The Orion's Figurehead At Whitehall

All wind and rain, the clouds fled fast across the evening sky - Whitehall aglimmer like a beach the tide has scarce left dry - And there I saw the figurehead which once did grace the bow Of the old bold Orion - The fighting old Orion , In the days that are not now. And I wondered did he dream at all of those great fights of old, And ships from out whose oaken sides Trafalgar's thunder rolled; There was Ajax, Neptune, Temeraire, Revenge, Leviathan , With the old bold Orion - The fighting old Orion , When Victory led the van. Old ships, their ribs are ashes now . . . but still the names they bore And still the hearts that manned them live to sail the seas once more - To sail and fight, and watch and ward, and strike as stout a blow As the old bold Orion - The fighting old Orion , In the wars of long ago. They watch, the gaunt gray fighting ships, like death as bleak and stern; They wait (not yet, not yet has dawned the day for which they burn): They're ware and waiting for the word that sets their thunders free, Like the old bold Orion - The fighting old Orion , When Nelson sailed the sea. Oh, waiting is a weary game - but Nelson played it too! And be it late or be it soon, such work is yet to do Your starry namesake never saw who walked the midnight sky (Old bold Orion - Fighting old Orion !) In the great old years gone by. And be the game a waiting game we'll play it with the best; Or be the game a watching game we'll watch and never rest; But the fighting game it pays for all when the guns begin to play (Ah, bold Orion - Fighting old Orion !) As you heard 'em yesterday!)