Poems for the Sea/What could they do without us?
WHAT COULD THEY DO WITHOUT US?
They say that we, who rule the sea,
Or chase the whales and spear them,
Spin out our yarns so coarse and long
They can't endure to hear them,
And when we take a turn on shore,
They laugh, we understand,
To see us rolling through the streets
Like porpoise on the land.
But Jack might louder laugh, we guess,
Except he's too polite,
To see those lubbers climb the shrouds
On a dark and stormy night,
Or try with gloved and lily hands
To furl the stiffened sails,
When through a mist of sleet and snow
Old Boreas blows his gales.
How would the world's hard work go on,
If we who plough the main,
Should hold umbrellas o'er our heads
At every squall of rain?
Or slink away when Neptune frowns,
And breakers roar in scorn,
Or fear to bide the buffet rude
From the fist of old Cape Horn.
So, do us justice, landsmen all,
Even though you seem to flout us,
For if our lingo sounds so strange,
What could you do without us?
The merchant in his warehouse proud
Whould wait awhile we trow,
Before to sell his cotton bales
He'd rig a boat and row,
And how would all his ladies fret,
For eastern toys and teas,
Unless our sails we sharply set
Across the Indian seas?
The farmer toils to plant his corn,
And then to hill and hoe it,
An honest-hearted man is he,
His sun-burnt features show it,
Yet when he takes his grain to town,
With loads of golden cheese,
And buys those notions from the shops
His womankind that please,
Do any of them ever think
What blasts the seamen bore,
To bring their mace and nutmegs home
From a far tropic shore?
Blow high, blow low, 'tis all the same,
Hot suns or wintry weather,
For with our sailor's knot we bind
Earth's utmost coasts together:
Then do us justice, landsmen dear,
For where's the need to doubt us?
Since in your inmost hearts you know
You cannot do without us.