Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset. 16381706408. Song Written at Sea, in the First Dutch War (1665), the night before an Engagement.
TO all you ladies now at land | |
We men at sea indite; | |
But first would have you understand | |
How hard it is to write: | |
The Muses now, and Neptune too, | 5 |
We must implore to write to you— | |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. | |
For though the Muses should prove kind, | |
And fill our empty brain, | |
Yet if rough Neptune rouse the wind | 10 |
To wave the azure main, | |
Our paper, pen, and ink, and we, | |
Roll up and down our ships at sea— | |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. | |
Then if we write not by each post, | 15 |
Think not we are unkind; | |
Nor yet conclude our ships are lost | |
By Dutchmen or by wind: | |
Our tears we’ll send a speedier way, | |
The tide shall bring them twice a day— | 20 |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. | |
The King with wonder and surprise | |
Will swear the seas grow bold, | |
Because the tides will higher rise | |
Than e’er they did of old: | 25 |
But let him know it is our tears | |
Bring floods of grief to Whitehall stairs— | |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. | |
Should foggy Opdam chance to know | |
Our sad and dismal story, | 30 |
The Dutch would scorn so weak a foe, | |
And quit their fort at Goree: | |
For what resistance can they find | |
From men who’ve left their hearts behind?— | |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. | 35 |
Let wind and weather do its worst, | |
Be you to us but kind; | |
Let Dutchmen vapour, Spaniards curse, | |
No sorrow we shall find: | |
‘Tis then no matter how things go, | 40 |
Or who ‘s our friend, or who ‘s our foe— | |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. | |
To pass our tedious hours away | |
We throw a merry main, | |
Or else at serious ombre play; | 45 |
But why should we in vain | |
Each other’s ruin thus pursue? | |
We were undone when we left you— | |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. | |
But now our fears tempestuous grow | 50 |
And cast our hopes away; | |
Whilst you, regardless of our woe, | |
Sit careless at a play: | |
Perhaps permit some happier man | |
To kiss your hand, or flirt your fan— | 55 |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. | |
When any mournful tune you hear, | |
That dies in every note | |
As if it sigh’d with each man’s care | |
For being so remote, | 60 |
Think then how often love we’ve made | |
To you, when all those tunes were play’d— | |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. | |
In justice you cannot refuse | |
To think of our distress, | 65 |
When we for hopes of honour lose | |
Our certain happiness: | |
All those designs are but to prove | |
Ourselves more worthy of your love— | |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. | 70 |
And now we’ve told you all our loves, | |
And likewise all our fears, | |
In hopes this declaration moves | |
Some pity for our tears: | |
Let ‘s hear of no inconstancy— | 75 |
We have too much of that at sea— | |
With a fa, la, la, la, la. |