The Seven Seas and
Further Barrack-Room Ballads

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