Poems: New and Old (Newbolt)/The Song of the Sou' Wester
II
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 highCame rollicking up the sea.He played with the fleet as a boy with boatsTill out for the Downs we ran,And he laugh'd with the roar of a thousand throatsAt 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 belowChasing the X they love,While the table curtseyed long and slowAnd 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 forgotWas 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 dayHis 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 knowsFor 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.