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Book: Sea Songs and Ballads: 1917-1922

This publication was a selection from 4 earlier volumes and some poems not before published in book form:

        Rovings -  Published by Elkin & Mathews [1921]
        Ships and Folks  -- Published by Elkin & Mathews [1920]
        Small Craft  --  Published by Elkin & Mathews [1917]
        Rhymes of the Red Ensign  --  Published by Hodder & Stoughton [1917]

It contains six fine illustrations by her brother Phil W. Smith.

The illustration is the title page and frontpiece [The Three Ships]

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  • Half across the world to westward there's a harbour that I know,
    Where the ships that load with lumber and the China liners go, &mda
    23 lines
  • "Now 'ere's a yarn as is true," said Dan, "An' you can't say that o' most:
    I was in the packet Mogador an' bound to the Chile coast,
    43 lines
  • "Christmas," said Bill, "on Christmas cards, it's winders all aglow,
    An' lots o' stuff to eat an' drink an' a good three feet o' sno
    42 lines, 2 comments
  • All coiled down, an' it's time for us to go;
    Every sail's furled in a neat harbour stow;
    18 lines, 1 comment
  • There was ten men hauling on the lee fore brace
    In the rain an' the drivin' hail,
    48 lines, 7 comments
  • These were the ships that kept on going
    When the seas were thick with the War’s black sowing —
    33 lines
  • We sighted her one day early; the forenoon watch was begun,
    There was mist like wool on the water, and a glimpse of a pale, cold sun
    43 lines, 1 comment
  • "You never see a decent figure'ead —
    Not now," Bill said,
    27 lines, 1 comment
  • "What is it makes a man follow the sea?
    Ask me another!" says Billy Magee:
    30 lines, 4 comments
  • 'Er keel was laid in Seventy-four,
    Let 'er go — let 'er go!
    56 lines
  • "Ain't it rum?" said Dan one day,
    Yarning while he worked away
    62 lines, 2 comments
  • 'There's a deal o' ports,' said Murphy, 'an' I guess I've sampled most,
    Round about the Gulf o' Guinea, and up an' down the Chili co
    29 lines, 1 comment
  • The ships that trade foreign, to London they bear
    Their cargoes unnumbered both common and rare,
    52 lines
  • If I'd got to choose alone
    One of all the freights I've known —
    57 lines
  • If ghosts should walk in Deptford, as very well they may,
    A man might find the night there more stirring than the day,
    53 lines
  • By Murphy’s Hotel as I loitered along
    I heard an old shellback a-singing his song,
    28 lines
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