Anyone for Tennyson?; No. 101; Poems of the Sea

<v Speaker>The following presentation of Anyone for Tennyson? <v Speaker>was produced through the remote facilities of Connecticut Public Television. <v Speaker>[music] From Mystic Seaport, the Outdoor Maritime Museum at Mystic, Connecticut, the <v Speaker>first poetry quartet joined by chanty singer Stuart Gillespie, present <v Speaker>Poems of the Sea. <v Speaker>Here are George Backman, Jill Tanner, Cynthia <v Speaker>Herman and Paul Hecht: the First Poetry Quartet. <v Speaker>I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky. <v Speaker>And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by; and <v Speaker>the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking, and a gray mist <v Speaker>on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking. <v Speaker>I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide is a wild call <v Speaker>and a clear call that may not be denied; and all I ask is

<v Speaker>a windy day with the white clouds flying, and the flung spray in the blown <v Speaker>spume, and the sea-gulls crying. <v Speaker>I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life, <v Speaker>to the gull's way and the whale's way, whether winds like a whetted knife; and <v Speaker>all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover, and the quiet <v Speaker>sleep and a sweet- When the long trick's over. <v Speaker>[singing] Come all ye' boat sailers, come listen to me, I'll tell you a story <v Speaker>of the ships in the sea. <v Speaker>So blow your winds westerly, westerly roll, and steer your <v Speaker>ships ?inaudible?. <v Speaker>?inaudible? <v Speaker>Down along the wharves - that's the place I like to wander! <v Speaker>Smell of tar and salted fish and barrels soaked in brine! <v Speaker>Here and there a lobster-crate and brown seines over yonder.

<v Speaker>And in among them mending nets, an "old salt" friend of mine. <v Speaker>That old-salt friend of mine - how we love to talk together! <v Speaker>Breathless is the wonder of his tales about the sea! <v Speaker>His face is tanned and wrinkled by the roughest kind of weather. <v Speaker>And he is like a hero in a story-book to me! <v Speaker>The sun now rose upon the right. Out of the sea came he, still <v Speaker>hid in mist, and on the left went down into the sea. <v Speaker>And the good south wind still blew behind. But no sweet bird did <v Speaker>follow, nor any day for food or play. <v Speaker>Came to the mariners' hollow! <v Speaker>And I had done a hellish thing, and it would work 'em woe: for all <v Speaker>averred, I had killed the bird that made the breeze to blow. <v Speaker>Ah wretch! said they, that bird to slay, that made the breeze <v Speaker>to blow! Nor dim nor red, like God's

<v Speaker>own head, the glorious sun uprist: then all averred, <v Speaker>I had killed the bird that brought the fog and mist. <v Speaker>'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay, that bring the fog and mist. <v Speaker>The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free: <v Speaker>we were the first that ever burst into that silent sea. <v Speaker>Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down. <v Speaker>'Twas sad as sad could be; and we did speak only to break. <v Speaker>The silence of the sea! All in a hot and copper sky, the bloody <v Speaker>sun, at noon, right up above the mast did stand, no bigger than <v Speaker>the moon. Day after day, day after day, we <v Speaker>stuck, nor breath nor motion; as <v Speaker>idle as a painted ship, upon a painted ocean.

<v Speaker>Water, water, everywhere, <v Speaker>and all the boards did shrink; water, water everywhere, <v Speaker>nor any drop to drink. <v Speaker>The very deep did rot. <v Speaker>Oh Christ!. That ever this should be! <v Speaker>Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs upon the slimy <v Speaker>sea. About, about in reel and rout. <v Speaker>The death-fires danced at night; the water, like a witch's oils, <v Speaker>burnt green, and blue and white. <v Speaker>And some in dreams assured were of the spirit that plagued us so. <v Speaker>9 fathom deep he had followed us from the lands <v Speaker>of mist and snow. And every tongue, <v Speaker>through utter drought was withered at the root; we could not speak, no more <v Speaker>than if we had been choked with soot. <v Speaker>Ah! Well a-day! What evil looks I had from old and young!

