II

 We have fed our sea for a thousand years And she calls us, still unfed, Though there’s never a wave of all her waves But marks our English dead: We have strawed our best to the weed’s unrest To the shark and the sheering gull. If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha’ paid in full! 

And she calls us, still unfed,

But marks our English dead:

To the shark and the sheering gull.

Lord God, we ha’ paid in full!

 LORD GOD, WE HA' PAID IN FULL! If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha’ paid in full! There’s never a flood goes shoreward now But lifts a keel we manned; There’s never an ebb goes seaward now But drops our dead on the sand— But slinks our dead on the sands forlore, From the Ducies to the Swin. If blood be the price of admiralty, If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha’ paid it in! 

LORD GOD, WE HA' PAID IN FULL!

If blood be the price of admiralty,

Lord God, we ha’ paid in full!

But lifts a keel we manned;

But drops our dead on the sand—

From the Ducies to the Swin.

Lord God, we ha’ paid it in!

 We must feed our sea for a thousand years, For that is our doom and pride, As it was when they sailed with the Golden Hind, Or the wreck that struck last tide— Or the wreck that lies on the spouting reef Where the ghastly blue-lights flare. If blood be the price of admiralty, If blood be the price of admiralty, If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha’ bought it fair! 

For that is our doom and pride,

Or the wreck that struck last tide—

Where the ghastly blue-lights flare.

Lord God, we ha’ 

 Prev. P 5/11 next