The poems are listed by first line; click here for a listing by title. and here for a listing in the order of the published collection.
The three poems with titles in red were omitted from the first American edition
Title | First line | Notes |
The Answer | A Rose, in tatters on the garden path | |
Bill ‘Awkins | ‘As anybody seen Bill ‘Awkins?” | |
Soldier an’ Sailor too’ | As I was spittin’ into the Ditch aboard o’ the Crocodile | |
The Rhyme of the Three Sealers | Away by the lands of the Japanee | |
The Flowers | Buy my English posies! | |
The Sergeant’s Weddin’ | E was warned agin ‘er- | |
A Song of the English | Fair is our lot – O goodly is our heritage! | |
The King | Farewell Romance!’ the Cave-men said; | |
The Three-Decker | Full thirty foot she towered from waterline to rail | |
The Song of the Dead | Hear now the Song of the Dead – in the North by the torn berg-edges | |
Anchor Song | Heh! Walk her round. Heave, ah, heave her short again! | |
The Miracles | I sent a message to my dear | |
The Derelict | I was the staunchest of our fleet | |
An American | If the Led Striker call it a strike | |
Back to the Army again’ | I’m ‘ere in a ticky ulster and a broken billycock ‘at | |
In the Neolithic Age | In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage | |
That Day | It got beyond all orders an’ it got beyond all ‘ope; | |
The ‘ Mary Gloster’ | I’ve paid for your sickest fancies; I’ve humoured your crackedest whim | |
The Ladies | I’ve taken my fun where I’ve found it | |
The Merchantmen | King Solomon drew merchantmen | |
M’Andrew’s Hymn | Lord, Thou hast made this world below the shadow of a dream | |
Birds of Prey’ March | March! The mud is cakin’ good about our trousies | |
The First Chantey | Mine was the woman to me, darkling I found her: | |
The Story of Ung | Once, on a glittering ice-field, ages and ages ago | |
The Song of the Sons | One from the ends of the earth – gifts at an open door- | |
The Coastwise Lights | Our brows are bound with spindrift and the weed is on our knees; | |
The Song of the Cities | Royal and Dower-royal, I the Queen | |
The Shut-eye Sentry | Sez the Junior Orderly Sergeant | |
Sestina of the Tramp-Royal | Speakin’ in general, I ‘ave tried ’em all- | |
Dedication (to The Seven Seas) | The cities are full of pride | |
Hymn before Action | The earth is full of anger | |
The ‘ Eathen | The ‘eathen in ‘is blindness bows down to wood an’ stone | |
Mulholland’s Contract | The fear was on the cattle, for the gale was on the sea, | |
For to admire | The Injian Ocean sets an’ smiles | |
The Last Rhyme of True Thomas | The King has called for priest and cup | |
The Liner she’s a lady | The Liner she’s a lady, an’ she never looks nor ‘eeds- | |
‘The Men that fought at Minden’ | The men that fought at Minden, they was rookies in their time | |
The Deep Sea Cables | The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar- | |
The Sea Wife | There dwells a wife by the Northern Gate | |
Follow me ‘ome’ | There was no one like ‘im, ‘Orse or Foot | |
The Mother Lodge | There was Rundle, Station Master | |
The Lost Legion | There’s a Legion that never was ‘listed | |
The Jacket | Through the Plagues of Egyp’ we was chasin’ Arabi | |
The Last Chantey | Thus said the Lord in the Vault above the Cherubim | |
To the True Romance. (Prelude to Many Inventions) | Thy face is far from this our war | |
England’s Answer | Truly ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban | |
The Native Born | We’ve drunk to the Queen – God bless her! | |
Cholera Camp | We’ve got the cholerer in camp – it’s worse than forty fights; | |
L’Envoi (to The Seven Seas) | When earth’s last picture is painted | |
When ‘Omer smote | When ‘Omer smote ‘is bloomin’ lyre | |
Sappers | When the Waters were dried an’ the Earth did appear | |
Mary, Pity Women!’ | You call yourself a man | |
The Song of the Banjo | You couldn’t pack a Broadwood half a mile- |