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(A.D. 683)
SHOVE off from the wharf-edge! Steady! | |
| Watch for a smooth! Give way! | |
| If she feels the lop already | |
| She’ll stand on her head in the bay. | |
| It’s ebb—it’s dusk—it’s blowing | 5 |
| The shoals are a mile of white, | |
| But (snatch her along!) we’re going | |
| To find our master to-night. | |
| |
| For we hold that in all disaster | |
| Of shipwreck, storm, or sword, | 10 |
| A Man must stand by his Master | |
| When once he has pledged his word. | |
| |
| Raging seas have we rowed in | |
| But we seldom saw them thus, | |
| Our master is angry with Odin— | 15 |
| Odin is angry with us! | |
| Heavy odds have we taken, | |
| But never before such odds. | |
| The Gods know they are forsaken, | |
| We must risk the wrath of the Gods! | 20 |
| |
| Over the crest she flies from, | |
| Into its hollow she drops, | |
| Cringes and clears her eyes from | |
| The wind-torn breaker-tops, | |
| Ere out on the shrieking shoulder | 25 |
| Of a hill-high surge she drives. | |
| Meet her! Meet her and hold her! | |
| Pull for your scoundrel lives! | |
| |
| The thunders bellow and clamour | |
| The harm that they mean to do! | 30 |
| There goes Thor’s own Hammer | |
| Cracking the dark in two! | |
| Close! But the blow has missed her, | |
| Here comes the wind of the blow! | |
| Row or the squall ’ll twist her | 35 |
| Broadside on to it!—Row! | |
| |
| Heark ’ee, Thor of the Thunder! | |
| We are not here for a jest— | |
| For wager, warfare, or plunder, | |
| Or to put your power to test. | 40 |
| This work is none of our wishing— | |
| We would house at home if we might— | |
| But our master is wrecked out fishing. | |
| We go to find him to-night. | |
| |
| For we hold that in all disaster— | 45 |
| As the Gods Themselves have said— | |
| A Man must stand by his Master | |
| Till one of the two is dead. | |
| |
| That is our way of thinking, | |
| Now you can do as you will, | 50 |
| While we try to save her from sinking, | |
| And hold her head to it still. | |
| Bale her and keep her moving, | |
| Or she’ll break her back in the trough…. | |
| Who said the weather’s improving, | 55 |
| Or the swells are taking off? | |
| |
| Sodden, and chafed and aching, | |
| Gone in the loins and knees— | |
| No matter—the day is breaking, | |
| And there’s far less weight to the seas! | 60 |
| Up mast, and finish baling— | |
| In oars, and out with the mead— | |
| The rest will be two-reef sailing…. | |
| That was a night indeed! | |
| |
| But we hold that in all disaster | 65 |
| (And faith, we have found it true!) | |
| If only you stand by your Master, | |
| The Gods will stand by you! | |
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