Lyr Add: THE SEA - THE FLEA - A SHIP

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SEA (Barry Cornwall)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jan 06 - 05:39 PM

The Barry Cornwall poem, "The Sea," inspired several parodies, two of which will be posted.

Lyr. Add: THE SEA
Barry Cornwall, 1787-1874

THE SEA! the sea! the open sea!
The blue, the fresh, the ever free!
Without a mark, without a bound,
It runneth the earth's wide regions round;
It plays with the clouds, it mocks the skies;
Or like a cradled creature lies.

I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea!
I am where I would ever be;
With the blue above, and the blue below,
And silence wheresoe'er I go;
If a storm should come and awake the deep,
What matter? I shall ride and sleep.

I love, O, how I love to ride
On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide,
Wnen every mad wave drowns the moon
Or whistles aloft his tempest tune,
And tells how goeth the world below,
And why the sou'west blasts do blow.

I never was on the dull, tame shore,
But I lov'd the great sea more and more,
And backwards flew to her billowy breast,
Like a bird that seeketh its mother's nest;
And a mother she was, and is, to me;
For I was born on the open sea!
The waves were white, and red the morn.

In the noisy hour when I was born;
And the whale it whistled, the porpoise roll'd,
And the dolphins bared their backs of gold;
And never was heard such an outcry wild
As welcom'd to life the ocean-child!

I've liv'd since then, in calm and strife,
Full fifty summers, a sailor's life,
With wealth to spend and a power to range,
But never have sought nor sighed for change;
And Death, whenever he comes to me,
Shall come on the wild, unbounded sea!

From Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1895, A Victorian Anthology; www.bartleby.com/246/57.html.
The five-line fifth verse was written that way. Date of composition unknown, but it was mentioned in a book pub. 1837.

Music was set by Chevalier, Sigismond Neukomm, no date. Several printins at Levy Sheet Music. Lyrics incorrectly credited to 'Phillips' in copy printed by G. E. Blake, Philadelphia. http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/display.ph?record=115.103.000&pages=3.

The Sea. A sea song sung by Miss C. Cushman, poetry by Barry Cornwall, music by Chevalier, S. Neukomm, no date, Atwill's Music Saloon, NY.
http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/cig-bin/display.ph?record=183.053.000&pages=4.
The Sea

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE SEA - THE FLEA - A SHIP
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Jan 06 - 06:22 PM

Certainly should have been a conspicuous target fpr parody.

I'm feeling seasick already!

But where can the Sloop A be?
Maybe the A's at sea?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FLEA
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jan 06 - 08:15 PM

Lyr. Add: THE FLEA

"A comic parody of the Sea

The Flea! The Flea! the hopping flea,
The teasing, biting, blackguard Flea;
I'm full of marks, I dare be bound,
Since o'er my back he's running around;
He plagues the skin, and makes it rise,
Or like a sneaking thing he lies.
I've got a flea! I've got a flea!
He is where I won't let him be;
With his nipping above, and nipping below,
That I have no peace where'er I go;
If a swarm should come, and on me creep,
Och, murther, och, murther, the devil a wink I sleep.

I hate, I hate- och fait! I can't abide,
A suit of clothes with fleas inside,-
At every bite you'd thump the moon,-
Or if you're whistling,- stop your tune;
Which telleth the world that you are sick,
And make you wish they'd cut their stick;
I never was on a dirty floor,
But fleas flew on me more and more;
Then home I'd run to change my best,
Like a partridge seeketh his mother's nest,
And my mother swears 'tis fate's decree,
That I was born to be plagued by a flea.

The sky was clear and hot the morn,
In the noisy hour when I was born;
The pig it whistled, the donkey rowl'd,
My father danc'd, the nurse she howl'd;
Och, fire and murther, och, I'll go wild,
See there's a flea upon the child.
I've lived since then in care and strife,
Full fifty years a scratching life!
And though, to shift the scene, I'd range,
I never yet could get a change;
I'd rather death should come to me,
Than thus be plagued with a vile confounded flea.

Ordoyno, Printer, Nottingham. Ballads Catalogue, Harding B25(660), c. 1814-1844, Bodleian Library, Oxford, also Harding B (17(96b). Bodley Search
For some reason, I had to Browse (display) under flea rather than Search.
Also printed by Jackson in Birmingham and others.

Subject: Lyr Add: A SHIP! A SHIP! A GALLANT SHIP!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jan 06 - 09:20 PM

Lyr. Add: A SHIP! A SHIP! A GALLANT SHIP!
Anon.?

A ship! A ship! a gallant ship! the foe is on the main
A ship! a gallant ship, to bear our thunder forth again!
Shall the stripes, and stars, or tricolor, in triumph sweep the sea,
While the flag of Britain waves aloft, the fearless and the free?

Nobly she comes in warlike trim, careering through the wave,
The hope, the home, the citadel of Britain and the brave;
Well may the sailor's heart exult, as he gazes on the sight,
To murmur forth his country's name, and think upon her might!

