The Cutty Comes Back [1924]

What says the Lizard, Swinging high his shining spear? . . . 'Pass along, my lady, I've known, ye many a year!' Ay, many a time he's seen her, All splendid from the sea, Come swaving up from south'ard With chests of China tea, Or, loaded to her hatches With Riverina, bales, Lead home the racing wool fleet Rip-roaring for the sales! What says the wind's song That lifts her on her way? 'Blow along, my sweetheart, I've known ye many a day!' Ay, many a day he's known her, The salty Channel breeze, And all his gusty brethren That range the ridged seas, But most of all the west winds Whose stormy marches roll A bleak and bitter kingdom, - The Forties to the Pole . . . The winds that drove the clippers Like flying deer along, The winds that break the weakling, The winds that prove the strong! What says old Atlantic That crusts her bows with brine! 'Roll along, my beauty, For you're a friend o' Mine!' Ay, well old ocean knows her. And well she knows him too, His charging Biscay rollers, His sunwarmed Tropic blue. Both deep and shoal she knows him, She knows him storm and shine, Lashed white when typhoon rages, Flat calm athwart the Line, The swell that lift's the ice-pack In fogbound seas forlorn, The long Agulhas combers And greybeards of the Horn.