<v Speaker>Instead of the cross, the Albatross <v Speaker>about my neck was hung. <v Speaker>Down along the wharves among a wonderland of shipping, rows of shining, slender <v Speaker>masts that sway against the sky! <v Speaker>Every day at flood of tide we watch some schooner slipping, out among the circling <v Speaker>gulls, my old-salt friend and I. <v Speaker>[singing] On a bright and cloudless morn, <v Speaker>and because we're circlin' round. <v Speaker>?A sailor voiced it? on the deck and his ship was outward bound. <v Speaker>[music] <v Speaker>He rose at dawn and fired with hope, shot o'er the seething harbor bar,

<v Speaker>and reached the ship and caught the rope. <v Speaker>And whistled to the morning star. <v Speaker>And while he whistled long and loud, he heard a fierce mermaiden cry, <v Speaker>'Oh, boy, though thou are young and proud, I see the place where thou wilt <v Speaker>lie.' <v Speaker>'Fool,' he answered, 'death is sure to those that stay and those that roam, <v Speaker>but I will nevermore endure to sit with empty hands at home. <v Speaker>My mother clings about my neck. <v Speaker>My sisters crying: "Stay for shame!" My father raves of death and <v Speaker>wreck. They're all to blame, they're all to blame. <v Speaker>God help me! Save I take my part of danger on the roaring sea! <v Speaker>A devil rises in my heart, far worse than any death to <v Speaker>me.' <v Speaker>[singing] Oh, fare ye well, we're outward bound! <v Speaker>Goodbye, fare ye well, goodbye, fare ye well! <v Speaker>We're outward bound for New York town, hurrah my boy,

<v Speaker>we're outward bound! Why our anchors you'll weigh, and our sails we will set, goodbye, <v Speaker>fair ye well! <v Speaker>We are leaving, we leave with regret- <v Speaker>My window opens upon the sea and the smell of the sea comes into <v Speaker>me. And the voice of the sea that calls and calls. <v Speaker>And the sea's hands beating upon my walls. <v Speaker>Sometimes I wake in the night and hear the sound of the sea and it seems <v Speaker>so near. I wonder how I have strength, the will, to listen <v Speaker>and listen and lie so still. <v Speaker>I wonder how I can stay in bed with the smothering ceiling over my head. <v Speaker>I envy the men who can dip and ride and drown, if they will, <v Speaker>in the brown salt tide. <v Speaker>Oh, why is a half-grown lad so free to pack up his clothes <v Speaker>and put out to sea? While a maid must live out her life onshore? <v Speaker>Mending, washing and sweeping the floor.

<v Speaker>Some moonless night when the sky is black, I'll run <v Speaker>away and I'll never come back. <v Speaker>And maybe the girl who used to be me will be far away. <v Speaker>Like a lad at sea. <v Speaker>'It's 100 years' said the Boa-s'n bold, 'since I was a boy at sea. <v Speaker>'Tis a hundred years, so I've been told, and that's the truth,' said he. <v Speaker>'We sailed one day from Milford Bay, the North Pole for the see, <v Speaker>and we found it too, without much ado. <v Speaker>And that's the truth,' said he. <v Speaker>'We sailed and sailed and one fair moon, a great whale we <v Speaker>es-pied. So we took a rope and a long harpoon and stuck <v Speaker>'im the starboard side. <v Speaker>Then away and away went the great big whale and away and away went we, tied fast <v Speaker>to his tail. To the north we did sail.

<v Speaker>And that's the truth,' said he. <v Speaker>'And when we came to that great North Star, an iceberg, we did see. <v Speaker>Said the captain, "Now we've come this far. I'm not going back," said he. <v Speaker>So we tickled the tail of that great big whale with a ten-penny nail, did we. <v Speaker>And we sailed right through that iceberg blue, and that's the truth,' <v Speaker>said he. 'And then the North Pole we did see and we anchored <v Speaker>the whale astarn. But he gave us a whack that sent us back or I might'nt have been <v Speaker>spinning this yarn. <v Speaker>So mess-mates all,' said the Boa-s'n bold, 'if the North Pole you would see, you've <v Speaker>only gotta sail at the tail of a whale. <v Speaker>And that's the truth,' said he. <v Speaker>I have done my bit of carving. <v Speaker>Figureheads of quaint design. For the Olives and the Ruddocks <v Speaker>and the famous Black Ball Line. <v Speaker>Brigantines and barques and clippers, brigs and schooners, lithe and tall.

<v Speaker>But the bounding Marco Polo was the proudest <v Speaker>of them all. <v Speaker>I can see that white-winged clipper, reeling under scudding clouds, <v Speaker>tramping down a hazy skyline with a Norther in her shrouds. <v Speaker>I can feel her lines of beauty, see her flecked with spume <v Speaker>and brine. As she drives her scuppers under, <v Speaker>and that figurehead of mine. <v Speaker>'Twas of season pine I made it, clear from <v Speaker>out outer bark to core. <v Speaker>And the finest piece of timber from the mast-pond on Straight Shore. <v Speaker>Every bite of ax or chisel, every ringing mallet welt, <v Speaker>brought from out that block of timber all the spirit <v Speaker>that I felt. <v Speaker>That was how I did my carving: beat of heart and stroke <v Speaker>of hand, blended into life and action.

<v Speaker>All the purpose that I planned, flowing robes and <v Speaker>wind-tossed dresses, forms of beauty, strength, design, saw <v Speaker>them all and strove to carve them in those figureheads <v Speaker>of mine. <v Speaker>I am old. <v Speaker>My hands are feeble and my outward eyes are dim. <v Speaker>But I see, again, those clippers lifting o'er the ocean's rim. <v Speaker>Great white fleet of reeling rovers, wind above, the <v Speaker>surf beneath. <v Speaker>And Marco Polo leading with my carving in her teeth. <v Speaker>[music] <v Speaker>As I sailed down the Zuyder Zee, oho, my lads, just pipe your eye! <v Speaker>The waves were high, the sails were free. <v Speaker>The wind was shrill and roared with glee. <v Speaker>And an adventure came to me.

<v Speaker>Now take my word or leave it. <v Speaker>Our figurehead to life awoke. <v Speaker>Oho, my lads, look sharp ahead. <v Speaker>Now she was made of quartered oak, and you may think it all a joke, but mercy me, she <v Speaker>up and spoke! Now take my word or leave it. <v Speaker>Said she: <v Speaker>'Look here, my worthy mate!' <v Speaker>Oh, my lads, just pass the grog! <v Speaker>'My makeup is way out of date. I want silk hose - my size is 8 - and three <v Speaker>striped sandals, black and slate.'. <v Speaker>Now take my word or leave it! <v Speaker>'Remove from me this lengthy gown.'. <v Speaker>Oho my lads, now port your helm! <v Speaker>'It makes me look like a circus clown. <v Speaker>I wish the shortest skirt in town. So look alive! <v Speaker>Don't make it brown.' <v Speaker>Now take my word or leave it! <v Speaker>'I want a wristwatch too,' she said. <v Speaker>Oho, my lads, now starboard there! <v Speaker>'Tuxedo sweater, good and read. And listen here - don't be misled - the Shetland kind <v Speaker>with wide mesh spread!' <v Speaker>Now take my word or leave it! <v Speaker>'I wish ear-pendants - get a pair!' <v Speaker>Oho, my lads, now take a reef! <v Speaker>'And don't you ever, ever dare to gild again this waist length hair!

<v Speaker>I want you bobbed at once, so there!' <v Speaker>Now take my word or leave it! <v Speaker>'A lipstick, too, I wish you'd get.'. <v Speaker>Oho, my lads, just heave the lead! <v Speaker>'I want some rouge that stands the wet and powder, lots of it, you bet! <v Speaker>And one thing more - a cigarette!' <v Speaker> Now take my word or leave it! <v Speaker>I sailed back up the Zuyder Zee. <v Speaker>Oh my lads, the anchor weigh! <v Speaker>I hardly knew that I was me, so sort of seashell-shocked, you see. <v Speaker>The figurehead, she winked at me! <v Speaker>Now take my word or leave it! <v Speaker>All the ?buoy? boats are coming. Don't ya hear the paddles ?are? <v Speaker>run [inaudible] <v Speaker>Oh, the ?buoy? boats are comin', don't ya' hear the paddles are rolling. <v Speaker>[inaudible]

<v Speaker>[inaudible] <v Speaker>I've never sailed the Amazon. <v Speaker>Never Brazil. <v Speaker>But the Don and Magdalena, they can go there when they will. <v Speaker>Yes, weekly from Southhampton, great steamers, white and gold, go <v Speaker>rolling down to Rio - roll down, roll down to Rio. <v Speaker>And I'd like to roll to Rio some day before I'm old. <v Speaker>Jaguar, nor yet an armadillo o dilloing in his <v Speaker>armor, and I suppose I never will. <v Speaker>Unless I go to Rio. <v Speaker>These wonders to behold. <v Speaker>Roll down, roll down to Rio. <v Speaker>Roll really down to Rio! <v Speaker>Oh, I love to roll to Rio someday before I old! <v Speaker>Now, I ask you this, so mark me well. John Kanaka naka, tulai e. <v Speaker>Have you ever heard the story of the Inchcape Bell?

<v Speaker>John Kanaka naka, tulai e. Oh tulai e, oh <v Speaker>tulai e. John Kanaka naka, tulai e. <v Speaker>No stir in the air. No stir in the sea. <v Speaker>The ship she could be. <v Speaker>No. Her keel was steady in the ocean. <v Speaker>Without either sign or sound of a shock, the waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock. <v Speaker>So little they rose, so little they fell. <v Speaker>They did not move the Inchcape Bell. <v Speaker>The holy Abbot of Aberbrothok had placed that Bell on Inchcape Rock; on <v Speaker>a buoy in the storm it floated and swung, and over the waves its warning rung. <v Speaker>When the rock was hid by the surge's swell, the mariners heard the warning bell; and then <v Speaker>they knew the perilous rock and blessed the Abbot of Aberbrothok. <v Speaker>The sun in heaven was shining gay. <v Speaker>All things were joyful on that day. <v Speaker>The seabirds screamed as they wheeled around, and there was joyance in their sound.

<v Speaker>The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen, a darker speck on the ocean green: <v Speaker>Sir Ralph the Rover walked his deck, and he fixed his eye on the darker speck. <v Speaker>He felt the cheering power of spring. <v Speaker>It made him whistle. It made him sing. <v Speaker>His heart was mirthful to excess. <v Speaker>But the rover's mirth was wicked. <v Speaker>His eye was on the in-shape float, quoth he: <v Speaker>'My men, put out the boat, and row me to the Inchcape Rock. <v Speaker>And I'll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothok.' <v Speaker>The boat is lowered, the boatman row, and to the Inchcape Rock they go. <v Speaker>Sir Ralph bent over from the boat and cut the bell from the Inchcape float. <v Speaker>Down sank the bell with a gurgling sound. <v Speaker>The bubbles rose and burst around. <v Speaker>Quoth Sir Ralph: <v Speaker>'The next who comes to the rock will not bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok.' <v Speaker>Sir Ralph the Rover sailed away. <v Speaker>He scoured the seas for many a day, and now grown rich with plundered <v Speaker>store, he steers his course for Scotland's shore.

<v Speaker>So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky they cannot see the sun on high: <v Speaker>the wind had blown a gale all day. <v Speaker>At evening it had died away. <v Speaker>On the deck, the Rover takes his stand. <v Speaker>So dark it is, they see no land. <v Speaker>Quoth Sir Ralph: <v Speaker>'It will be lighter soon. For there is the dawn of the rising moon.'. <v Speaker>'Cast here,' said one. 'the breakers roar? <v Speaker>For yonder, methinks, should be the shore.'. <v Speaker>'Now where we are I cannot tell, but I wish we could hear the Inchcape Bell.'. <v Speaker> They hear no sound; the swell is strong. <v Speaker>Though the wind hath fallen, they drift along, till the vessel strikes with a shivering <v Speaker>shock. <v Speaker>'Oh Christ, it is the Inchcape Rock!' <v Speaker>Sir Ralph the Rover tore his hair. <v Speaker>He curst himself in his despair. <v Speaker>The waves rush in on every side. <v Speaker>The ship is sinking beneath the tide. <v Speaker>But even in his dying one dreadful sound, he seemed to hear. <v Speaker>Sound as if, with the Inchcape Bell, the devil below was ringing his <v Speaker>knell. [music]

<v Speaker>Pleasure in the pathless woods. <v Speaker>There is a rapture on the lonely shore. <v Speaker>There is society where none intrudes. <v Speaker>By the deep sea, the music and its roar. <v Speaker>I love not man the less but nature more. <v Speaker>From these our interviews, in which I steal from all I may be, or have been <v Speaker>before, to mingle with the universe and feel what I can never <v Speaker>express, yet cannot all conceal. <v Speaker>On thou deep and dark blue ocean - roll! <v Speaker>Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. <v Speaker>Man marks the earth with ruin. <v Speaker>His control stops with the shore upon the watery <v Speaker>plain. The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain a shadow of man's <v Speaker>ravage, save his own.

<v Speaker>When for a moment, like a drop of rain, he sinks <v Speaker>into thy depths with bubbling groan. <v Speaker>Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, <v Speaker>and unknown. <v Speaker>[singing] We're homeward-bound today! <v Speaker>But where, oh where is Johnny? <v Speaker>My own dear Johnny. <v Speaker>My own dear Johnny. <v Speaker>In the middle of the sea my boy <v Speaker>is floating free. <v Speaker>My lively Johnny, Goodbye. <v Speaker>Ho, sailor of the sea! How is my boy? <v Speaker>My boy? <v Speaker>What's your boy's name, good wife? <v Speaker>And on what good ship sailed he? <v Speaker>My boy, John, he who went to sea. <v Speaker>You come back from sea and not know my John? <v Speaker>I might as well have asked some landsman yonder down in the town.

<v Speaker>There's not an ass in all the parish, but he knows my John. <v Speaker>How is my boy? My boy? <v Speaker>And unless you let me know I swear you are no sailor, blue jacket or no. <v Speaker>Sure his ship was the Jolly Briton! <v Speaker>Speak low, woman, speak low! <v Speaker>Why should I speak low, sailor, about my own boy, John? <v Speaker>If I was loud as I am proud, I'd sing 'im all the town. <v Speaker>Why should I speak low, sailor? <v Speaker>That good ship went down! <v Speaker>Well care I for the ship, sailor? I never was aboard her. <v Speaker>Be she afloat or be she aground, sinking or swimming, I'll be bound, her owners <v Speaker>can afford her. How's my John? <v Speaker>Every man on board went down. <v Speaker>Every man aboard her. <v Speaker>What care I for the men, sailor? I'm not their mother. <v Speaker>How is my boy? My boy? <v Speaker>Tell me of him and no other! <v Speaker>How's my boy? <v Speaker>My boy.

<v Speaker>3 fishers went sailing away to the west, away to the west as the sun went <v Speaker>down. Each thought on the woman who loved him the best and the children <v Speaker>stood watching them out of the town. <v Speaker>For men must work, and women must weep. <v Speaker>And there's little to earn and many to keep, though the harbor bar be <v Speaker>moaning. 3 wives set up in the Lighthouse Tower <v Speaker>and they trim the lamps as the sun went down. <v Speaker>And they looked at the squall and they looked at the shower and the night rat came <v Speaker>rolling up ragged and brown. <v Speaker>But men must work. And women must weep. <v Speaker>Though storms be sudden and water's deep. <v Speaker>And the harbor bar be moaning. <v Speaker>3 corpses lay out in the shining sands in the morning gleam as the tide went <v Speaker>down. <v Speaker>And the women are weeping and wringing their hands for those who will never come home to

<v Speaker>the town. <v Speaker>But men must work and women must weep. <v Speaker>And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep. <v Speaker>And goodbye to the bar and its moaning. <v Speaker>Now finale to the show. <v Speaker>Now, land and life. <v Speaker>Finale and farewell. <v Speaker>Now, voyager, depart. <v Speaker>Much, much for thee is yet in store. <v Speaker>Often enough has thou adventured o'er the seas, cautiously cruising, studying the <v Speaker>charts. Duly again to port and hawser's tie returning. <v Speaker>But now obey thy cherished secret wish: embrace <v Speaker>thy friends, leave all in order. <v Speaker>To port and hawser's tie, no more returning. <v Speaker>Depart upon thy endless cruise, old sailor.

<v Speaker>[singing] 15 men on a dead man's chest, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! <v Speaker>Drink and the devil had done for the rest, yo ho ho and a bottle of <v Speaker>rum! <v Speaker>This person in the gaudy clothes is worthy Captain Kidd. <v Speaker>They say he never buried gold. I think perhaps he did. <v Speaker>They say it's all a story, that his favorite little song was "Make These Lovers <v Speaker>Walk the Plank." I think perhaps they're wrong. <v Speaker>They say he never pirated beneath the Skull and Bones. <v Speaker>He merely traveled for his health and spoke in soothing tones. <v Speaker>In fact, you read in nearly all the new history books that he <v Speaker>was mild as cottage cheese. <v Speaker>But I don't like his looks!

<v Speaker>[singing] In London town, there lived a maid. <v Speaker>Oh mind what I do say! In London town, there lived a maid and she was <v Speaker>mistress of her trade. <v Speaker>I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid. <v Speaker>A-roving, a-roving. Since roving's been my ruin, I'll <v Speaker>go no more a-rovin' with you, fair maid. <v Speaker>Head the ship for England! Shake out every sail! <v Speaker>Blithe leap the billows, merry sings the gale. <v Speaker>Captain, work the reckoning. How many knots a day? <v Speaker>Round the world and the home again, that's the sailor's way! <v Speaker>We traded with the Yankees, Brazilians and Chinese. <v Speaker>We've laughed with dusky beauties in shade of tall palm trees. <v Speaker>Across the line and Gulf Stream round by table, bay everywhere <v Speaker>and home again, that's the sailor's way! <v Speaker>Stands the North Star higher on our boughs. <v Speaker>Straight we run for England. Our thoughts are in it now. <v Speaker>Jolly times with friends ashore when we've drawn our pay.

<v Speaker>All around and home again, that's the sailor's way! <v Speaker>Tom will to his parents. <v Speaker>Jack will to his dear. Joe to wife and children. <v Speaker>Bob to pipes and beer. Dickie to the dancing room to hear the fiddles play. <v Speaker>Round the world and home again, that's the sailor's way! <v Speaker>A-rovin', a-rovin', since rovin's been my ruin. <v Speaker>I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid. <v Speaker>A-roving, a-roving since roving's been my ruin. <v Speaker>I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid. <v Speaker>[sea-gulls crying and harmonica playing] <v Speaker>This program was funded by Public Television Stations, the Ford Foundation

<v Speaker>and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.