DAVY JONES (1918)

Disgrifiad

Dyddiad: 27 Gorffennaf 1918

Trawsysgrif:

DAVY JONES.

Davy Jones on a summer's day
Opened his locker and peeped inside.
"Get ready, get ready, my bullies gay,
For a big tin fish is at work to-day
In the swell of a heaving tide."
Then a dying ship came shuddering down,
And settled to rest by Mermaid Town;
And David said,
Saluting the dead,
"Come out, come out, my dears, my dears,
My bullies will wipe away your tears;
For we have ready a banquet fair,
Of scallops and oysters and shell-fish rare,
And Dover soles with their lip awry,
All brown, all brown, with a lovely fry,
And lordly salmon and whitebait sweet,
With their heads and their tails complete, so neat,
And circled whiting, complete, so neat,
With slices of lemon complete, so neat,
On a table of golden sand.
The cloth is of foam of wavelets' crest,
With a kiss from the shore we all love best,
And the table is decked with anemones fine,
As red, as red as your landsman's wine.
Fall to, fall to, my dears, my dears,
Mother Carey will kiss away your fears,
And Neptune will shake your hand."

Davy Jones on a summer's day
Opened his locker and peeped inside. "Get ready, get ready, my bullies gay,
For the guns, the guns, the guns are at work to-day
In the swell of a heaving tide."
Then U19 came shivering down,
But they pushed her away from Mermaid Town;
And Davy said
To the lurking dead,
"Come out, come out, ye dirty scum;
My bullies will haul you to Kingdom Come.
For the devil-fishes are waiting there,
With their master there in a darkling lair,
A guard of cuttle-fish spurting ink,
To hide the sight of the ships you sink,
For even they are ashamed to see
The women and babes come down to me,
The wounded and sick come down to me,
The merchant lads come down to me,
Along of your skulking war.
And the snakes will hiss as you float along,
And the sharks will whisper a hungry song,
And the conger eel will wriggle and grin,
And sharpen their teeth for a feast of sin,
In a banqueting-hall of deep sea mud,
As red, as red as your villains' blood,
As you learn that war is war."

G. F. N.


Ffynhonnell:
N., G. F. ‘Davy Jones.’ The Brecon County Times: War Supplement. 27 Gorffennaf 1918. 2.

• https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3859186/3859188/11 (link opens in new window)