br/>See a wider dawn unfurled.... <br/>The eternal slaves of beauty <br/>Are the masters of the world.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />