The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #12899   Message #103650
Posted By: PKD on Teesside
10-Aug-99 - 09:02 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Mine Sweepers (Rudyard Kipling)
Subject: Lyr Add: MINE SWEEPERS (Rudyard Kipling)
Hi,

Do you mean this Rudyard Kipling poem?

If so, Peter Bellamy wrote a tune & it is on one of his albums, either "Carry on Kipling" or "Rudyard Kipling Wrote Exceedingly Good Songs".

MINE SWEEPERS
1914-18 Sea Warfare

Dawn off the Foreland--the young flood making
Jumbled and short and steep--
Black in the hollows and bright where it's breaking--
Awkward water to sweep.
"Mines reported in the fairway,
"Warn all traffic and detain.
"'Sent up Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain."

Noon off the Foreland--the first ebb making
Lumpy and strong in the bight.
Boom after boom, and the golf-hut shaking
And the jackdaws wild with fright!
"Mines located in the fairway,
"Boats now working up the chain,
"Sweepers--Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain."

Dusk off the Foreland--the last light going
And the traffic crowding through,
And five damned trawlers with their sirens blowing
Heading the whole review!
"Sweep completed in the fairway.
"No more mines remain.
"'Sent back Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain."

Cheers

Paul