How proudly does the footstep rise upon the welcome deck,
As if every pace we trod upon a foeman's neck!
Hurrah! hurrah! let mast and yard before the tempest bend;
The sceptre of the deep from us nor storm nor foe shall rend.

Our country's standard floats above, the ocean breeze to greet,
And her thunder sleeps in awful quiet beneath our trampling feet;
But let a foeman fling abroad the banner of his wrath,
And a moment will awake its roar to sweep him from our path!

No foreign tyrant ever through our wooden bulwarks broke;
No British bosom ever quail'd within our walls of oak;
Let banded foes and angry seas around ship conspire,-
To tread our glorious decks would turn the coward's blood to fire!

Out every reef! let plank, and spar, and rigging crack again!
Let a broad belt of snow surround our pathway through the main;
High to the straining topmast sail the British ensign fast-
We may go down, but never yield, and it shall sink the last.

Our country's cause is in our arms, but her love is in our souls,
And by the deep that underneath our bounding vessel rolls-
By heaven above, and earth below- to the death for her we'll fight;
Our Queen and country is the word! and God defend the right!

Latter part of 19th c. No author cited. Included in "Miscellaneous National Songs," pp. 325-327 of pp. 275-328, in T. Dibdin, 1875, "Songs by Charles Dibdin, with a Memoir." Admiralty Edition, ill. George Cruikshank, George Bell and Sons.
Except for these 'Miscellaneous' songs, all are listed by author- C. Dibdin, 1-233; T. Dibdin, 234-256; C. Dibdin, Jun., 257-274.

Subject: Lyr Add: A LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Jan 06 - 05:27 PM

The music of the Regimental March of Her Majesty's Royal Marines is derived from two songs composed during the first half of the 19th c. The bulk is from "A Life on the Ocean Wave," music by Henry Russell, and the short central section is based on eight bars of "The Sea," music by Sigismund Neukomm (a pupil of Haydn).
The Sea, the sea, the open sea!
The blue, the fresh, the ever free,
The ever, ever free!

Lyr. Add: A LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE
Lyrics Epes Sargent, Music Henry Russell, 1838

*A life on the ocean wave!
A home on the rolling deep!
Where the scatter'd waters rave,
And the winds their revels keep!
Like an eagle cag'd I pine,
On this dull unchanging shore,
Oh! give me the flashing brine,
The spray and the tempest's roar!

**A life on the ocean wave!
A home on the rolling deep!
Where the scatter'd waters rave,
And the winds their revels keep,
The winds, the winds
The winds their revels keep!

Once more on the deck I stand
Of my own swift gliding craft,
Set sail! farewell to the land!
The gale follows fair abaft.
We shoot through the sparkling foam,
Like an ocean-bird set free,
Like the ocean-bird, our home
We'll find far out on the sea!

A life on the ocean wave! ---

The land is no longer in view,
The clouds have begun to frown;
But with a stout vessel and crew,
We'll say, Let the storm come down!
And the song of our hearts shall be
While the winds and the waters rave,
A life on the heaving sea!
A home on the bounding wave!

A life on the ocean wave! ---

* First four lines of verse repeated in some versions.
** The six-line verse used as a chorus is an addition to the poem by Henry Russell. The third and fourth lines of each verse are repeated in some arrangements.

Notes: In the Royal Marines, the arrangement was first used by the Chatham Division Band, RMLI.
http://www.royalmarinesbands.co.uk/references/FS_reg_march.htm
Regimental Marches

Russell composed the music while in New York; it was first published there in 1838 and dedicated to Mr. J. B. Green of Columbus, GA. Several copies of the sheet music are in the Levy Sheet Music Collection. http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/display.pl?record=182.018.000&pages=7

Subject: Lyr Add: THE OCEAN CHILD
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Jan 06 - 04:12 PM

Lyr. Add: THE OCEAN CHILD

The Sea the Open Sea my home,
No other home have I;
For there I am ever free [to] roam,
And there I'd wish to die.

I've seen the Land & landsmen too,
When twice I've made the Shore;
But best I like the billows blue,
I am proud to hear them roar.

And has it not through Natures track
Such feelings we pursue;
And infant years if we look back,
With tender thoughts renew.

Such as natures work with me,
For I'm the Ocean Child;
I dearly love my mother sea,
The boundless deep and wild.

The madning waves has kissed the clouds,
And hid the shining moon,
While sea birds all around her abroad,
Their awful note old tune.

Ive been there but what fear I,
My birth place is the deep;
But on that bosom let me lie,
That cradled me to sleep.

Typeset by a careless (semi-literate?) printer, not corrected except for 3rd. line, 1st verse.
The first line, theme and 'ocean-child' suggest the author was familiar with "The Sea" by Barry Cornwall.
"The Ocean Child," by Hugh Miller, Scottish poet, 1802-1856, may be the basis for this broadside, but I haven't located a copy.

There are several modern poems mentioning the 'ocean-child'.

Bodleian Library, Harding B16 (177b), no date (mid-19th c.?) or printer.