Songs of the Fleet - The Song of the Sou' Wester

    The sun was lost in a leaden sky,
        And the shore lay under our lee;
    When a great Sou' Wester hurricane high
        Came rollicking up the sea.
    He played with the fleet as a boy with boats
        Till out for the Downs we ran,
    And he laugh'd with the roar of a thousand throats
        At the militant ways of man:

            Oh!    I am the enemy most of might,
            The other be who you please!
            Gunner and guns may all be right,
            Flags a-flying and armour tight,
            But I am the fellow you've first to fight--
            The giant that swings the seas.

    A dozen of middies were down below
        Chasing the X they love,
    While the table curtseyed long and slow
        And the lamps were giddy above.

    The lesson was all of a ship and a shot,
        And some of it may have been true,
    But the word they heard and never forgot
        Was the word of the wind that blew:

            Oh!    I am the enemy most of might,
            The other be who you please!
            Gunner and guns may all be right,
            Flags a-flying and armour tight,
            But I am the fellow you've first to fight--
            The giant that swings the seas.

    The Middy with luck is a Captain soon,
        With luck he may hear one day
    His own big guns a-humming the tune
        "'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay."
    But wherever he goes, with friends or foes,
        And whatever may there befall,
    He'll hear for ever a voice he knows
        For ever defying them all:

            Oh!    I am the enemy most of might,
            The other be who you please!
            Gunner and guns may all be right,
            Flags a-flying and armour tight,
            But I am the fellow you've first to fight--
            The giant that swings the seas.

Henry John Newbolt

Sir Henry John Newbolt was an English poet and author, famous for his ballads such as 'Vitaï Lampada'. He graduated from Oxford and was called to the bar, but he is better remembered for his literary contributions than his legal career. Newbolt served as a government advisor on military and naval literature during World War I. He was knighted in 1915 for his services to literature. Newbolt's work often reflected themes of patriotism and duty.

Henry John Newbolt

Songs of the Fleet - The Song of the Guns at Sea

Henry John Newbolt, Simple Poetry

Sir Hugh the Palmer

Henry John Newbolt, Simple Poetry

Messmates

Henry John Newbolt, Simple Poetry

The Guides at Cabul

Henry John Newbolt, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

Songs of the Fleet - The Little Admiral

    Stand by to reckon up your battleships
        Ten, twenty, thirty, there they go.
    Brag about your cruisers like Leviathans--
        A thousand men a-piece down below.
    But here's just one little Admiral
        We're all of us his brothers and his sons,
    And he's worth, O he's worth at the very least
        Double all your tons and all your guns.

                Stand by, etc.


    See them on the forebridge signalling--
        A score of men a-hauling hand to hand,
    And the whole fleet flying like the wild geese
        Moved by some mysterious command.
    Where's the mighty will that shows the way to them,
        The mind that sees ahead so quick and clear?
    He's there, Sir, walking all alone there--
        ...

Henry John Newbolt

Songs of the Fleet - Sailing at Dawn

    One by one the pale stars die before the day now,
        One by one the great ships are stirring from their sleep,
    Cables all are rumbling, anchors all a-weigh now,
        Now the fleet's a fleet again, gliding towards the deep.

            Now the fleet's a fleet again, bound upon the old ways,
                Splendour of the past comes shining in the spray;
            Admirals of old time, bring us on the bold ways!
                Souls of all the sea-dogs, lead the line to-day!

    Far away behind us town and tower are dwindling,
        Home becomes a fair dream faded long ago;
    Infinitely glorious the height of heaven is kindling,
        Infinitely desolate the shoreless sea below.

            Now the fleet's a fleet again, bound ...

Henry John Newbolt

Admirals All
Effingham, Grenville, Raleigh, Drake,
Here's to the bold and free!
Benbow, Collingwood, Byron, Blake,
Hail to the Kings of the Sea!
Admirals all, for England's sake,
Honour be yours and fame!
And honour, as long as waves shall break,
To Nelson's peerless name!

Admirals all, for England's sake,
Honour be yours and fame!
And honour, as long as waves shall break,
To Nelson's peerless name!

Essex was fretting in Cadiz Bay
With the galleons fair in sight;
Howard at last must give him his way,
And the word was passed to fight.
Never was schoolboy gayer than he,
Since holidays first began:
He tossed his bonnet to wind and sea,
And under the guns he ran.

Drake...
Henry John Newbolt

The Quarter-Gunner's Yarn
We lay at St. Helen's, and easy she rode
With one anchor catted and fresh-water stowed;
When the barge came alongside like bullocks we roared,
For we knew what we carried with Nelson aboard.

Our Captain was Hardy, the pride of us all,
I'll ask for none better when danger shall call;
He was hardy by nature and Hardy by name,
And soon by his conduct to honour he came.

The third day the Lizard was under our lee,
Where the Ajax and Thunderer joined us at sea,
But what with foul weather and tacking about,
When we sighted the Fleet we were thirteen days out.

The Captains they all came aboard quick enough,
But the news that they brought was as heavy as duff;
So backward an enemy never was seen,
They were harder to come at than Cheeks the Ma...
Henry John Newbolt

San Stefano. A Ballad of the Bold Menelaus
It was morning at St. Helen's, in the great and gallant days,
And the sea beneath the sun glittered wide,
When the frigate set her courses, all a-shimmer in the haze
And she hauled her cable home and took the tide.
She'd a right fighting company, three hundred men and more,
Nine and forty guns in tackle running free;
And they cheered her from the shore for her colours at the fore,
When the bold Menelaus put to sea.

She'd a right fighting company, three hundred men and more,
Nine and forty guns in tackle running free;
And they cheered her from the shore for her colours at the fore,
When the bold Menelaus put to sea.

She was clear of Monte Cristo, she was heading for the land,
When she spied ...
Henry John Newbolt

The Ballad Of The Calliope
By the far Samoan shore,
Where the league-long rollers pour
All the wash of the Pacific on the coral-guarded bay,
Riding lightly at their ease,
In the calm of tropic seas,
The three great nations' warships at their anchors proudly lay.

Riding lightly, head to wind,
With the coral reefs behind,
Three German and three Yankee ships were mirrored in the blue;
And on one ship unfurled
Was the flag that rules the world,
For on the old Calliope the flag of England flew.

When the gentle off-shore breeze,
That had scarcely stirred the trees,
Dropped down to utter stillness, and the glass began to fall,
Away across the main
Lowered the coming hurricane,
And far away to seaward hung the cloud-wrack like a pall.

If the word had passed around,
Andrew Barton Paterson