Songs from: Captains Courageous

Subject: RE: Songs from: Captains Courageous
From: DonMeixner
Date: 15 Jun 10 - 03:13 PM

I have loved the Spencer Tracy film since I was 10. What is the story of the song, Oh What A Terrible Man?

Wheevily Wheat.

I know it as

Take her by the lily white hand
lead her like a pidgeon
Make her dance to wheevily wheat
and scatter her religion

Wheat in the ear my true loves' a posey growin'(Blowin')
Wheat in the ear I'm going home(back) to sea
Wheat in the ear I left you fit for sewing
When I get back what a loaf of bread you'll be.

Don

Subject: RE: Songs from: Captains Courageous
From: Artful Codger
Date: 15 Jun 10 - 05:53 AM

p. 189: Happy birds that sing and fly / Round thine altars, O Most High!

This begins the second verse of a hymn "Pleasant are Thy courts above".


pp. 309-10: They took the grandam's blanket...

This quatrain and the following two fragments come from the middle and end of "The Wives of Brixham", a children's poem written by Menella Bute Smedley. It was published in Poems Written for a Child by Two Friends, by MBS and Fanny Wheeler Hart (London: Strahan and Co., 1869). The parts quoted in Captains Courageous are shown below in bold.

THE WIVES OF BRIXHAM.
   A True Story.

YOU see the gentle water,
   How silently it floats,
How cautiously, how steadily
   It moves the sleepy boats;
And all the little loops of pearl
   It strews along the sand
Steal out as leisurely as leaves,
   When summer is at hand.

But you know it can be angry,
   And thunder from its rest,
When the stormy taunts of winter
   Are flying at its breast;
And if you like to listen,
   And draw your chairs around,
I 'll tell you what it did one night,
   When you were sleeping sound.

The merry boats of Brixham
   Go out to search the seas,—
A stanch and'sturdy fleet are they,
   Who love a swinging breeze;
And before the woods of Devon,
   And the silver cliifs of Wales,
You may see wheu summer evenings fall,
   The light upon their sails.

But when the year grows darker,
   And gray winds hunt the foam,
They go back to little Brixham,
   And ply their toils at home.
And thus it chanced one winter's day,
   When a storm began to roar,
That all the men were out at sea,
   And all the wives on shore.

Then as the wind grew fiercer,
   The women's cheeks grew white, —
It was fiercer in the twilight,
   And fiercest in the night.
The strong clouds set themselves like ice,
   Without a star to melt;
The blackness of the darkness
   Was something to be felt.

The storm, like an assassin,
   Went on its secret way,
And struck a hundred boats adrift
   To reel about the bay.
They meet, they crash,—-God keep the men!
   God give a moment's light!
There is nothing but the tumult,
   And the tempest and the night.

The men on shore were anxious, —
   They grieved for what they knew:
What do you think the women did?
   Love taught them what to do!
Outspoke a wife : " We 've beds at home,
   We 'll burn them for a light!
Give us the men and the bare ground!
   We want no more to-night."

They took the grandame's blanket,
   Who shivered and bade them go;
They took the baby's pillow,
   Who could not say them no;
And they heaped a great fire on the pier,
   And knew not all the while
If they were heaping a bonfire,
   Or only a funeral pile.

And, fed with precious food, the flame
   Shone bravely on the black,
Till a cry rang through the people, —
   " A boat is coming back !"
Staggering dimly through the fog,
   They see and then they doubt;
But, when the first prow strikes the pier,
   Cannot you hear them shout?

Then all along the breadth of flame
   Dark figures shrieked and ran,
With, " Child, here comes your father! "
   Or, "Wife, is this your man?"
And faint feet touch the welcome shore,
   And stay a little while;
And kisses drop from frozen lips,
   Too tired to speak or smile.

So, one by one, they struggled in,
   All that the sea would spare:
We will not reckon through our tears
   The names that were not there;
But some went home without a bed,
   When all the tale was told,
Who were too cold with sorrow
   To know the night was cold.

And this is what the men must do,
   Who work in wind and foam;
And this is what the women bear,
   Who watch for them at home.
So when you see a Brixham boat
   Go out to face the gales,
Think of the love that travels
   Like light upon her sails.
                M. B. S.

Source: Poems of Places: England, Volume 1, ed. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1877.

Subject: RE: Songs from: Captains Courageous
From: Artful Codger
Date: 15 Jun 10 - 05:06 AM

p. 214: La brigantine / Qui va tourner...

