If these walls could talk...
Hardest to come by is music; the lyrics are not easy; it's mostly, but not all, literary references, heavy on the dictionaries &c.
If there is one (1) word for it all down through the ages it's celeusma, and Martial is the go-to citation – typical: Chanties of Capt. Tho. Forrest
“Ceffatis, pueri, nihilque môftis?
Vatreno, Eridanoque pigriores?
Quorum per vada tarda navigantes,
Lentos figitis ad celeufma remos.
Jam prono Phaëthonte fudat Æthon;
Exarfitque dies, et hora laffos
Interjungit equos meridiana.
At vos tam placidas vagi per undas,
Tuta luditis otium carina:
Non nautas puto vos, fed Argonautas.
Why, my lads, more fluggifh go,
Than Vatrenus, or the Po?
Think ye through their ftill ye fteer,
Drawling-oars to wait the chear?
Phaeton begins to fire,
Ethon lo! in full perfpire;
Now the noon-tide hour proceeds,
To repofe the panting fteeds.
Ye, ferene upon the wave,
Sun, and wind, and water brave.
No mere navigators now,
Ye are Argonauts,* I vow.”
*Argonauts, (in one fenfe) fluggifh mariners.c.95AD – The Epigrams of Martial
[A Voyage to New Guinea, and the Moluccas, from Balambangan, Forrest, 1779, p.305)]
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