SONGS OF THE SEA
AND
LAYS OF THE LAND
SONGS OF THE SEA
AND
LAYS OF THE LAND
BY
CHARLES GODFREY LELAND
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1895
PREFACE
Among the songs in this collection are the Brand New Ballads alreadyknown more or less to the public, several of them having an Americannewspaper circulation, while a few are given at times in public readings;since I have learned, for example, that “In Nevada” was one of thestock-pieces of Mr. Clifford Harrison. They now reappear amendedand with additions.
In the “Songs of the Sea” the reader will not fail to observe thatthree or four, such as the “Mermaid” and “Time for Us to Go,” arenot by me at all. They are sailors’ songs of the olden time, introducedas suggestions for other lyrics, as I have indeed declared in thetext, and also to aid in the main purpose or idea which inspires thewhole collection—they being in this respect like stones from moreancient edifices built into new houses, as was the wont of men inthe middle age.
This main purpose was to set forth with scrupulous care, as of astatue photographed from many sides, the mariner of the sailing—notsteaming—ship, who is now rapidly passing away, although some tensof thousands of the species are still to be found in the remoter routesof travel. This kind of man should be interesting, because he is almostthe only one who is drawn into his calling by a desire to rove about theworld and lead an adventurous, reckless, manly life. Into this lifeentered, I may say, as “vitalising elements,” “shipwrecks and disastersof the sea,” the extremes of discipline and dissipation, as well as thoseof cynical scepticism and superstition, the seeing, like Ulysses, citiesand men, and the consciousness, so clear to undeveloped minds andsmaller natures, of belonging to a “peculiar” class. This I haveborne in mind most earnestly, and those who perceive it will also findthat in this spirit the following notes and sketches in song illustrate, Itrust accurately, a consistent ideal text, and that all the songs unite toform a single poem.
As for the many scraps, “chanties,” choruses, sayings, similes,and bits of sea-lore worked up into the lyrics here and there, I makeno attempt whatever to indicate what is borrowed; all that I can say ofit is, that if the mere gathering the stones is all the merit of making amosaic picture (as many see