This is the first verse of a poem by Casimir Delavigne (1793-1843). Alexandre Dumas quoted it in My Memoirs (Volume 2, 1822-1825), saying it was a poem that Delavigne "relegated to notes, as unworthy of any other place", though Dumas had a much higher opinion.

La brigantine
Qui va tourner,
Roule et s'incline
Pour m'entralner . . .
O Vierge Marie !
Pour moi priez Dieu.
Adieu, patrie ! .
Provence, adieu !

Mon pauvre père
Verra souvent
Pâlir ma mère
Au bruit du vent . . .
O Vierge Marie !
Pour moi priez Dieu.
Adieu, patrie !
Mon père, adieu !

La vieille Hélène
Se confira
Dans sa neuvaine,
Et dormira . . .
O Vierge Marie !
Pour moi priez Dieu.
Adieu, patrie !
Hélène, adieu !

Ma sœur se lève,
Et dit déjà :
'J'ai fait un rêve,
Il reviendra ! '
O Vierge Marie !
Pour moi priez Dieu.
Adieu, patrie !
Ma sœur, adieu !

De mon Isaure
Le mouchoir blanc
S'agite encore
En m'appelant . . .
O Vierge Marie !
Pour moi priez Dieu.
Adieu, patrie !
Isaure, adieu !

Brise ennemie,
Pourquoi souffler,
Quand mon amie
Veut me parler?
O Vierge Marie !
Pour moi priez Dieu.
Adieu, patrie !
Bonheur, adieu !

Subject: RE: Songs from: Captains Courageous
From: Artful Codger
Date: 15 Jun 10 - 01:28 AM

The first two verses (p.43: "Bring forth the chart, the doleful chart" and p.44: "And naow to thee, O Capting") are misquotations of the third and fourth verses of "The Sailor", by William Allingham, first published in his Day and Night Songs, either 1850 or 1854.

THE SAILOR
   A ROMAIC BALLAD
   William Allingham [by 1854]

Thou that hast a daughter
   For one to woo and wed,
Give her to a hushand
   With snow upon his head ;
Oh, give her to an old man,
   Though little joy it be,
Before the best young sailor
   That sails upon the sea !

How luckless is the sailor
   When sick and like to die ;
He sees no tender mother,
   No sweetheart standing by.
Only the captain speaks to him, —
   Stand up, stand up, young man,
And steer the ship to haven,
   As none beside thee can.

Thou say'st to me, " Stand up, stand up;"
   I say to thee, take hold,
Lift me a little from the deck,
   My hands and feet are cold.
And let my head, I pray thee,
   With handkerchiefs be bound ;
There, take my love's gold handkerchief,
   And tie it tightly round.

Now bring the chart, the doleful chart;
   See, where these mountains meet —
The clouds are thick around their head,
   The mists around their feet;
Cast anchor here ; "t is deep and safe
   Within the rocky cleft;
The little anchor on the right,
   The great one on the left.

And now to thee, O captain,
   Most earnestly I pray,
That they may never bury me
   In church or cloister gray ;
But on the windy sea-beach,
   At the ending of the land,
All on the surfy sea-beach,
   Deep down into the sand.

For there will come the sailors,
   Their voices I shall hear,
And at casting of the anchor
   The yo-ho loud and clear ;
And at hauling of the anchor
   The yo-ho and the cheer, —
Farewell, my love, for to thy bay
   I nevermore may steer!

Source: A Victorian Anthology 1837-1895, ed. Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1895.

Subject: RE: Songs from: Captains Courageous
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 Jun 10 - 09:32 PM

I have a recording that has "Weevily Wheat" on it, but it has nothing in common with "Wheat in the Ear" (as it appears in _Captains Courageous_) except the refrain. I have wished for 30 years to know the whole song, because it must be one hell of a song -- the whaler's lament that he never gets to see his wife thru a pregnancy. The bits recorded by Kipling are:

Now Aprile is over and melted the snow,
And outer Noo Bedford we shortly must tow;
Yes, out o' Noo Bedford we shortly must clear,
We're the whalers that never see wheat in the ear.

    Wheat-in-the-ear, my true-love's posy blowin';
    Wheat-in-the-ear, we're goin' off to sea;
    Wheat-in-the-ear, I left you fit for sowin';
    When I come back a loaf o' bread you'll be!

