Classic Poem

1. Both old and young, I pray lend an ear To a
lovesick maiden in deep despair, Whose heart was light, but whose
courage failed, When her true love sailed in the Nightingale .

2 My parents were of high degree,
My true love not so rich as they,
So they sent a press gang which did not fail
To press my true love in the Nightingale .

3 As I that night on my pillow lay,
A form before me these words did say:
" Go tell your parents they may bequail [that they may quail?]
For the loss of your true love in the Nightingale .

4 " On the fifteenth day of December last,
The wind did blow a most fearful blast.
We lost our spars, likewise every sail.
What a dismal wreck was the Nightingale! "

5 As I awoke in an awful fright,
It being the hour of twelve at night,
For to see his ghost standing cold and pale,
Just as he was drowned from the Nightingale ,

6 These words he spake in lamenting cries:
" In the Bay of Biscay my body lies
To become the prey of a shark or whale,
With my drownded shipmates of the Nightingale . "