Subject: RE: Songs from: Captains Courageous
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jun 10 - 02:36 PM

Banquereau, north-east of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, a raised underwater plateau and noted fishing ground.

Subject: RE: Captains Courageous
From: MMario
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 01:40 PM

Have been unable to find an instance of Queereau used outside of Captain's Courageous that is on the web.

Subject: RE: Captains Courageous
From: MMario
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 01:23 PM

Double Thatcher would be the twin lighthouses on Thatcher Island, which with Eastern Point would be markers for Cape Ann; so that definatley sounds like a pilot chanty.

Subject: RE: Captains Courageous
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 01:12 PM

No, there is something else about Sorel et St. Denis. Yes, it fits Dans le jardin de mon pere, les lilas sont fleuris (the beginning of Aupres...) but this thing about St. Denis is also sounding familiar - I will ferret.

Subject: RE: Captains Courageous
From: Snuffy
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 07:25 PM

The French sounds like a heavily folk-processed (and shortened) Canadian version of Aupres de ma Blonde, in the DT database

Subject: RE: Captains Courageous
From: GUEST,Jim Bean
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 05:23 PM

Thanks. Let me get more specific. The text begins:

It's six an' twenty Sundays sence la' we saw the land,
With fifteen hundred quintal,
An' fifteen hundred quintal,
'Tween hundr toppin' quintal,
'Twixt old Queereau an' Grand!

Later it appears as:

Hih! Yih! Yoho! send your letters raound!
All our salt is wetted, an' the anchor's off the ground
Bend, oh, bend your mains'l,
We're back to Yankeeland--
With fifteen hunder' quintal,
An' fifteen hunder' quintal,
"Tween hunder' toppin' quintal
"Twixt od 'Queereau an' Grand.

The inconsistency between the two verses makes me wonder if it's trad or if it's Kipling.

Another song(?) is given:

Oh, Double Thatcher, how are you?
Now Eastern Point comes inter view.
The girls an' boys we soon shall see,
At anchor off Cape Ann!

The French (Canadian?) text runs:

Par derriere chez ma tante,
Il y a un bois joli,
Et le rossignol y chante
Et le jour et la nuit . . .

Que donneriez vous, belle,
Qui l'amenerait ici?
Je donnerai Quebec
Sorel et Saint Dennis.

I'm new to this thread business, so thanks for the help.

Subject: RE: Captains Courageous
From: MMario
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 03:59 PM

JIm - some indication of what the citations are might help us. While I and others might have time to search for songs, I know I don't have time to read all of Kipling in order to try and help answer your question. *grin* (Note - meant to be humorous)(but also true)

Subject: Captains Courageous
From: Jim Bean
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 03:55 PM

I'm still looking for sources for the songs cited in Kipling's novel. I have, of course, the Dreadnought, Wheat-in-the-Ear (Weevily Wheat) and the Song of the Fishes (Windy Old Weather). I'm still looking for a song mentioning "Double Thatcher" (a Gloucester landmark?) and "twixt 'Queereau and Grand" (fishing grounds I presume). There are also several French (Canadian)tunes. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Subject: RE: Captains Courageous
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 03 Jan 01 - 12:30 AM

I'm refreshing this, because I've always wondered about these songs, myself. Anyone from Gloucester about?

Subject: Captains Courageous
From: GUEST,Jim Bean
Date: 02 Jan 01 - 06:17 PM

I'm looking for sources for the songs cited in Kipling's Captains Courageous. The Dreadnought and Fish of the Sea are both here (and easily found elsewhere. Other texts are not so easily found. The first cited is: "Bring forth the chart, the doleful chart, See where them mountings meet! The clouds are thick around their heads, the mists arpond their feet." The second: "And naow to thee, O Capting, Most earnestly I pray, That they shall never bury me In church or cloister grey." Perhaps the most intriguing is: "Oh, Double Thatcher, how are you? Now eastern point comes into view. The girls and boys we soon shall see, At anchor off Cape Ann!" and "Hih! Yih! Yoho! Send your letters raound! All our salt is wetted, an' the anchor's off the ground Bend, oh, bend your mains'l, We're back to Yankeeland- With fifteen hunder' quintal, an'fifteen hunder' quintal, "Tween hunder' toppin' quintal 'Twixt old Queereau an' Grand." Are any of these traditional or did Kipling create them? Any help is much appreciated.